The Outlaw Blues Band

The Outlaw Blues Band was signed to ABC Bluesway Records by renowned producer Bob Thiele.

Thiele had an impressive reputation as a Jazz producer, heading up the Impulse label. Amongst his production credits are B.B. King, John Coltrane, and John Lee Hooker.

The band recorded two diverse and musically outstanding albums in 1968-1969 before splitting up.

The late 1960s was a period of experimentation musically, culturally and socially. In America, bands mixing rhythm sections with brass instruments to experiment and produce a music that was new, exciting, radical and crossed boundaries was the norm rather than the extreme.

Emerging from Los Angeles in the same time frame, The Outlaw Blues Band recorded two influential albums for ABC Bluesway Records in 1968 “The Outlaw Blues Band and the People” and ‘Breaking In” released in 1969 which was destined for obscurity initially.

While they retained some underground appeal, their rediscovery decades later by Cyprus Hill, and De La Soul’s sampling of the atmospheric jazz-tinged instrumental “Deep Gully” alerted a whole new audience to the Outlaw Blues Band’s music. Cyprus Hill sampled “Deep Gully” as performed by The Outlaw Blues Band in their track “When The Shit Goes Down” featured in the 2007 movie “Freedom Writers” starring Hilary Swank and Patrick Dempsey,  and it was also sampled by    De La Soul’ in “Buhloone Mindstate Intro” and it also emerged on Akinyele’s “Dear Diary”.  Suddenly this obscure Californian Blues /Rock/Jazz outfit became heroes to a generation weaned on urban R n B beats and streetwise rap rhymes.

The Outlaw Blues Band while based in Los Angeles offered a unique cultural crossover, its membership included musicians of United States, Nicaragua, El Salvador and English origin.

Their instrumental lineup included sax, flute and vibraharp as well as the standard rhythm section and their music freely mixed Blues, Rock, Jazz, Latin and Psychedelic tones mixed chilled out coolness with a vibrant sensuality and earthy musical excitement.

“The Outlaw Blues Band and The People” and “Breaking In” should have been as commercially successful as they are influential. However while they languished in a cult appeal for decades, Cyprus Hill and De La Soul both took notice and sampled The Outlaw Blues Band’s music into their own recordings.

The Outlaw Blues Band was, without a doubt, one of the most important blues-rock groups of the late ’60s to early ’70s on par with Canned Heat, and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Their rediscovery is probably one of the most heartening stories of an American rock/blues/jazz crossover band for whom fusion was as natural as breathing. It is heartening to report that their music captured on “The Outlaw Blues Band and The People” and “Breaking In” still breathes as freshly in 2017 as it did when first committed to vinyl. The Outlaw Blues Band is an undiscovered American musical institution finally awarded its due recognition.

In conclusion, Victor Aleman founder and director of the musical group reflects on the achievements of The Outlaw Blues Band:

“I believe that our band -taking in consideration all the good deeds and obstacles in the course of the group- was blessed and lucky to have done what we did, with the little resources and guidance that we had in our path.

“Starting with each member of the group with very different backgrounds – some of us with a different culture and language,  with different upbringings – and different taste of music, but in the end, we were together playing and growing musically in a place and period of life that historically was very progressive politically, artistically and musically.

“We played with intense passion to the maximum on whatever composition we performed, always growing to new levels and looking for new musical horizons. We were very fortunate to have worked with one of the best and most important producers ever in the music business, Bob Thiele, and to have had recorded two albums that were released on ABC Bluesway.

“The only regret that I have now is that we were not able to record the amount of different music that the Outlaw Blues Band played and had at that time, but C’est la vie.

“Now we still have the perseverance to keep rising, living a harmonious meaningful life and to be continuously musical.”

Note by © John O’Regan July 2011 for BGO Records.

Both albums were produced by BOB THIELE and the music in the recordings was directed and arranged by the OUTLAW BLUES BAND

Bob Thiele

(July 27, 1922 – January 30, 1996)

Bob Thiele was a major voice in the music industry for nearly six decades.
Something of a child prodigy, Thiele started hosting a jazz radio show when
he was 14. As a teenager, he learned clarinet and led a big band locally in
the New York area. From 1939-41, he was editor of Jazz Magazine, and at the
age of 17 in 1939, he founded the Signature label. As the head of the label
and its producer, Thiele recorded Art Hodes, Yank Lawson, Lester Young,
Errol Garner, various Chicago jazz-style groups, and, most notably in 1943,
a classic session by Coleman Hawkins. After Signature folded in 1948, Thiele
freelanced and then joined Decca in 1952, where he produced sessions for
their Coral and Brunswick labels. Although involved with some jazz, Thiele
also worked with Teresa Brewer, the McGuire Sisters, Lawrence Welk and
several notables whose careers he helped launch: Buddy Holly (whom Thiele
largely discovered), Henry Mancini, Steve and Eydie, and Jackie Wilson. He
then switched to Dot for a period in 1959. Thiele headed with Steve Allen
the short-lived Hanover-Signature label (which had a big hit with Ray
Bryant’s “Little Susie”), and he also freelanced for other labels. Probably
his proudest accomplishment was teaming up Duke Ellington and Louis
Armstrong for a classic set on Roulette. From 1961-69, Thiele was the main
producer at ABC/Impulse. He gave John Coltrane permission to record as
extensively as he wanted, and Thiele also produced more than 100 other
albums, including sets by Charles Mingus, Oliver Nelson, Albert Ayler,
Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra,
Earl Hines, Johnny Hodges, Coleman Hawkins (including a date with Duke
Ellington), Quincy Jones, Count Basie, and many others. He started ABC’s
Bluesway subsidiary, which featured blues in the late 1960s (highlighted by
dates from B.B. King, T-Bone Walker, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Big Joe
Turner and the Outlaw Blues band) and produced a variety of pop singers for
ABC. After leaving ABC-Impulse.

Thiele founded a series of short-term
labels, including Flying Dutchman, Blues Time, Dr. Jazz, and finally Red
Baron. Thiele wrote a lot of songs for his artists through the years with
”What a Wonderful World” is easily his biggest success. Among the many
 musicians, he produced during his last two decades were such favorites as
Gato Barbieri, David Murray, Lonnie Liston Smith, Clark Terry and his wife
Teresa Brewer, whom he teamed with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Stephane
Grappelli, Earl Hines, Ruby Braff, and even Murray. As enthusiastic in his
later years about music, as he had been as a teenager, Bob Thiele was active
up until his death.

~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

The Outlaws Blues Band and the People’s front album cover (1968)

About the Artist

Felipe Leon

Architectural designer, illustrator, artist and writer

“The heart with ears” that lives forever at the beat of the music, is the image on the front album cover of the Outlaws Blues Band. It was inspired by their musical rhythms, at times when man defied nature. Doctor Christian Neethling Barnard a South African cardiac surgeon, performed the first human-to-human heart transplant. That defiance was accepted by humanity, setting the new cultural ways that prevail up to the beginning of the 21st century. It changed our music.

Today, our heart, ears, soul, vision, and mind are essential to enjoy and perceive the message of contemporary music.  -Felipe Leon

Born in El Salvador, Central America (1937) emigrated to U.S. A. (1961).

Schools : Externado de San Jose, El Salvador. Universidad Autonoma de El Salvador. Escuela de Arquitectura.

Professional background:

Design casinos exterior and interiors since 1969

(Albert Parvin Company) to retirement 2001.

Others design and planning accomplishments:

Hotel Twin Dolphin (1974). Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico.

Hotel Twin Dolphin. Redevelopment (2004), Cabo San Lucas, Baja California. Mexico.

Kuwait Magic Mall. Kuwait (1996).

Dubai Magic Mall. Dubai, Arab Emirates (Groundbreaking, 2009)

WRITING.

Diva America Publication

Author and creator of the game “Croxdie” (2007)

E-mail: felipelabas@cox.net