Jimmy Cotton on the harp, Wise Fool’s Pub, Chicago, 1969 by ©Bruce Berman

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPH BY Bruce Berman, Editor

Photograph from the upcoming book, ChiTown Journal (Border Blog Press) by Bruce Berman.
Jimmy Cotton was a legendary Blues player in the Chicago tradition. He was from the Mississippi Delta and was discovered and promoted by the great Muddy Waters (also from the Delta). The Wise Fool’s pub was a mainstay Northside pub on Lincoln Avenue (across the street from another main blues bar, the Oxford Pub).
This photograph was made on the last set of a three set night (at 2:30am, April 18, 1969.
I gave Mr. Cotton a print copy of this image in the mid 2000s at a concert venue in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
He smiled, said he liked it, then added in one sentence,  “Ouuu…That was such a young man.”

More on Mr. Cotton: https://bit.ly/2lWNFkI

VIDEO: Dealing With The Devil Jimmy Cotton https://youtu.be/MXtldRJxj5c