BS&T’s first album with David sold an amazing ten million copies and launched three gold singles, “You’ve Made Me So Happy’, “And When I Die”, and “Spinning Wheel”.  The album won an unprecedented five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Performance by a Male Vocalist.  David’s rendition of Billie holiday’s “God Bless The Child” became a classic.  Five successive gold albums and three more gold singles, “Hi De ho”, “Lucretia MacEvil”, and “Go Down Gamblin”’ followed, and by 1972 BS&T was at the very top of the music industry.

 Blood, Sweat, & Tears, daring and innovative, a fiery fusion of jazz and rock, blues and the classics… his superb band defied all boundaries, performing with consummate artistry in front of a symphony one night and thousands of rock fans the next.  BS&T played the Metropolitan Opera, the Fillmore’s, the Newport Jazz Festival, and Caesar’s Palace---all in the same year.  It was the first contemporary band to break through the Iron Curtain with the historic 1970 tour of eastern Europe, and of course headlined at Woodstock, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl…  Blood, Sweat & Tears was the hottest concert ticket in America.

From the beginning, BS&T was a strange hybrid.  The Julliard graduates, with their classical training, felt the band should aspire to loftier musical goals, and Bartok and Satie became a part of the repertoire.  The Berklee grads were jazz purists, and long improvised solos became a part of the show.  Others were pure rockers whose experience included “The Blues Project” and Frank Zapa’s “Mothers of invention”.

Then there was David Clayton-Thomas.  He prowled the edge of the stage, that big blues-drenched voice, totally unique, filled with raw naked emotion that no audience could resist.  He drove the band relentlessly.  Without him it was academic perfection.  With him it came alive.

 Yet in spite of success and accolades, the old tensions and rivalries still existed in the band.  Here lies the magic---and the eventual downfall---of the early band.  The Julliard types, embarrassed by the hype of pop stardom, tried to steer the band in a more classical direction, disdainful of both jazz and rock.  The Berklee boys resented the structure of the classics and the simplicity of rock and pushed toward a more complex improvisational style.

 David was the enter of this musical tug-of-war.  He possessed neither classical training nor a jazz background.  But he was undoubtedly the star of the show, attracting most of the media attention and composing most of their hit songs.

 By the mid-70’s, BS&T was submerged in a wave of its own creation.  Every record company had its horn band:  Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, Tower of Power… Even the Rolling Stones carried a horn section.  The founding members of BS&T began to drift away to pursue their own musical ambitions.  The classical musicians wet onto film scoring and teaching fellowships.  The jazz players left to play pure jazz.  One by one, they were replaced by an illustrious lineup of renowned musicians:  Joe Henderson, Jaco Pastorius, Mike Stern, Larry Willis, Don Alias, Gregory Herbert.  In concert, the band was a musical powerhouse, but inwardly it was in turmoil.  The unique creative team was gone, so the band took to the road, playing 300 concerts a year throughout the 70’s.  David left the band twice, exhausted by the brutal tour schedule and frustrated by the lack of creative time.  In 1976, even Bobby Colomby, the sole remaining founding member, left to become a music business executive, and David was the only one left from the glory years.

 In 1983, David teamed up with a hard-driving young manager, Larry Door, formerly a tour manager with the band.  Larry convinced David that there was still life left in the once proud name Blood, Sweat, & Tears, and that with the right musicians, good management, and strong leadership, it could once again be a powerful attraction on concert stages around the world.

 They recruited musical director/trumpeter Steve Guttman, graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music, former musical director for 70’s recording stars Gloria Gaynor and Evelyn “Champagne” King, and alumnus of the Tito Puente and Machito big bands, and he assembled an exciting lineup of top New York musicians.  With Steve conducting, Blood, Sweat & Tears began performing with prestigious American symphonies like the Detroit, the Houston and the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestras.

Larry Dorr was right.  A revitalized BS&T under his direction and David’s leadership came storming back to the concert stages of the world, playing international jazz festivals, symphonies, concert halls, and casino show rooms.  David never sounded better.  The personnel of the band stabilized, ad BS&T once again delivered the same exciting, diverse sound that made t such a well=loved part of America’s musical heritage.

 David Clayton-Thomas has returned to the studio and has completed his first solo album in a decade.  Recorded live at Ornette Coleman’s Harlem studio, David produced “Blue Plate Special” himself.  A blazing collection of new original songs and classic blues tunes, it is music straight from the heart.  This is David Clayton-Thomas as he should be---direct and honest.  The production is “Right in your face”, with David’s powerful vocals front and center.

 Recently David Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame where he takes his place alongside his country’s musical giants:  Oscar Peterson, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young --- artists of legendary stature around the world.

 From a prison cell to his nation’s Hall of Fame… it’s been one hell of a journey!