Eclectic Company: You Can Never Have Enough Blues

Before BB King came to play L’Auberge, Lake Charles was visited by two other distinguished blues men — 87-year-old Kenner-born pianist and vocalist Henry Gray (who played for Mick Jagger’s 55th birthday party by special invitation), and 76-year-old harmonicat and vocalist, Tunica, Mississippi-native James Cotton (who wowed Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead). Gray and Cotton performed at Central School in a tribute to the late harmonica innovator Marion “Little Walter” Jacobs for the Crossroads series broadcast live on KRVS-FM. Among Little Walter’s musical influences was the Chicago-based blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson (who also befriended and taught a very young James Cotton). Both Gray and Cotton had played with Little Walter in and around Muddy Waters’ band, so their pairing for this tribute was a no-brainer.

And Little Walter surely deserved a tribute as a native son of Louisiana. Born in Marxville and raised in Alexandria, where he learned to play harmonica, Little Walter quit school about age 12, busking around New Orleans, and then making his way through Memphis, Helena, Arkansas and St. Louis before landing in Chicago. The blues scene there was already electrified, which inspired him to develop the now-familiar method of holding a microphone to the harmonica in one hand, while cupping the harp for vibrato and distortion with the other, in order to be heard over the whine of amplified guitars. In Little Walter’s truncated career and short life (May 1, 1930 — February 15, 1968) he’s credited with inventing electronic-enhanced harmonica sounds, and with creating the standard blues harmonica vocabulary that modern blues and blues-rock harmonica players use today. His enormous legacy that includes 15 chart hits is capped with a posthumous induction (presented by James Cotton) in 2008 to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the sideman category as the only harmonica player to be so included.

At Central School, Gray and Cotton played separately and together, and in brief interviews, spoke about themselves and Little Walter with Herman Fusilier, host of KRVS’s “Zydeco Stomp” show. Gray recalled meeting Little Walter in Marxville, and told us that he’d played a chromatic harmonica, but was most memorable to him for “doing everything fast, fast, fast.” Little Walter played with Muddy Waters in Chicago, and both Henry Gray and James Cotton played with Muddy Waters for about a dozen years; when Cotton first joined Waters in his teens, Waters asked him to “play like Little Walter” and Cotton complied, playing the tunes and solos note for note as Little Walter had originated them, until he was old enough and seasoned enough to assert himself and insist on playing in his own style.

For the Crossroads show, opening with “Sweet Home Chicago,” Gray played a handful of solo piano and vocal numbers, wearing a round roll-brim bowler hat, sitting straight and strong at the big grand’s keyboard, and striding through some Little Walter songs alongside his own compositions. When Fusilier remarked on Gray’s great age during their interview, Gray replied that he’s lost most of his old friends, naming Howling Wolf, with whom he played for 14 years, as well as Hubert Sumlin and Etta James — “all my friends from Chicago.” Gray was trim and fit, at the keyboard and climbing the stairs to the stage, and I wouldn’t have guessed his age if it hadn’t been mentioned.

After a short break, James Cotton’s band kicked off his set with “Juke,” Little Walter’s 1952 chart-topper, bringing on the big man, who planted himself on a chair, centerstage among the monitors, looking and sounding, since his 1990s throat cancer surgery and radiation, like a granddaddy bullfrog. But oh man, can the man play! I hadn’t heard him live in many years, but if I closed my eyes, I could hear the same younger harmonica man who’d been so popular around the festivals in my youth. In his natty gray suit, black shirt and flat cap, Cotton looked every inch the superstar he is. James Cotton made blues history in 1961 at the Newport Jazz Festival in Muddy Waters’ band with his electrifying solo on “Got My Mojo Working,” preserved in a live recording that well and truly defined mojo for all time. You can see a pretty great 1966 version with Muddy’s band on youtube. During his Crossroads interview segment, Cotton spoke of his mother, who played chicken and train sounds on harmonica, which initially piqued his interest, and kissed his harp, which practically disappeared in his big hands. There are great harmonica players out there (including a country blues and folk harmonica player I dated about a million years ago), but James Cotton is the best blues harmonica player that I’ve heard live, and that’s saying something.

Cotton’s bands have always been hot and tight and this year’s incarnation is no exception, including bandleader and bassist Noel Neal who’s performed with Cotton for 30 years (son of the late Baton Rouge blues harmonica player Raful Neal, pater of a huge familias of blues musicians, reported variously as either nine out of 10 or 10 out of 11 of his children!), drummer Jerry “Bam-bam” Porter from Chicago, who turned in rock-steady time-keeping and tasty rhythmic fills, guitarist and vocalist Tom Holland, whose crisp solos and high tenor nearly caused me palpitations, and surprise! vocalist Darrell Nulisch, alum of Beale Street-Memphis favorites Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, who practically tiptoed in midway through Cotton’s set, sat quietly in a straight-backed chair stage right, and fitted neatly into the band as if he was playing an instrument.

To close out the show, Henry Gray joined the Cotton band for a few more songs, including Little Walter’s 1954 number one hit, “My Babe (Don’t Stand No Cheating),” and the R&B hit “Rocket 88,” that’s been called the first true rock and roll song. After their well-deserved standing ovation, Gray and Cotton posed with fans for photographs, and autographed their albums, including Cotton’s newest, Giant, which literally sold out just as it was my turn at the table.