Al Kooper has been involved in a career that has spanned many decades. Born on February 5, 1944, he joined a group called The Royal Teens which found some success with a couple of hit singles. He then engaged in a series of sessions [as a guitarist] and ultimately became a songwriter, co-writing the hit This Diamond Ring for Gary Lewis And The Playboys. He went on to form The Blues Project and then found his first taste of true fame as a founding member of Blood, Sweat & Tears. Though he only lasted through one album, Child Is Father To The Man, this brought him enough visibility to venture out as a solo artist.

Here, in late 1976, the keyboardist/guitarist/composer/producer talked about his current solo album, Act Like Nothing Wrong, and forayed into his past to describe projects from back in the day.

Steven: When did you first start playing?

Al: I first started playing when I was six years old. I sat down at a piano and played The Tennessee Waltz on the black keys because thats the only song I knew. And from that day on I was hooked. We couldnt afford a piano and the only time I could play is when wed visit someone who had a piano. So I would not go with my parents to someones house unless they had a piano. Finally, they bought one when I was about ten and I went through a myriad of teachers because I played by ear; I had trouble playing technically which still exists today.

I played until I was about fourteen and then I played guitar for years. I quit because it wasnt real status to play the piano at that time. Piano was like milk, its the basic food, the basic instrument. You can figure everything else out off of it. All the horn players in Blood, Sweat & Tears cut me on piano, all the horn players played piano better than I did. Eventually the trombone player [Dick Halligan] took my place on keyboard when I left the band.

When I was a junior in high school, I took private lessons from a guy on Long Island named Gerald Knighter. That was extremely helpful but it was also a tremendous setback in my playing career as he told me I would never be a good player. He quit teaching me piano. I dont think Ive ever overcome that; I convinced myself that he was right and I quit ever thinking I could ever play. It hurt me immeasurably [even] today.

Steven: When did you first start working with Blood, Sweat & Tears?

Al: Right after I left The Blues Project; there was this kind of glimmer in my eye concept. Actually I didnt do much playing in that band because I wrote the horn charts and the horn charts is usually what I would have played on the organ or the keyboard and so it didnt leave me very much to play.

Steven: Was the idea of using brass in a sort of rock band your idea?

Al: Yeah, the brass thing was an idea that I had and I wanted to introduce that to The Blues Project but there was no acceptance for it there. I was just turned down cold. And I was writing all these songs that showed up on the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album that were adaptable for brass and that I heard in my head. I heard them [songs] in my head, finished, and they had to have brass, they couldnt make it with just The Blues Project instrumentation. So I had to quit and put together this band and that was my motivation.

Steven: What instrumentation were you using on the first BS&T album?

Al: I bought an organ which I had custom-wired; it was a Hammond and I had little things put on it that I liked. I had the volume pedal removed so it could go anywhere on the floor and I had the stops pre-set to how I wanted them. And I had the thing beefed up so it was louder than a regular one. Of course, this was in 67 before they made those chopped up ones. All of us bought instruments when we got the advance from CBS; its just that mine was the most expensive. Steve [Khan] got a guitar, Bobby [Colomby] got a set of drums and a couple of the horn players got axes. Nobody really had much money in those days, and so I sort of made a pact with everyone and said, Look, if anyone ever splits the band, they oughta be able to walk with their axe. And of course when I got kicked out, they kept the organ. I thought it was terrible, it really pissed me off.

Steven: Was Super Session the project you went into directly after BS&T?

Al: Yeah, I didnt have anything to do and thats why I did it. Either did Bloomfield; we found out that our careers were amazingly parallel. In that we both played with Dylan, we were both in blues bands, and we both quit them to form horn bands [Bloomfield assembled The Electric Flag]. And we were both kicked out of our horn bands. And so it just seemed that we should come together.

It was very casual, thrown together, hastily assembled album. The thing thats important about it is that none of us were trying anything, it was just totally relaxed. We didnt have anything to prove except go in there and play music. And of course it was bigger than anything any of us had out at the time. Before that, I assume we all probably tried too hard.

Steven: Your first album after Super Session was...

Al: I Stand Alone, which is why it was called that. OK, after all this shit, here I am by myself now.

Steven: At this point, did you primarily consider yourself a guitarist, or a keyboardist, a writer, a singer?

Al: Yes, all except the last one. Yeah, singing was always my weakness. The problem was that the music Ive always loved and felt was not the voice that God gave me. I always wanted to have a throat transplant with Buddy Miles or something. I love black gospel music more than anything and I just cant sing it; its very frustrating to me. So I do the best I can but its sort of useless; I get better at it every year but Ill never be the thing that Im imitating.

Primarily, my main instrument is the Hammond B3 organ like they had at Columbia [recording] Studios. There were some ridiculous organs at Columbia in those days; some where the tremolo wouldnt turn on. I think on some days when we were recording Child Is Father To The Man album, I had a Hammond organ where you couldnt turn the tremolo on, it just stayed without tremolo. Id have to use the vibrato for any change but thats what it was.

Steven: Did you used to amplify the organs?

Al: I didnt really use any amplification. When I used to play with Dylan, I played a Hohner Pianette, and I used it on the Highway 61[Revisited] album. It was the first Hohner electric piano; I remember because they brought it to us to try it out. This girl named Chris White, I think, shed bring Dylan harmonicas and shed bring me all these keyboard things. I used it live and on stuff like Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues. And I used it in the beginning of The Blues Project and on the first album, Live At The Caf Au Go Go.

Then I used a Farfisa organ with The Blues Project because I didnt have a Hammond organ until Blood, Sweat & Tears. I played the Farfisa about of the way through The Blues Project and then they brought a cheap portable Hammond organ, an L111, and I used that until the end of The Blues Project. It was a big update over the Farfisa but there were sounds I couldnt get on it that I could get on the Farfisa. The Farfisa was a cool organ. When I think about it, its best exemplified by Country Joe & The Fish. They really used it, it was their sound. They were funny organs.

Steven: In summing up, what is it about your playing that you think most people recognize?

Al: I use a lot of moving bass lines especially in composing which I got from Dylan; Dylan did that a lot. Like, if you play a C chord, F chord, C chord, F chord, you keep moving your bass up from C, D, E, F, to change what the chord is. You get an almost gospel feeling to it. And I like having chords which do not display the root in them. Probably the two most complicated songs I wrote are on my last album, Missing You and Turn My Head Towards Home. You cant really tell what key theyre in because they modulate so much.

Steven: And youve always seemed to approach your music very tongue-in-cheek; you dont seem to take yourself too seriously.

Al: I dont take anything really super seriously. The book is a great platform to unveil my sense of humor. It's called Backstage Passes and will be out in February [1977]. Its not serious, great to put down next to the toilet and pick up when youre getting down to it. Its just meant to make you laugh, theres a lot of information and pictures in it, and its just not a serious work. All the things that passed before my eyes from 1959 to 1969. I talk about my bar mitzvah at the Hollis Hills Jewish Center on Union Turnpike. Everybody is the same if you cut my hair off, I look just as nerdy as I did then.