Sugar Blue
(Beeble)
Sugar Blue, who was born James Whiting in Harlem in 1950, laid down one of the greatest and most famous harmonica tracks in the history of rock ‘n' roll when he soloed on the song "Miss You" on the Rolling Stones's album Some Girls in 1978. (That's not Mick playing the harp.) Blue also played on their next two albums and turned down the band's offer of a permanent session spot in order to go out and have a solo career.
If you just know Blue from "Miss You" you know that he is a virtuoso on the harmonica. That is also abundantly evident on his latest CD, Threshold. And like a true genius, his sound transcends genres. The Stones were in their (thankfully brief) disco period in the late ‘70's but they were smart enough to never lose sight of the fact that they started as a blues band. Hence even as they picked up the dance beat, they hired a blues harp player to solo on their hit single. But Blue was not a Delta or Chicago blues musician. He was born in New York City. His mother was a singer/dancer who worked at the Apollo Theater. So while he had been playing the harp since the age of 10 and had gigged with the likes of Muddy Waters as a teenager, he was also influenced by jazz greats like Lester Young and rock artists like Bob Dylan. On the advice of expatriate blues master Memphis Slim, Blue moved to Paris, where he met the Stones. He came back to American in the mid ‘80's and did two remarkable solo albums for Alligator Records.
But his recording output has been scarce. Threshold" is only his sixth album. So any album by Blue is a treat and he does not disappoint here. Nine of the 11 songs are originals and he effortlessly mixes genres from the jazzy sound of "Average Guy" and "Cotton Tree" to the New Orleans second line sousaphone that appears at the end of "Noel News" to the hard driving Chicago blues of the Junior Wells classic "Messin' with the Kid."
Of course, what characterizes all these songs are the technically dazzling and fluid runs Blue gets out of his harp. On "Ramblin'" Blue pays tribute to his days working as a street musician in Washington Square Park as a kid. Blue plays both harp and Chromonica bass harp on the track. While on the cover of the Leiber and Stoller blues song "Trouble" made famous by Elvis, Blue engaged in a vigorous call and response with his harp.
The two surprises on the CD are Blue's vocals, which are smooth and soulful, and the topical nature of his songs. Mixed in with sweet love songs are some angry political songs about the injustice of America's ghettoes, the economic destruction of the middle and working classes and our perpetual wars. It is on these songs that Blue shows his greatness as a songwriter. On "Average Guy" he sings, "The average guy understands the blues...Blue collar sweat to pay for white collar crime." And the album's masterpiece, "Stop the War," is as powerful as any anti-war song ever written. Blue sings, "They call it war. I call it murder in the first degree...They're spilling blood for profit and killing our democracy...Among the Unknown Soldier lie a little girl and boy...Stop the war. Kill no more."
Listening to Sugar Blue wail on the final song on the album, "Nightmare," makes it easy to see what Mick and Keith saw in him in Paris all those years ago. The song is loosely based on the blues standard "Backdoor Man" but Blue lets loose a blistering harp solo that turns the song into a hard rocker. One can only imagine how much greater the Stones's albums of the last two decades would have been if Blue had chosen another path. But it is pleasure enough to listen to Sugar Blue himself on this CD. Sugar Blue is musician who has never gotten the public recognition he deserves.
Standout Tracks: "Stop the War," "Ramblin'," "Messin' with the Kid," "Nightmare" TOM CALLAHAN
