Posts
James
Cotton
It
Was A Very Good Year
Just
a Memory JAM 9144-2
It
Was a Very Good Year/ Mystery Train/ She’s My Baby/ One More Mile/
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)/ I Can’t Quit You Baby/ Sweet
Sixteen/ Midnight Creeper/ Hootchie Cootchie Man/ You’re So Fine.
46:55.
Cotton,
vcl, hca, Albert Gianquinto, p; Luther Tucker,g; Bobby Anderson, b;
Francis Clay, d. September 28, 1967. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
This
is the third disc deriving from live performances by the James Cotton
band at the New Penelope Cafe in Montreal in September 1967 on Just a
Memory. These must be among the last performances by the Cotton band
with Albert Gianquinto on piano. This writer saw Cotton and his band
in Cleveland in early Fall 1967 (possibly a week or two after the
engagement which produced this recording), by which time a saxophone
had replaced pianist Gianquinto. In any event , this was one of
Cotton’s best bands and if this recording lacks the highest of
fidelity (the drums are too prominent), the sound is acceptable.
1967
may well have been a very good year in Montreal with Expo ‘67, but
the title track is a feature for Gianquinto’s jazzy piano before
the band brings Cotton up to the stage. There is a nice mix of songs
from Cotton as he opens up with Jr. Parker’s “Mystery Train”
before tackling Sonny Boy Williamson’s “She’s My Baby” which
Cotton had recorded as “Sugar Sweet,” and his own “One More
MIle”. The inclusion of Marvin Gaye’s Motown hit “How Sweet It
Is,” is an indication that the boundaries between blues and soul
were not as demarcated as some find today.
Luther Tucker’s guitar
is spectacular on Cotton’s solo rendition of Otis Rush’s “I
Can’t Quit You Baby,” and the lengthy “Sweet Sixteen” where
he really stretches out. Cotton has the lengthy “Midnight Creeper”
to showcase his harmonica mastery. Cotton also sings here as well as
he ever did and the level of the music supports the memory of this
being a great blues band. Incidentally, the closing “You’re So
Fine,” is erroneously credited to Little Walter. It is a reworking
of the Johnny Otis song that was a hit for the Fiestas.
This review was written in 2001 and likely published in Cadence from whom I likely received a review copy. I had previously reviewed another CD "Seems Like Yesterday" from this engagement, and it was posted back in 2012. Here is Cotton and band from 1967 doing "Off The Wall."
