Posted on 10/11/2011 7:34:39 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
On July 4, George “Mojo” Buford returned home to Minneapolis following a gig at Yoshi’s nightclub in San Francisco, where he performed with his fellow vets from Muddy Waters’ band, Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton. A day later, the legendary blues harpist went in for heart surgery and never fully recovered, according to family. Buford, 81, died Tuesday morning of heart failure at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood.
“He was doing what he loved to do right up until the end,” his son Abe said proudly.
A native of Hernando, Miss., Buford said in a 2002 interview that he moved to Chicago around 1953 and wound up joining Waters’ band a few years later filling in for Cotton (not long after Little Walter left the same post to launch his own career). He played with Waters off and on until his death in 1983, including gigs with the Rolling Stones in England and with many of the legendary San Francisco bands at the Fillmore in the late-’60s.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Muddy Waters video with Mojo at the lonk.
Link.
Not lonk.
Huh....
Thought that there one or two blues fans around here...
Oh, well.
All of these men lived the life they loved. It wasn't always easy. Especially, in the early days when they toured the Mississippi Blues Trail.
I have a special love for these guys because I grew up listening to them on my little portable Japanese radio under the covers late at night. When I was in college in the south I finally got some time to visit parts of where it all began.
For what ever time is left we still have Hubert Sumlin and my special favorite, Buddy Guy.
Saw James Cotton two years ago...man, that guy could PLAY.
Wasn’t too friendly afterwards, though...when I told him how much I’ve enjoyed his harmonica playing over the years.
Saw BB King, too...outstanding show!
Ed
Well, Well, Well,Well,Well...
The arrows I keep, they never miss..
“Everybody knows Muddy Waters invented electricity...” Johnny Winter
I pretty much quit drinking 30 years ago. Listening to the blues stone sober just isn’t the same.
I live not far from Hernando, MS and never realized he was from there.
And the day keeps remindin’ me, there’s a hellhound on my trail....
Know any BigBillBroonzy?
Skip James? one spooky dude...
Lightnin Hopkins?
I got ‘em bro...
I play, but there’s not much of whiteboy playin’ delta these days....
Hell, I ain’t seen no blackboys neither, for what them mfs are worth. Kinda weird a cracker can play acoustic blues like a long dead black dude.
They like the (c)rap stuff. The ‘C’ is silent. What a bunch of JacksonHeads.
RIP.
I saw Mojo Buford with B.B.King at the Cabooze in Mpls.
more than once.
“Great blues ain’t nothin’ but a good man feelin’ bad.”
I forgot who said this.
Anything is hearsay and well past statute of limitations.
I may have partied with James C. a time or two, Brassy’s, Cocoa Beach FL and Cabooze. I’m in a wheelchair, so maybe was cut slack. It was back in late 80’s and was snowing that night too, so maybe weather improved his attitude towards me. Met Paul Butterfield at Cabooze too getting to chat with him shortly before he died. Only person I’ve met that for sure was at Woodstock.
What disappointed me most, missing Muddy’s last trip to Cabooze as I crashed my car becoming a Para 9/1/82 still recovering when he died in ‘83.
I and a couple friends got to know Mojo and his band pretty good in the late 70’s when he played the Edgewater Bar on the Island across from Red Wing (The bar has long since burned down.) A friend had a house on the Island near the Harbor Bar a couple miles down the road from the Edge. We were only 16-18 at the time using a cousin’s draft card for entry.
What I remember about Mojo is that he had fun with us because first we enjoyed his play, but also how funny he thought we young white kids were. He was very surprised how much dope we could smoke too! Oh to be young again.
PEACE
Heh heh, sounds great!
Do you like pre-war Blues, like Son House, Skip James, Robert Johns, Charley Patton, etc?
Love that music, as well as Chicago Blues, Double Trouble, Leadbelly, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, etc.
See ya, thanks for the cool stories!
Ed
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