World-renowned blues harmonica master James Cotton, whom Rolling Stone called, “One of the greats of all time, burning with brilliant virtuosity,” died on March 16, 2017 of pneumonia at St. David's Medical Center in Austin, Texas. He was 81. His overwhelmingly powerful harmonica playing was one of the iconic sounds of the blues. He toured worldwide for over 60 years.
James Henry Cotton, known as “Mr. Superharp,” recorded nearly 30 solo albums, winning one Grammy Award, six Living Blues Awards and 10 Blues Music Awards. He was inducted into the Blues Hall Of Fame in 2006. The New York Daily News called him, “The greatest blues harmonica player of all time.” NPR Weekend Edition said, “Conjure up a list of all-time great blues harmonica players, and high up on it you'll see the name James Cotton.”
Born on a cotton plantation in Tunica, Mississippi on July 1, 1935, Cotton was a working musician by age nine. He learned harmonica directly from Sonny Boy Williamson II (Rice Miller), toured with Williamson and Howlin’ Wolf, and recorded for Sun Records in 1953 before spending 12 years touring and recording with Muddy Waters (starting at age 20). Cotton was featured on Muddy’s famous 1960 At Newport LP on Chess Records, including the iconic version of Got My Mojo Working, one of the classic recordings of Chicago Blues.
After his 1953 Sun sessions, Cotton didn’t record under his own name again until the mid-1960s, with tracks included in the groundbreaking Chicago/The Blues/Today! series of LPs on Vanguard. Along with Otis Spann, he cut The Blues Never Die! for Prestige.
In 1966 he formed The James Cotton Band, quickly earning a reputation as one of the most commanding and potent live blues performers in the world—a man who could literally suck the reeds out of his harmonica from the pure force of his playing. He made his initial solo albums, three for Verve and one for Vanguard, in the late 1960s. With bands featuring outstanding musicians including famed guitarists Luther Tucker, Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Hubert Sumlin, he quickly rose to the top of the blues and rock worlds. It wasn’t long before Cotton, with his gale-force sound and fearless boogie band, was adopted by the burgeoning hippie audience as one of their own. Cotton shared stages with Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, B.B. King, Santana, Steve Miller, Freddie King and many others.
Cotton’s blistering talent and full-throttle energy kept him in demand at concert halls all over the country. He played the Fillmore East in New York, the Fillmore West in San Francisco and every major rock and blues venue in between. During the 1970s, he cut three albums for Buddah and one for Capitol. He rejoined his old boss Muddy Waters for a series of Muddy albums produced by Johnny Winter, starting with Hard Again in 1977. Cotton also guested on recordings by Koko Taylor, Steve Miller, Memphis Slim, Hubert Sumlin and many others. He was joined on his own albums by stars like Todd Rundgren, Steve Miller, Johnny Winter, Dr. John, David Sanborn, Charlie Haden, Michael Bloomfield and Cissy Houston.
Cotton signed with Alligator Records in 1984, releasing two solo albums and the famed Harp Attack! with Junior Wells, Carey Bell and Billy Branch. He won a Grammy Award in 1996 for his Verve album, Deep In The Blues and recorded four albums for Telarc Records before returning to Alligator in 2010. His most recent recording was 2013’s Grammy-nominated Cotton Mouth Man.
In June 2010, Cotton was honored by New York’s Lincoln Center, where his friends Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins, Taj Mahal, Shemekia Copeland and others paid tribute to him in an all-star concert. The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal honored Cotton with their 2015 B.B. King Award for his seven decades of contributions to the blues.
Throughout his entire career, Cotton’s blast-furnace harmonica sound and larger-than-life personality always remained a true force of nature, described by USA Today as “devastating and powerful…carrying the Chicago sound to the world.”
Cotton is survived by his wife Jacklyn Hairston Cotton, daughters Teresa Hampton of Seattle, Washington and Marshall Ann Cotton of Peoria, Illinois and son James Patrick Cotton of Chicago, Illinois, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Very sad to hear this. I was just humming 'love me or leave me' on my walk to work, and thinking about Cotton. I saw him in Melbourne 2 years ago and was surprised at how emotional I became during the show. Had hoped to see him again.
Cotton also had one of the baddest bands in the land circa 1970 or so....around the "High Compression" days. Got to see him one time with this band at a pretty big venue (not a club) and they were great! He also had Sunny Girl join him on stage when he played in Detroit around 2002 or so...he was a very encouraging type for new talent. ---------- The Iceman
Last Edited by The Iceman on Mar 16, 2017 5:36 PM
Cotton was always my guy. That 70's band was the greatest blues band I ever heard live. He was the man who made me go out and buy a Marine Band and try to figure out how the hell he did it. I figured out what he was doing but have never been really able to do it.
It´s endearing to me, the amount of space NY Times devotes to this. Here in Sweden it would be a unanimous "James who?" if you asked the entire corps of journalists to prepare a eulogy.
He was hugely influential for me in my early years, especially with his deep, slow throat vibrato and his tone and it didn't matter what he played thru, whether it was an amp or a PA, it always came through no matter what. In his younger days, he was a good vocalist as well and one of the greatest showmen I've ever seen and he even turned a somersault while blowing harp and not missing a note.
I'll never forget one night when we had to pick up Jimmy Rogers at Logan Airport here in Boston, and we went to the now long-defunct blues club called The Speakeasy in Cambridge, MA to hang out for a while and in the parking lot, we bumped into Cotton and we all hung out together, and hearing both Jimmy Rogers talking about old times with the older bluesmen and so many incredibly funny stories about them were unreal.
Some years earlier at that very same club, I saw him hanging out and got to talking to him and he complimented me on what I was doing and I asked him if he'd like to sit in with us, but he told me he didn't take any harps with him, so I let him use mine (remember, there was no such thing as customs back then and this was 1977), and once he got up there, I have no problem telling you that he flat out whupped my ass with just two tunes and he didn't change a damned thing on the amp I was using (a real '65 super Reverb at the time), just played thru it and never even looked at the settings one bit. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
I was lucky enough to see James a few years ago at a smallish club here in southern Ontario, Canada. He had no voice left by then, but he could still blow and his band was top notch. After the gig, I got to meet him and he was a very gracious man. My wife was very taken with him and gave him a kiss on the cheek which he seemed to appreciate. ----------
Last Edited by mr_so&so on Mar 17, 2017 9:26 AM
Barbeque Bob above mentions hanging out with Cotton in the parking lot at The Speakeasy in Cambridge, MA; and then later inviting Cotton to sit in at the same club. Here is a link to that now non-existant club with a little description of it. It lists some of the many blues greats that appeared there over the years, of course Bob and Cotton are in the list. Note: the site is nothing fancy. No audio / video clips just a small write up.
Cotton's band of the late 60's was just the best - with Cotton, Luther Tucker and Francis Clay (having come most recently from playing with Muddy); Bobby "Thin Chin" Anderson on bass (from Wolf's band); and Alberto Gianquinto - a prodigy equally adept at blues, jazz and classical - on piano.
With Cotton having about 300 blues and soul-oriented songs in his repertoire at the time and really in to being a showman; Tucker, the Robert Lockwood protege, veteran of hundreds of blues recordings, with Little Walter for 8 years; Bobby Anderson, a soul soul oriented blues bassist; and Alberto whose versatility and abilities could give you Otis Spann/Big Maceo or Ramsey Lewis/Herbie Hancock/Bobby Timmons/McCoy Tyner, it was a polished, friendly, high energy blues group that was young enough (early 30's) and hip enough to easily fit onto the stage at the Fillmore next to the Who, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Steve Miller, or Magic Sam.
I saw a post on FB from Rick Estrin about how as a teenager Cotton was THE guy for harp - for both of us being in San Francisco, and Cotton's band on the West Coast often. He was a generous teacher and friend.
Last night I went to a jam, brought out the Shure 585A mic Cotton had given me when I was a teenager, and did a couple of songs I'd heard him do many times - "Jelly, Jelly" and "Blow Wind Blow". It wasn't quite the same without that huge, reverbed Cotton tone from his Bassman head and two 6x10 cabinets, without Tucker's classic blues riffs and staccato solos, or without the giant grin and showy drumming of Francis Clay behind me. But the reality is that we could only "play tribute" to Cotton, because there was and will only be one.
RIP my friend. I guess the band is all back together again. ---------- BnT
forgot to mention that during my youngish years, before I was into harmonica, I had a double album of Chicago Blues. The one cut that caught my ear and made the hair stand up on the back of head was "Rockit 88". I just about wore that one groove out. Didn't know anything about who, what or why. It just DID IT for me! ---------- The Iceman
Cotton in 1977...that would have been the time of the "Hard Again" album with Muddy Waters , Johnny Winter, and Willie Smith. He's incredible on that. Monstrous playing.
Can anyone tell me who is playing on the studio recording of "Got My Mojo Working" on Chess of 1956? I'm not asking about the live stuff from that era, as Cotton was often on stage with Muddy at that time as far as I know. But the actual studio track...It sounds like Cotton doing a Little Walter imitation—but it could be Walter playing a bit differently. In any case, it's cool how Cotton's style was all over the map over decades of blues and R&B playing. Just amazing.
Regretfully, I never got to witness James Cotton in action. I would have loved to see him play live. He was without a doubt one of the last great harp players with his own instantly recognizable style. Losing him feels almost like an end of an Era.
This is one of my favorite tracks of his. There's not a whole ton of harp on it really, but it just hits so hard with those horns and his harp/voice. ....you can't help but love it .... it's a Great song.
My fav Cotton band was the '70s group w/ Little Bo on sax, Charles Calmese on bass, Matt Murphy on guitar and the drummers name escapes me. They were on Buddha Records and have the best version of Creeper ever. The Creeper Creeps again. kudzurunner posted it above.
In my opinion Cottons was the finest blues band of the era. Finer than even Muddy Waters great band. I agree w/ kudzus above comment re- LW.
Oh, he was a huge influence. I think I'll re-learn The Creeper Creeps again in memoriam. I can never repay the gift his incredible harp had on my own musical development. ---------- Have good day. M.A.P. .
Last Edited by MP on Mar 17, 2017 2:38 PM
-Seeing James at a little club on Homer Street in Vancouver in 1967. He was struggling with being the leader of a band. "I missed Mud", he told me years later. He closed his eyes often as he played. He struck me as shy. I was 19.
-Seeing him in 1968 at the PNE Gardens. Nothing shy about him! Somersaults while playing, never missing a note. I was thrilled by his sound and his showmanship.
-Seeing him at Baceda's on East Hastings Street in 1974. Small club, seats and tables on three levels. Every seat a good one, with a perfect view of the stage. Little Bo backed him up with his octave splitted sax.
-Playing harp in the "Thunderbird Blues Band" when we were the warm-up band for James at the Commodore Ballroom during the mid to late 70s. Three gigs, all burned in my memory. I got to know James well during that time.
-Watching James from the wings on the Commodore Ballroom stage in 1980 after I thought I had retired from music. I was going to law school. That night, I was with Bobby Godwin, the Thunderbird singer and guitarist. James spotted us halfway through the first set, walked off stage and gave me the harp he had in his hand. He invited us on stage. Bobby sang and I played Jimmy Reed's "Honest I Do", with James' band backing us up. James watched from the wings. I was 32.
Thank you James, for the wonderful memories. You were one of the last links to a wonderful blues era.
wolf kristiansen
p.s. Mark Prados-- The Cotton band's drummer from that time is Kenny (Kennard) Johnson, the best drummer James ever had. He made music with his drum kit, not just rhythm. I said that to him, after one of our gigs. He died in 2005 of complications from diabetes, at the age of 53.
James cotton was the first person to show me third position could be major . I had it in my head that third was minor only. The more you know. What a fun guy he was !! He sure liked to have fun .
I really didn't have any interest in the blues until I heard James cotton . ---------- www.shakeylee.com
Last Edited by shakeylee on Mar 18, 2017 12:49 PM
