Sugar Blue - Biography
Some musicians work their entire lives to attain fame, while others are struck by lightning and achieve nearly overnight renown. Bluesman Sugar Blue took the latter route to musical celebrity: His appearance on a lone track by one of the most celebrated rock bands in the world instantly turned him into the best-known harmonica player on the face of the planet.
He was born uptown – in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood – in 1955 with the given name James Whiting. His mother was a chorine at the celebrated Apollo Theatre and a friend of such noted performers as Billie Holiday, so he was exposed early on to music and show business. He received his first harmonica from an aunt, and learned the instrument by playing along with records by Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder. He took his stage name from a 78 record by Sidney Bechet, “Sugar Blues,” which he discovered in a trash can.
After nursing his chops as a street musician, he began his professional career when he was barely out of his teens. He backed such well-known blues artists as Brownie McGhee, Roosevelt Sykes, Victoria Spivey, and Johnny Shines at his earliest recording sessions. At the suggestion of the expatriate blues pianist Memphis Slim, he relocated to Paris in the mid-’70s; there, he took up playing on the streets again, and he sat in with various visiting blues luminaries.
A chance encounter with The Rolling Stones in the City of Lights led to an opportunity to record with them on their highly regarded album No. 1 Some Girls (1978). Sugar Blue made an indelible impression with the unshakeable harp hook he played on the LP’s leadoff track and first single, “Miss You.” A seamless melding of disco, rock, and blues, the 45 became an international No. 1 single (and to date the Stones’ last chart-topper); an extended 12-inch mix of the song, which featured an elongated harp solo, turned into a major club hit. He returned to the studio with the Stones for the subsequent No. 1 albums Emotional Rescue (1980) and Tattoo You (1981).
Listeners who had no idea who Sonny Boy Williamson was could immediately tell you about Sugar Blue.
The harmonica ace cut two little-heard French albums, Crossroads and From Paris to Chicago (both ca. 1980-81) before returning to the U.S. in 1982. He settled in Chicago, where he became a member of songwriter-bassist Willie Dixon’s Chicago Blues All Stars and jammed with such harp masters as Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, James Cotton, and Junior Wells. He shared a 1984 Grammy Award with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Koko Taylor, and John Hammond for his appearance on Blues Explosion (1984), a collection of live performances captured at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He also backed Dixon on his Grammy winner Hidden Charms (1988).
In 1993, Sugar signed a contract with Alligator Records, the leading independent blues label in Chicago. His debut release Blue Blazes (1993) included covers of numbers by Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, and James Cotton, plus his own reading of “Miss You.” A second Alligator release, In Your Eyes, comprising mostly Sugar Blue originals, was issued in 1995. He also appeared on albums by label mates Lonnie Brooks and Son Seals.
In the intervening years, Sugar Blue has been a fixture on concert stages around the world. Over the years he has recorded with artists ranging from his early inspiration Bob Dylan to jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, and has appeared on the score of the film Angel Heart and on screen in the features Johnny Handsome and An Unmarried Woman. His most recent album Code Blue appeared in 2007.
