James Cotton – Live At Antone’s Nightclub – Antone’s Records ANT CD 0007 

From Allen “Sugar Bear” Black’s enthusiastic introduction, to the first few cannon-like harmonica notes, this eight-cut live recording dating to July, 1987 represents James Cotton at his most powerful.  Recorded on 24 track equipment, and mixed by staunch Antone’s advocates, the fine blues vocalist Angela Strehli and Texas blues guitarist Derek O’Brien, this awe-inspiring collection captures Cotton’s commanding on-stage presence, rough, forceful, and leathery vocals, and the astonishing band of blues greats including Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Luther Tucker on guitar, supreme bassist Calvin Jones, drummer extraordinaire Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and blues piano hero Pinetop Perkins.  When you combine Cotton’s far-ranging skill set with an amalgamation of Muddy Waters Band alums and two of the post-war’s finest blues guitar practitioners, things are set-up for enormous expectations and success.  And succeed it does to the highest degree!

Cotton’s choice of material ideally suits his proficiencies, with blues tunes by Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and of his authorship offering Cotton and his band the opportunity to showcase their individual and collective expertise in the best light. 

Cotton sings like a man possessed, and he delivers each lyric as if it will be the last he will ever intone.  Her fervency of voice is akin to a stampede of blues bombast.  He doesn’t just sing; he impales the words into the very walls and floors of the venue via his atomic conveyance capabilities.

Pity Cotton’s harmonica!  How the diminutive instrument doesn’t destruct into a small pile of metal and wood is a vexing question.  Cotton blows with the force of a Caribbean hurricane, warbling, detonating single notes with fiery assurance, and stretching them with lungs that must have had the capacity of a compressor. 

The blues guitar efforts of Murphy and Tucker are so supreme as to be almost unrealistic.  There are no unnecessary embellishments, just stanzas of perfectly composed runs and fills.  Years upon years of working at their respective artistries allow this magnificence. 

Perkins’ piano is always looming exactly where it needs to be, and when it comes to the fore, the blues brilliance it extends idyllically signifies why his work was so revered.

The rhythm and low-end work tendered by Smith and Jones, respectively, are not relegated modestly in the mix; no, their contributions to the proceedings are front-and-center.  More blues recordings would wise to hear how these blues journeymen and their collective work is framed here. 

What a show this must have been!  The difficult thought here is that none of the participants on this recording are still alive.  Thank goodness we have vital and heated recordings like this to remind us of the blues aptitude they brought to the art form.  This is a joyous romp through post-war blues; one not to be missed.

Highly-recommended without any qualification whatsoever!