Paul Butterfield (
December 17,
1942 -
May 4,
1987) was an American
blues musician, and one of the most innovative
harmonica players of the
electric blues Chicago-originated style. Butterfield began performing in the Chicago area as a teen, and he soon formed a band with
Jerome Arnold[?] and
Sam Lay[?] (both of
Howlin' Wolf's band), and
Elvin Bishop[?].
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band was signed to
Elektra[?] after adding
Michael Bloomfield[?] as lead guitarist. Their original debut album was scrapped and re-recorded after adding organist
Mark Naftalin[?] and playing at the
Newport Folk Festival[?], where they backed-up
Bob dylan[?] as he famously plugged-in. Their self-titled debut,
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band[?] was finally released in
1965 (
1965 in music). Soon after the release, Lay became very sick and was replaced by
Billy Davenport[?] on drums. Influenced greatly by
Ravi Shankar and other eastern musicians, the band's second album was
East-West[?] (
1966 in music), a critically acclaimed hit.
At the height of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's success, Mike Bloomfield formed Electric Flag[?] with Nick Gravenites[?] and Bishop began playing lead guitar for The Resurrection of Pigboy Crabshaw[?] (1967 in music). The album included David Sanborn[?], Bugsy Maugh[?] and Phil Wilson[?], and was a commercial failure that stunted the band's career. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a series of releases to a small and devoted cult following. Paul Butterfield finally died of a drug overdose in 1987.