This thread brought back a forgotten memory for me - in the late 60's, I bought a 2 record (Vanguard?) set of blues - one of my first blues purchases - and it had one cut from all these artists...It was Cotton's "Rocket 88" that got me excited at that time. ---------- The Iceman
I saw him at a San Diego Club, Blind Melons, in the mid-90s. His voice was already shot at that point, but his lung power and control of the instrument didn't seem diminished in the slightest. Growls, slurs, vibrato, skipping around the positions with ease. Among many brilliant aspects of his playing was the unpredictability of his phrasing--riffs would begin in strange positions, he would insert fills where you thought we would hold back, his longer lines twisted into areas you wouldn't expect. He was fierce, soulful, an amazingly gifted harmonica man. Interesting to note that his night he played solely in the keys of C and D. ---------- www.ted-burke.com
Nice to see this thread resurrected just to have a reason and a chance to say something about Cotton. I was lucky as a teenage music journalist (and beginning harp player), to travel the West Coast with the band ('67-'69) and have Cotton as a mentor - humble, kind and extremely giving with time and advice.
At the time Cotton had over 300 songs in his repertoire and there were times he was much more in to his singing performance than playing harp. As some band members pointed out, they didn't all fit his vocal range but he loved to sing, so it was truly sad when that possibility was taken from him.
He had the benefit of working with a band that knew it and could do it all - a guitar player who recorded extensively with Sonny Boy, and was with Little Walter for almost 8 years (Luther Tucker); a piano player who was as close as I ever heard to Otis Spann (Alberto Gianquinto); Muddy waters' former drummer and arranger (Francis Clay); and Howlin' Wolf's former bass player (Bobby "Pea Soup" Anderson). So songs sounded like they were straight off the original recordings. And they traveled the rock circuit at a time when thousands of people heard them.
The band ultimately fell apart and the members went in different musical and geographic directions. The days of Fillmore (SF and NYC) and audiences in the thousands ended but Cotton kept going and blowing, playing the blues in small and large clubs, at festivals, and revivals, and fortunately, continuing to record.
Paul Butterfield turned on white kids to blues harmonica ('65). I only had one chance to see Little Walter in San Francisco ('66) before he passed. So Cotton and Junior Wells were probably the most visibly influential blues harp players for my generation. Thank you James Cotton, for all you did, all you gave, and the musical legacy you left behind for others to appreciate and learn.
---------- BnT
Last Edited by BnT on Mar 27, 2019 11:57 AM
There were several times that I saw Cotton during the Michael Coleman lead band years where he rarely played any harp and he mostly sang. He sang all sort of tunes. Blues, R&B, and soul. He was simply great.
I saw Cotton so many times and there were a number of shows that left an impression. Cotton was in the audience the first night I ever performed on stage at the Kingston Mines. It was pretty intimidating to see him in the audience. It felt like he was looking right thru me. (Sugar Blue was also there that night.) I met him after they kicked me off the stage and brought up Cotton. After he got done playing, I was outside and he stopped to talk to me. He couldn't have been nicer and his words of encouragement kept me going.
The Christmas night shows that he did were some of the coolest old school shows where he played nothing but post war Chicago Blues with Sammy Lawhorn, Pinetop, Calvin Jones and Willie Smith in a neighborhood bar in Chicago.
