James Cotton

At 81 years old, James Cotton physical status not available right now. We will update James Cotton's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer, and songwriter who performed and recorded with many of the country's best blues artists of his time and with his own band.

He began playing drums early in his career but is best known for his harmonica playing. Cotton began playing the blues harp in Howlin' Wolf's band in the early 1950s.

He made his first recordings for Sun Records in Memphis, under Sam Phillips' direction.

In 1955, Muddy Waters recruited him to Chicago and join his band.

Cotton joined Waters as the group's bandleader and remained with the company until 1965.

He formed the Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet, with Otis Spann on piano, to record between gigs with the Muddy Waters band in 1965.

He later left to form his own full-time touring group.

Cotton was on harmonica on Muddy Waters' Grammy Award-winning 1977 album Hard Again, which was later released by Johnny Winter, on Verve Records.

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Career

Cotton was born in Tunica, Mississippi. When Sonny Boy Williamson II first heard on the radio, he became interested in music. Williamson and his uncle left home and moved to West Helena, Arkansas, after finding Williamson there. Cotton said he told Williamson that he was an orphanage and that Williamson took him in and raised him for many years, a tale that has changed in recent years. However, Williamson did mentor Cotton in the early years. Williamson and his estranged wife in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, relocating his band in Cotton's hands. Cotton was quoted as saying, "He just gave it to me." But I couldn't hold it together in those days because everyone in the band was young and brisk, and me was much older than me."

Cotton started drums early in his career but is best known for his harmonica playing. In the early 1950s, he began his career as a blues harp in Howlin' Wolf's band. In 1953, he made his first recordings as a solo artist for Sun Records in Memphis. In 1954, he released "Cotton Crop Blues," a highly distorted power chord-driven electric guitar solo by Pat Hare. Cotton debuted with the Muddy Waters Band in 1955. He performed "Got My Mojo Working" and "She's Nineteen Years Old" on the original recordings, but Little Walter, Waters' long-serving harmonica player, appeared for the bulk of Waters' recording sessions in the 1950s. Cotton's first recording session with Waters took place in June 1957, and he alternated with Little Walter on Waters' recording sessions until the end of the decade.

Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet, with Otis Spann on piano, was formed in 1965 to tour between Waters' band gigs. On volume two of Vanguard's Chicago/Today, producer Samuel Charters caught their appearances. Cotton played with Janis Joplin while pursuing a solo career after leaving Waters' band in 1966. In 1967, he formed the James Cotton Blues Band. The band mainly performed its own arrangements of classic blues and R&B from the 1950s and 1960s. The Cotton Band featured a horn section, similar to Bobby Bland's. Bland's son told news outlets that Cotton had recently discovered that he was his half-brother after Bland's death.

Cotton released several albums for Buddah Records in the 1970s. On Waters' Grammy Award-winning 1977 album Hard Again, produced by Johnny Winter, he performed harmonica. He appeared on Alligator Records in Chicago in the 1980s and resurfaced in 2010 when he rejoined the Alligator roster. On Alligator, Mr. Superharp Himself!" and a second on Blind Pig Records in 1984, the James Cotton Blues Band received a Grammy Award for his 1984 album Taking Me Back. In 1996, he was nominated for his best Traditional Blues Album for Deep in the Blues. Cotton was featured on the front of the Living Blues magazine from July to August 1987 (number 76). He was profiled in the 40th anniversary issue of the publication from August–September 2010.

Cotton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2006 at a ceremony held by the Blues Foundation in Memphis. He has won or shared ten Blues Music Awards.

Cotton battled throat cancer in the mid-1990s, but he went on tour, employing singers or members of his backing band as vocalists. On March 10, 2008, he and Ben Harper performed together at the induction of Little Walter into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, performing "Juke" and "My Babe"; the induction ceremony was shown nationally on VH1 Classic. Cotton appeared on Larry Monroe's farewell broadcast of Blue Monday in Austin, Texas, for nearly 30 years.

Giant, Cotton's studio album that was released by Alligator Records in late September 2010, was nominated for a Grammy Award. Cotton Mouth Man, a Grammy nominee who was also released by Alligator on May 7, 2013, was also a Grammy nominee. It features guest appearances by Gregg Allman, Joe Bonamassa, Ruthie Foster, Delbert McClinton, Warren Haynes, Keb Mo, Chuck Leavell, and Colin Linden. Cotton appeared on "Matches Don't Burn Memories" on the Dr. Izzy Band's debut album, Blind & Blues Bound, released in June 2013. Cotton received a Blues Music Award for Traditional Male Blues Artists in 2014, and was also recognized in the category Best Instrumentalist – Harmonica.

Cotton's touring band featured guitarist and vocalist Tom Holland, singer Darrell Nulisch, bassist Noel Neal (brother of blues guitarist and harmonica player Kenny Neal), and drummer Jerry Porter.

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