Born James Whiting in New York City’s Harlem district, Blue adopted his new moniker after finding a 78 rpm disc of Sidney Bechet’s "Sugar Blues" in a garbage bin. By that time, he’d already been exposed to a wide range of musical influences, including Billie Holiday, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, and the gospel sounds of his grandmother’s Baptist congregation. But it was the music of Muddy Waters, featuring the harp playing of Little Walter, that really blew his mind.

Determined to make it as a blues harpist, Sugar Blue plied his trade on the streets of New York City, eventually making enough connections to land him session gigs with Brownie McGhee, Roosevelt Sykes and Johnny Shines. Moving to Paris on the advice of ex-pat piano great Memphis Slim, Blue fell in with members of the Rolling Stones, who were then engaged in the creation of their Some Girls LP. Blue’s melodic harp licks on "Miss You" (and his burning solo on the title track) made him something of a star, and led to appearances on records by Stan Getz, Bob Dylan, Willie Dixon and Syl Johnson, as well as other releases by the Rolling Stones.

Of course, Sugar Blue is also capable of creating some damn fine music of his own. He’s recorded several full-length solo works, including two recent releases for Alligator Records, 1994’s Blue Blazes and 1995’s In Your Eyes.

-- Dan Epstein

Dan Epstein is a Los Angeles-based journalist and pop-culture historian whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, BAM, Raygun, Guitar World and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications. His first book, Twentieth Century Pop Culture, was published in 1999 by Carlton Books.