Danny Kalb, best known as a co-founder of the seminal band the Blues Project but who cut his musical teeth as part of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960s, died of cancer on November 19, 2022. He was 80.
One of a number of musicians who helped to spur interest in the fusion of blues and rock music during the 1960s, Kalb credited Son House, Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James among his influences. He co-founded the Blues Project in the mid-60s; its original lineup also included fellow guitarist and vocalist Steve Katz, Andy Kulberg (bass & flute), Roy Blumenfeld (drums, and Tommy Flanders (vocals). Keyboardist Al Kooper later joined the group, replacing Flanders, and can be heard on the group’s debut release Live at the Café Au Go Go on Verve/Folkways. The album was recorded at the then-popular Greenwich Village nightclub at which the group frequently performed. Among the album’s tracks were covers of songs by folksingers Eric Andersen and Donovan. The Blues Project veered into more psychadelic blues-rock-oriented music by the time of its follow-up release, Projections, and would record one more album before disbanding. Kalb reincarnated the group with a different lineup in 1969, after Katz and Kooper left to form Blood, Sweat and Tears. However, Kalb reunited with Kooper for a recorded concert at Greenwich Village’s iconic The Bottom Line in 1969.
After leaving the Blues Project, Kalb turned to solo work, taught guitar, performed with the Danny Kalb Trio, and released several albums – both studio and live recordings – into the 2000s. He and fellow guitarist Stefan Grossman recorded an album entitled Crosscurrents in 1968, while Katz joined the two for a 2007 release entitled Play a Little Fiddle. Kalb’s last recording, Moving in Blue, was released in 2013 and featured various sidemen and guest artists.
Prior to the Blues Project, Kalb was a solo artist and session guitarist who performed and recorded with such notable folk artists as Judy Collins, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Kalb, who started playing guitar at age 13 and was attending the University of Wisconsin when he met and befriended Dylan while the two were performing at local coffeehouses. In 2013 Kalb told AM New York that “Dylan crashed with me for a few weeks in Madison on his way from Hibbing, Minnesota to New York.” He recalled that “We had so much fun, I dropped out and followed him.” Kalb was part of a live recording with Dylan that aired on New York City’s WBAI in 1961. He can be heard playing guitar on Ochs’ first official album All the News That’s Fit to Sing (1964) and on Collins’ Fifth Album (1969).
A protégé of Dave Van Ronk, Kalb joined the Mayor of MacDougal Street’s band, the Ragtime Jug Stompers, in 1963. Also in the band were guitarist and blues ethnomusicologist Sam Charters and multi-instrumentalist Artie Rose. During 1963-1965, Kalb also recorded with the True Endeavor Jug Band featuring Charters and Artie Traum, with Charters as the New Strangers, and with Rose and Barry Kornfeld as The Folk Stringers.
Born in Brooklyn, New York on September 19, 1942, Kalb grew up in Mount Vernon, a Westchester County community just north of New York City. Diagnosed with cancer several years ago, Kalb died at a Brooklyn nursing home. He is survived by his brother Jonathan.
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