About James Cotton
Cotton became interested in music when he first heard Sonny
Boy Williamson on the radio. He left home to find
Sonny Boy in West Helena, Arkansas. When Cotton explained
to Williamson that he was an orphan, Sonny Boy took him
in and raised him. Cotton would begin his career playing
the blues harp in Howlin Wolf's band. After one gig, Sonny
Boy quit the band to live with his estranged wife in Milwaukee.
He left the band in Cotton's hands. Cotton was quoted as
saying, ""He just gave it to me. But I couldn't
hold it together 'cause I was too young and crazy in those
days an' everybody in the band was grown men, so much older
than me." Williamson had a lot of faith in Cotton,
and his faith would ultimately be proved sound.
While he played a few instruments, Cotton was famous for
his great work on the harmonica.
Cotton began to work with the Muddy
Waters Band in 1955. He performed songs such
as "I Got My Mojo Working" and "She's Nineteen
Years Old". Muddy would often compare young Cotton
to Little Walter. In 1965 he formed the Jimmy Cotton Blues
Quartet with Otis Spann on piano to record between gigs
with Water's band. Their performances were captured by producer
Samuel Charters on volume two of the classic Vanguard recording
Chicago/The Blues/Today!. After leaving Muddy's band in
1966, Cotton toured with Janis Joplin while pursuing a solo
career. Alone, Cotton wrote many classic songs. Some of
the most famous include "Cotton Crop Blues", "Rocket
88" (the Wikipedia entry for this song credits it to
Ike Turner, not Cotton), and "Hold Me In Your Arms".
He formed the James Cotton Blues Band in 1967. They performed
all of Cotton's classics and more. Two albums were recorded
live in Montreal that year, and Cotton was on his way to
becoming a legend. Cotton would become known as the ultimate
showman.
In the 1970s, Cotton recorded many albums with Buddah Records.
Cotton played harmonica on Muddy Water's Grammy Award winning
1977 comeback album Hard Again, produced by Johnny
Winter. The James Cotton Blues Band would soon
become The James Cotton Trio, and by 1987, he was up for
his second Grammy Nomination. The first one was for his
1984 release, Live From Chicago: Mr. Superharp Himself!.
His second for Take Me Back.
A throat problem left Cotton with an extremely raspy voice
in recent years, but he continues to tour infrequently.
Cotton's latest release Baby Don't You Tare My Clothes was
released in 2004.
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