I got a chance to sit with James Cotton in his dressing room at the Roundhouse in London this evening and chat for a full hour. We spoke about Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Muddy, Paul Butterfield, Big Walter, Honeyboy, Deak, and the band that he recorded 100 COTTON with.
I'll write more tomorrow. He answered a lot of questions. We talked a LOT of harp.
I'll see everybody at the clinic and show. It's going to be a humdinger, as we say.
Fantastic! What an honor that must have been! Can't wait for the stories of those conversations. Stories from the lives of masters like BBQ Bob, Walter and now Cotton are inspiration.
Dayum, you were talking with Cotton, while all of us here back at the zoo have our panties in a wad because we can't figure out what was so funny in your "OT: very funny rock shredding vid" posting.
Wish I was in London, having a pint and absorbing some British humor er, humour. And playing some blues of course.
---------- Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy. -Dan Castellaneta
Tooka here reporting from good olde London town. Today we have a beautiful bright sunny morning with temperatures around 15C. I'm getting ready to attend the clinic this afternoon with Mr Gussow. Don't you just wish you were here?
May take a walk around St Pauls before the clinic. It's just down the road a bit.
Yes, yes. What an opportunity you had. Updates wanted. ---------- Ricky B http://bushdogblues.blogspot.com RIVER BOTTOM BLUES--crime novel for blues fans at Amazon, Barking Rain Press & the blog
I think the reason I never came back to this thread is that a day or two later I saw an interview with him and he basically told the interviewer exactly what he told me. Stories about being in the fields down in Tunica, hearing "King Biscuit Time" on the radio, eventually meeting and spending time with Sonny Boy.
Ah, he did tell me one thing. I told him that I was a huge fan of "Creeper Creeps Again" on the 100% COTTON album. I asked him how he managed to get his performance that perfect on a seven-and-half minute cut with all those starts and stops. I mean the band was really grooving.
He smiled. "We all stayed at my place outside Chicago," he said. (Or somebody's place; it might have been a band member's, not his.) "We rehearsed for a whole week. That's how we did that."
In other words: hard work! Put in the time.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jul 06, 2017 3:07 PM
Two fav Cotton albums. 100% Cotton and Pure Cotton. ---------- Reasonably priced Reed Replacement and tech support on Hand Made Series Hohner Diatonic Harmonicas.
'Making the world a better place, one harmonica at a time. Click MP for more info. Aloha Mark .
1847: This was back in 2012, and it would be fair to say that Cotton (now deceased) was pretty hoarse back then. But I was sitting right next to him in his backstage dressing room and it wasn't hard to understand him. He kept tapping me on the arm for emphasis.
Later, out on stage at the end of the night, we had the whole crew: Cotton, Dr. John, Maceo Parker, a bunch of other English musicians whose names escape me five years later, plus Ronnie Wood. (K.D. Tunstall had performed earlier, but I don't believe she was onstage for the finale.) Cotton kicked off "Got My Mojo Working" and when it came time for the solo, he nodded at me and I did my thing. At the end of my solo, Ronnie Wood turned and gave me a big grin. NOT just another day's work!
The band and Cotton lost each other on the 12-bar pattern. The first time you can see me--apart from the video still-frame--is at 2:11. I was playing through an HG-2. The other harp player is Paul Pacifico, a friend of mine; his organization organized all the music and it was he who asked me to do the gig and flew me over.
My solo starts at 4:53 and I'm amused to realize that my memory completely made up the part about Cotton turning to me when it was solo time. Hmmm. I would categorize my solo with a range of words, including "messy," "energetic," and "overcaffeinated." I seem to remember that I could barely hear myself onstage.
Edited to add: No, wait! That's me at 9:28, when we pick the song back up. Cotton nodded at me at THAT point, and I went off. Or at least that's the story I'm going to tell.....
Here's the link to the page on which this video was lurking: kudzurunner on Jul 07, 2017 3:58 AM
Oh, here's what Cotton said about Little Walter. He said, "When I joined Muddy's band, he wanted me to sound just like Little Walter. I couldn't do that. He tried to force me. I couldn't do it. The moment he was okay with it was when we played 'Got My Mojo Workin'" at Newport and then on the record, and I played it MY way, and people loved it. Then Muddy said, 'He's got something,' and he let me play it my way."
The headline at first gave me the impression he'd spoken to you in a dream. Then I saw that this was initially posted in 2012 (same year I got to present him with SPAH's Pete Pedersen Lifetime Achievement Award).
