Biography Danny Kalb

Danny Kalb (born in New York on 9 September 1942; died 19 November 2022) was an American blues guitarist and vocalist. He was an original member of the 1960s group The Blues Project.

Born into a musical family, Kalb was raised in Mt. Vernon, NY. He spent his childhood surrounded by his parents’ folk, blues, jazz and classical records. He picked up the guitar at the age of 13. He attended the University of Wisconsin. In Greenwich Village Kalb was a protégé of Dave Van Ronk and became a solo performer and a session musician, performing with such folk singers as Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Kalb and the blues ethnomusicologist Sam Charters formed the New Strangers. He joined Van Ronk's Ragtime Jug Stompers in 1963. Inspired by the African-American bluesmen Son House, Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt, Kalb experimented with acoustic and electronic music.

At the age of 15 Kalb formed the band Gay Notes and performed with Bob Dylan on a WBAI-FM concert broadcast in 1961. In 1963 Kalb performed in the Ragtime Jug Stompers with his mentor Dave Van Ronk. In 1964 he recorded as Folk Stringers, produced by guitarist and writer Sam Charters. In 1964 Kalb played second guitar on Phil Ochs's album All the News That's Fit to Sing and in 1964 appeared on Judy Collins's Fifth Album.

Kalb co-founded The Blues Project in 1965 with several other Brooklynites, including Al Kooper, who later went on to a successful solo career. Along with Steve Katz, Andy Kulberg, and Roy Blumenfeld, original founding members also included Artie Traum and Tommy Flanders. The Blues Project's first album, Live at the Café Au Go Go, sold in excess of 100,000 copies the year it was released, signaling that Kalb and Kooper's instincts were correct about blues-rock eclipsing acoustic blues and folk music. The group played to sold-out crowds in San Francisco and played three massive Central Park concerts in New York City in 1966. A two-CD retrospective set of the Blues Project's music was released on Polygram/Chronicles.

After the Blues Project had pretty much run their course as a group by 1972 or so, Kalb began to establish a career as a solo artist. His live shows include some of the Blues Project songs that have always been part of his repertoire, and he typically works with a trio that includes drummer Mark Ambrosino and bassist Bob Jones.

In the years that followed, he formed other bands and spent several years in retreat, living mainly in California. During this time, he continued to perfect his art and perform for his loyal following. He also contributed to recordings by Judy Collins, Phil Ochs and Dave Van Ronk among others. In addition to playing all dimensions of the blues guitar — both electric and traditional — he explored other genres of guitar composition: modern atonal and open tunings.

Kalb was also a teacher and taught seminars and clinics. He performed as a solo artist and in trio settings up and down the US East Coast.

Kalb also recorded as Danny Kalb & Friends.

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