Sugar Blue

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Sugar Blue (born James Whiting in 1950) is a Grammy Award-winning American blues harmonica player. Sugar Blue is best known for his harmonica work with the Rolling Stones, specifically on their hit single, "Miss You".

Sugar Blue was raised in Harlem, New York, where his mother was a singer and dancer at the fabled Apollo Theater. He spent his childhood among the musicians and show people who knew his mother, including the great Billie Holiday, and decided that he wanted to be a performer.

Blue received his first harmonica from his aunt, and proceeded to hone his chops by wailing along with Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder songs on the radio. He was soon to be influenced by the jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon and Lester Young. Sugar Blue has used this background to his advantage, creating an ultra-modern blues style and sound that is instantly recognizable as his own.

Blue began his career as a street musician, and made his first recordings in 1975 with legendary blues figures Brownie McGhee and Roosevelt Sykes. The following year he contributed to recordings by Victoria Spivey and Johnny Shines before pulling up stakes and moving to Paris on the advice of pioneer blues pianist Memphis Slim.

While in France, Blue hooked up with Mick Jagger and members of the Rolling Stones, who instantly fell in love with his sound. The Stones invited Blue to join them in the studio. Besides his work on the Some Girls album, he can be heard on Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You. He appeared live with the group on numerous occasions and was offered the session spot indefinitely, but he turned it down. He opted to return to the States and put his own band together, rather than became a full-time sideman. Before returning to the U.S. in 1982, Blue cut a pair of albums: Crossroads, and From Paris to Chicago.

Blue's decision to return home, despite his growing renown as a session player, was spurred by his desire to work with and learn from the masters of blues harmonica. Thus, he came to Chicago and proceeded to sit in with the likes of Big Walter Horton, Carey Bell, James Cotton and Junior Wells. Blue went on to spend two years touring with his friend and mentor Willie Dixon as part of the Chicago Blues All Stars before putting his own band together in 1983. With his own band, Blue's star continued to rise. He received the 1985 Grammy Award for his work on the Atlantic album, Blues Explosion, recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

He recorded on Dixon's Grammy-winning Hidden Charms album in 1989, has performed on festival stages with classic artists like Muddy Waters, B.B. King , Art Blakey and Lionel Hampton and has also set his sights on television and the big screen. He sat in with Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and Jerry Lee Lewis for the Cinemax special, Fats Domino and Friends, and has appeared on screen and in the musical score of Alan Parker's acclaimed 1987 thriller Angel Heart, starring Robert De Niro.

Blue has played and recorded with musicians ranging from Willie Dixon to Stan Getz to Frank Zappa to Johnny Shines to Bob Dylan, he is perhaps best known for his signature riff and solo on the Rolling Stones' hit Miss You from their Some Girls album. Blue performed his own version of the song on his 1993 Alligator debut Blue Blazes. With his second release In Your Eyes, Sugar Blue emerged as a singular, profound songwriter as well as a harmonica wizard.

He has appeared across America, Europe and Africa at many prestigious festivals - Chicago, Zurich, Den Haag, Antibes, Nice, Cannes, Montreal, Pistoia, Bern, Rapperswil... Now living in Milan, Italy, Blue continues to appear in clubs and festivals around the world.

The origin of his name: "I needed a nickname... all the good ones were taken! You know 'Muddy Waters','Blind Lemon','Sonny Boy'...until one night friend and I were leaving a concert - a Doc Watson concert - when somebody threw out of the window a box full of old 78s: I picked one up and it said "Sugar Blues" by Sidney Bechet...That's it! I thought it was perfect...so here I am..."

Sugar Blue's official web site: http://www.sugar-blue.com/

Upcoming CD: Sugar Blue's newest CD, "Code Blue," is scheduled for an April, 2007 release.