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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
100% Cotton as mp3 download
100% Cotton as mp3 download
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kudzurunner
1950 posts
Oct 19, 2010
9:57 AM
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I consider 100% Cotton, the early/mid 70s release by James Cotton, to be a desert-island album: one of the all-time greats. The LPs themselves are expensive as hell and hard to find, but it turns out that the album has recently been released as an inexpensive mp3 download. Here's the Amazon page. (Note the prices for CDs: a LOW of $45 and a high over $100 for a USED CD.)
http://www.amazon.com/100-Cotton/dp/B002GHHNIM/ref=pd_nr_dm_al_78?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic
If you do nothing else, spend 89 cents for "Creeper Creeps Again." If that ain't perfection in every respect (including the backing band), I don't know harmonica blues.
Last Edited by on Oct 19, 2010 10:00 AM
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barbequebob
1360 posts
Oct 19, 2010
12:05 PM
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I've had it since it's been on vinyl in 1974. It also marked the first recording by a Chicago blues band where the groove purposely wasn't play WAY behind the beat in order to get a larger rock following. I'd seen that parrticular band many times in the 70's with Little Bo playing sax thru a Selmer amp specifically made for sax.
You can probably may still find it on CD from CA blues DJ Charlie Lange's excellent site http://www.bluebeatmusic.com, which you can go broke there from just looking at his site.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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DeakHarp
233 posts
Oct 19, 2010
5:05 PM
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That record is the holy grail of T/B ... I had two coppies ... Gave one to a good friend ... Signed by james ....it was on Vinyl ....
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Have Harp Will Travel
www.deakharp.com
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kudzurunner
1951 posts
Oct 19, 2010
6:47 PM
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I've still got my vinyl version, purchased in 1974. A prized possession.
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Joe_L
719 posts
Oct 19, 2010
6:55 PM
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That's an excellent album.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
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SuperBee
30 posts
Oct 20, 2010
6:44 AM
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interesting. sounds like a keeper. thanks for the tip!
i have best of vanguard cotton, and just found best of verve (at some expense)...after reading a thread here in praise of it.
i can recall the exact moment i became aware of JC...while listening to the Hard Again album. i can still vividly recall the moment it dawned on me i was listening to amplified Harmonica..i thought i was just listening to johnny winter and suddenly i realised this is not a 2nd guitar...this is a harp!...that was a major moment in motivating me to really learn to play.
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barbequebob
1369 posts
Oct 20, 2010
1:48 PM
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I've got the Verve stuff in their original vinyl form, which was:
The James Cotton Blues Band (produced by Mike Bloomfield)
Pure Cotton (Francis Clay replaced Sam Lay on drums)
Cotton In Your Ears.
The first two are absolute must haves and the bands are smoking hot!!!
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Last Edited by on Oct 20, 2010 1:48 PM
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pharpo
380 posts
Oct 20, 2010
3:14 PM
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I have it as well on vinyl...It was one of the first of my old LP's, I ripped to digital when I got my ION turntable.
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Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. - Charlie Parker
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6SN7
104 posts
Oct 20, 2010
6:56 PM
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I concur with BBQ Bob on the Cotton album/cd choices. Superior and much more variety and nuance than 100% Cotton, particularly TCB. 100% is a great party,party,party, LP and is reflective of the shows he did at that time. Boogie, boogie, boogie!
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Ev630
786 posts
Oct 20, 2010
8:44 PM
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Good choice for a Desert Island Disc, Adam.
Owning a lot of his stuff is essential, including sideman work with Big Mama Thornton. But if you could only have on disc, I'd go Best of the Verve Years. It's a huge selection (20+), the choices and order is stellar, and it features one of the greatest bands in the history of the blues. Tucker, Gianquinto, etc.
Brilliant!
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Joe_L
722 posts
Oct 20, 2010
9:18 PM
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I really dig the Live At Antone's CD and the live CD on Alligator. Two different bands; two completely different sounds. Cotton has made some great recordings. I've seen him a zillion times and never seen a shitty performance.
I used to see him at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago. He performed there several years in a row in Christmas Day along with Pinetop, Sammy Lawhorn, Willie Smith and Calvin Jones.
Sammy Lawhorn was one of the most under-appreciated guitarists ever. In fact, when Buddy Guy tells the story about his arrival in Chicago, he would talk about the great guitar players in the city that could run rings around him as a guitar player. He almost always cites Sammy Lawhorn as one of those guys. He was highly influential in Chicago.
Regarding Cotton, I agree with EV630. Owning a lot of Cotton's stuff is helpful. He's excellent as a front man/singer/harp player leading a band and as a backup player on other people's recordings. He listens. His playing is always complementary to the tune. He may reuse a lot of his licks, but he always puts them in a context that's right with the music. I have yet to hear a recording by James Cotton that wasn't worth owning.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
Last Edited by on Oct 20, 2010 9:24 PM
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htownfess
194 posts
Oct 21, 2010
2:05 AM
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Late in the 1970s, my brother brought a copy of 100% Cotton home from the record store where he worked, and that was the first harp-intensive LP I ever heard, years before I first tried to play. On some level, I'm still gobsmacked by "Creeper." But I also remember my brother saying that the harpless version of "Fever" that ends the album is like a brief history of African American music, if you recognize everything that's going on in their arrangement of the tune.
The records BBQ Bob mentions are compiled on the Verve collection Ev630 mentions, which may be the best way to get that 1960s phase of Cotton's sound, his old-school approach coming to fruition. The 100% Cotton band & musical approach are different enough that everybody needs a representative of BOTH phases if they can afford it. Either 100% Cotton in the studio or the Live and on the Move that was originally a double LP,for the 1970s.
The Cotton phase captured on The Best of the Verve Years was hugely influential in the 1960s: with harp players of a certain age, you can usually tell whether they were bitten harder by the early Butterfield or by the Verve years Cotton. There are a whole lot of later renditions of "Black Nights" or its arrangement that you can trace back to the Verve records or live shows of that period. There are two CDs of a live Montreal show in 1968 that might strike some as mediocre but are the Verve band live and a fine document of a working band's repertory in that period.
The 1970s band heard on 100% Cotton and Live & on the Move added more funk to the soul blues Cotton was already doing, and supercharged the traditional shuffles. That band was also hugely influential--they toured hard enough that they may have owned the 1970s in the U.S. at the club level, and they were on a major record label. Steve Miller used to say that Cotton could have been the Louis Armstrong of his time if he hadn't been afraid of flying, just had the tools to connect with the public better than almost anyone in popular music.
Both those Cotton phases are part of the DNA of traditional amplified blues harp. You may not feel you're learning so much that's new to you because you've heard so much theft from these records, but this is where it came from. Set your inner harp nerd aside and listen to how Cotton makes it FUN for the audience, and digs into the pain occasionally for contrast. He was a master at working a room and plays the simplest licks a bit better than anyone else ever has, IMO, whether it's a lick he invented or not. At least I'd rather listen to him play them than anyone else around. YMMV
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kudzurunner
1959 posts
Oct 21, 2010
4:33 AM
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Full disclosure: I grew up on 100% Cotton--bought it when I was 16 and had been playing for less than half a year, saw Cotton live (opening for Magic Dick and the J. Geils Band) when I'd just turned 17, and was hugely influenced by Cotton's aggressive before-the-beat funky swing. And of course I've heard his stuff with Muddy, especially "You Don't Have to Go." I also purchased a bunch of his stuff from the 1980s. But I don't have Best of the Verve Years, and can't say I've ever heard it. So I jumped on ev's recommendation last night, and I'm looking forward to being enlightened.
Most of us have a player--a great player in the past, as often as not--who shaped our approach. Cotton has certainly been as important to me as any other, and in some way more important than any other except my mentor, Nat Riddles. His big growly tone was something I consciously modeled my own tone on, to the point where at a certain moment I realized I need to put his records aside, since they seemed to suck me back towards THAT tone and I was having a hard time finding my own distinctive tone.
I've often thought that a key way of understanding Cotton was to understand a) that he learned from Sonny Boy and definitely copied some of his licks; and b) that he came up in a time when Little Walter was king (and when Big Walter was sorta-king, to) and knew it was important to differentiate his thing from theirs. I'd like to hear folks comment on this. Are there any recordings, for example, where Cotton IS clearly modeling his thing on LW's? Or any recordings where Cotton and LW are playing together?
Last Edited by on Oct 21, 2010 4:44 AM
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5F6H
330 posts
Oct 21, 2010
6:18 AM
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@ Adam, "Or any recordings where Cotton and LW are playing together?"
Muddy's "All Aboard" features LW on chro, Cotton playing the train whistle parts. Same session as "40 days", even though Cotton was playing live with Muddy from '56, LW was still handling the lion's share of studio duties into '60. Though, apart from the odd LW tribute (e.g. Off the Wall, I Got To Go etc,) I can't think of anything where Cotton is appearing to emulate LW's sound, my guess is, even if he ever did, they have such differring core sounds that we probably wouldn't recognise it anyway.
I don't really see Cotton as a poor relation to BW ("sort-a king"), he may have missed out on some of the best regarded 50's studio sessions, but he has his fair share of seminal recordings, he was a huge draw in the 70's.
His instantly recognisable tone stands him as one of the "greats".
Last Edited by on Oct 21, 2010 6:19 AM
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5F6H
331 posts
Oct 21, 2010
6:30 AM
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Cotton has claimed to be the harp player on Muddy's November '55 session that yeilded "Trouble No More, Sugar Sweet, I Got To Find My Baby, Clouds In My Heart". IF (I'm not saying it is, or isn't) this is true, then it could be what you are looking for Adam.
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kudzurunner
1960 posts
Oct 21, 2010
7:06 AM
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On the question of JC's debt (or not) to LW, it occurs to me that Cotton makes heavy and distinctive use of the 45 warble. And of course the warble is a major element of LW's style. That might be a place to look.
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5F6H
332 posts
Oct 21, 2010
7:27 AM
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Yes, Cotton has pointed that out himself, but then everyone who plays blues harp warbles on the 3&4, or 4&5 at some time or another.
I don't think that there is really any doubt that LW was an influence, in some way or another (even if he served as an inspiration), on his peers & those that followed. Just that guys like Wells & Cotton developed more individualistic styles of their own as time went by.
BW seems pretty much fully formed in his own right by the time that Juke broke, so perhaps he is an exception...but then who really knows how much the 2 men interacted, beyond what little documentation/testimony there is to support it?
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tmf714
274 posts
Oct 21, 2010
8:13 AM
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You would be hard pressed to find any recordings of Cotton imitating Little Walter-Muddy hired Cotton in 1955 after introducing himself-"I'm Muddy Waters" he said to Cotton-Cotton replied "I'm Jesus Christ"-he did not believe the man in front of him was Muddy.
Muddy wanted his harp player to sound like the player on his records at the time-Little Walter-which Cotton did for a while. Then one day he said "hey Muddy-I'll never be Little Walter,so you'll have to accept me for what I can do and what I am".
From age 9-15 Cotton lived with Sonny Boy Willamson-he seldom gave James lessons,but rather picked up on what Sonny was doing.Although James was on the bandstand with Muddy at age 21,Little Walter played on the studio takes until 1956.
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5F6H
333 posts
Oct 21, 2010
8:37 AM
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Little Walter played on the majority of Muddy's studio takes until '60.
@ tmf74, "You would be hard pressed to find any recordings of Cotton imitating Little Walter", then you say, "Muddy wanted his harp player to sound like the player on his records at the time-Little Walter-which Cotton did for a while"...the 2 statements seem to contradict each other?
If (note I say "if") Cotton's claim about playing on the "Sugar Sweet" Nov. 55 session is true, then he did a pretty bang up job of sounding like LW.
Cotton's renditions of "Off The Wall" & "I Got To Go" are oviously heavily based on LW's originals.
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tmf714
275 posts
Oct 21, 2010
8:55 AM
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I should have stated recordings post 1956-I also stated "for a while"-a short while-like one year,because thats what Muddy wanted.
I don't beleive it was Cotton on the November seesions-listen to December of the same year -"Rock Me","I Live The Life I Love"-it's Cotton for sure-totally different sound-most noticable on "She's Nineteen Years Old" from the November 58 sessions.
Then listen to "Look What You've Done" from the Dec 56 session with Walter playing harp-two distincly different approaches.
Last Edited by on Oct 21, 2010 9:13 AM
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5F6H
334 posts
Oct 21, 2010
9:14 AM
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The December '56 session was LW, it also yielded "Got My Mojo Workin'".
"19 years old" is credited to LW too, same session he recorded "Key To The Highway/Walking On/Rock Bottom".
...that's not to say that Cotton definitely was not at these sessions, or that LW played on every track...obviously he was at the "All Aboard/40 Days" session, may have been in attendence at more...but I think we're already in the realms of realising that, to a lot of folk, the 2 could sound similar enough to be mistaken for each other...
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tmf714
276 posts
Oct 21, 2010
9:36 AM
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On the Saturday,December 1,1956 seesion,Chess 8388 and 8389,"I LIve The Life I Love" and "Rock Me" respectivly featured James Cotton on harp.
The same session,Chess 8392 and 8393,"Look What You've Done" and "Got My Mojo Working" featured Little Walter.
There were two seperate sessions in August,1958. Chess 8979 and 8980, "She's Nineteen Years Old" and "Close To You" featured Muddy on vocals,Little Walter,Otis Spann,Pat Hare,Luther Tucker,Willie Dixon and Francis Clay.
Chess 8981,8982 and 9141 featured "Little Walter And His Jukes"-Walter on vocals and Harmonica on "Key To The Highway" with Muddy on slide,Luther Tucker on guitar,Otis Spann,Willie Dixon and Francis Clay.
Two versions of "Rock Bottom" were taken as 8982.
9141 was "Walkin' On".
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Joe_L
723 posts
Oct 21, 2010
10:29 AM
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Adam - You will likely have heard many of the tracks from the Best of the Verve Years compilation. One of my favorite tracks is a version of "You Don't Have To Go" sung by Syl Johnson with Cotton playing the harp. It was recorded in the mid-80's.
Whenever I saw Cotton talk about Little Walter, he called Little Walter, "the best harmonica player of all time." Like many players that came up around that period in time, they were heavily influenced by Walter, while still maintaining the country sounds of John Lee Williamson and Rice Miller.
I don't believe that most of those guys that were active in the 50's made a conscious decision to be different, I think their sound just evolved into what it was by them doing the things they did. It was shaped by what and who they listened to. They just play and their own style and sound emerges.
When I first started playing, I had the opportunity to talk to Cotton. I asked him what sort of advice he would give to a new player. His advice was listen to everything and play what you enjoy.
I think too many people make too much of trying to be different. You have to learn to walk before you can run. It doesn't hurt to learn to play the music of the classic players note for note. One will learn a lot along the way through trial and error. One's own voice will come along the way.
As htownfess said, I'd rather listen to him play than anyone else around. His music is high energy fun.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
Last Edited by on Oct 21, 2010 10:30 AM
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5F6H
335 posts
Oct 21, 2010
10:30 AM
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Hi TMF714,
Cotton is not credited in any references that I have to hand, please point me to such. As I said, it is feasible that he played on more sessions than given credit for, but for you to say that he "definitely did" ideally requires a source/reference...as I said, I don't think it unfeasible, I don't doubt it just because you say so...there are obviously references that need updating if you are correct.
The Aug '58 sessions are not dated to the day, the master numbers overlap the Muddy & LW sessions, You will notice that his "Jukes" are the same personnel for both sessions, less Pat Hare, sub Clay for Hunter on drums. In both cases LW is credited for both sessions.
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MP
935 posts
Oct 21, 2010
10:38 AM
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back to 100% COTTON.
i bought that album right when it came out. i was in my teens. it was/is FANTASTIC!
there are several versions of THE CREEPER,
but THE CREEPER CREEPS AGAIN is the absolute definitive holy best of the bunch.
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MP
hibachi cook for the yakuza
doctor of semiotics
superhero emeritus
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barbequebob
1373 posts
Oct 21, 2010
10:51 AM
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In a number of interviews of both Cotton as well as Billy Boy Arnold, back in the early to mid 50's, in Chicago, if you didn't sound more like LW, you weren't considered a real harp player. Cotton basically came up with a sort of hybrid of the LW school of playing plus the stuff he was taught by SBWII. When he came to Chicago from Memphis with Muddy in the mid 50's, Chicago audiences weren't exactly peachy keen on his SBWII stuff at the time so he was forced to adapt and finally came up with his own very distinctive sound.
The Verve years start at 1967, and the first LP "The James Cotton Blues Band." It has a slow blues interumental that most people have seen on YT played in E, but this LP has where it came from, a tune known as "Blues In My Sleep," only this time played in D, first with a MB in G in 2nd position, then switches to a key of C MB played in 3rd position, and finally plays a 64 Chromatic in 3rd position.
It also contains a cover of Bobby Blue Bland's "Turn On Your Lovelight" that totally blows away the Bland original both in its exuberance as well as those powerful horn charts on it.
On the same LP, it also has him doing a cover of LW's classic "Off the Wall."
On the 2nd one, "Pure Cotton," it has his very first version of "The Creeper," which is much more heavily amplified, and also includes the quote from Lionel Hampton's big band classic "Flying Home" much like all subsequent versions, but the original also has a quote from Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump" as well.
"100% Cotton" is his first move towards using a considerably cleaner sound and at the time, he was often playing thru an Acoustic 450 head into a Fender Dual Showman cabinet with a pair of 15's in it, but at many gigs, he also sang thru it as well, and it is a transition from where the amp was also being used as the PA.
His pre-67 stuff is generally with a much dirtier sound than any of these, especially the stuff he did as a sideman along with Otis Spann on the very first Johnny Young LP on Arhoolie and he's just on fire on "Slam Hammer."
The stuff he did on the Vanguard label, especially in their "Chicago/The Blues/Today" series is also essential stuff and his solo on Rocket 88 as well as "Love Me Or Leave Me," which is a mistitling of a Percy Mayfield tune called "Strange Things Happening," a tune that was covered some years earlier with harp by Junior Parker is also one to get.
When he was younger, he was quite the vocalist and showman and I still remember seeing him at the now defunct Joe's Place in Cambridge, MA, doing The Creeper and while playing his butt off, he turned a somersault while playing and never missed a note at all. He was notorious for stealing shows if he was the opening act, even if he was opening for well known rock bands as well.
When I saw him at the long defunct Music Hall in boston, he opened for Johnny Winter and his amp gave out and he played the set thru the PA, and the PA was getting him the same sound as the rig he had been using since 100% Cotton and since then, he pretty much played almost exclusively thru the PA and there was no doubt in anyone's mind in the audience he CLEARLY stole that show.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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Joe_L
725 posts
Oct 21, 2010
11:22 AM
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When he was singing, Cotton's shows were high energy affairs. He was constantly moving and dancing around. I remember back in the mid-80's, when he would appear with the big band, he always dressed sharp. I saw him sweat through a white three piece suit before the end of the first set. There is nothing like a James Cotton performance.
One of my favorite tunes is She's Murder (aka Murder In The First Degree). It's explosive.
Another fun little romp is on the Superharps CD called TD's Boogie Woogie. He trades some killer licks with Billy Branch. It's a real burner. It makes me dizzy. It reminds me of the good old days.
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The Blues Photo Gallery
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tmf714
277 posts
Oct 21, 2010
11:25 AM
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Hey Mark-
The sources are readily available in the USA-Muddy Waters-The Anthology on Chess. Also -The Muddy Waters Discography by Phil Wight and Fred Rothwell. They consulted the following publications-The Chess Labels,Vol 1 and 2 by Micjael Ruppli,Chess Blues Discography by Leslie Fancourt,Prestige Jazz Records by Michael Ruppli,Jazz Records by JG Jepsen,Chicago Breakdown by Mike Rowe,Jazz ON Record by McCarthy,Morgan,Oliver and Harrison,The Complete Bo Diddley Sessions by George White. Scott Dirks,Bill Wyman,Steve Franz and Paul Jones also shared their thoughts and expieriences.
Most of the info comes from the book "Muddy Waters-The Mojo Man" by Sandra Tooze. She interviewed members of Muddys family,bandmates including Jimmy Rogers,Junior Wells,James Cotton,Francis Clay,Mojo Buford,Willie Smith,Bob Margolin,Jerry Portnoy and more.
She also spoke with BB King, John Lee Hooker,Bo Diddley,John Hammond,Chris Barber,Charlie Musselwhite, Koko Taylor,Elvin Bishop,Levon Helm,and Marshall Chess.
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6SN7
107 posts
Oct 21, 2010
11:57 AM
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A Adam
Very interesting context in which you first heard Cotton, 100% and just starting harp. Stating all of that makes me understand why you find it so important.
I like those kind of stories. It's like where were you when JFK was shot or (for the younger folks) where were you on 9-11. Yeah cool, where were you the first time you met the blues?
I was 10 when I heard Buddy Guy's "Let Me Love you." It changed me, right then!
AS for harp, seeing and listening to Big Walter Horton at 13 set me for life. He use to play with John Nicholas in my hometown and Walter was around for a number of years. It's funny, in Southern RI and SE CT, Big Walter is who most local harp players point to rather than Little Walter. He made a huge impact and was very well recieved in the area.
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5F6H
336 posts
Oct 21, 2010
12:00 PM
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Hi Thomas,
I'm looking at Wright/Rothwell's discography right now. It matches Scott Dirks' session notes in "Blues With A Feeling"?
Thanks for the heads up on the other sources.
My mind is certainly open on the subject.
Cheers, Mark.
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