Bonnie Blue: James Cotton's Life in the Blues

We began making this film while Cotton was still alive and expected to shoot more with him revealing his intimate understanding of life as a Black artist who traveled the road overcoming barriers that he confronted. Still performing, he passed at the age of 81 while we were still in production. We have original never- before-released footage we shot with him that offers a sense of his undeniable humility and unmatched musical genius. It is combined with archival performances and a treasure trove of richly conceived black and white never before seen stills that provide the cinematic foundation for this journey.

As the director, I set out to provide an insight to the life of a music legend--someone who blues harp players today continue
to emulate with respect for his innovation, power and capacity to turn the harmonica into a lead instrument that matched the music and intensity of a lead guitar.

The core of the film is music as a voice. Cotton’s voice, always a bit challenging, became very difficult to hear and understand after cancer destroyed his vocal chords. So, throughout the film we use various elements to enhance the viewers appreciation of Cotton’s voice—its emotional power, breadth of expression and nuanced tone that evolved over decades as he continued to reinvent his career while paying homage to his roots.

The approach for this documentary was forged by providing a chronological profile of Cotton’s life, public and private. As he was evolving and shaping his sound, so too was the music around him. Many voices of influential musicians attest not only to Cotton’s influence, but also provide through various performances, insight into the music that is performed, enabling an appreciation for the distinctiveness of the blues and the manner in which the harp is played to achieve its distinctive voice

Everyone agrees that Cotton was generous with other musicians. For Cotton, color did not matter, only the ability to play and to love what you were doing. In this era of racial reckoning, we have focused on authentically presenting Cotton’s life in the blues as a man who was always engaged in negotiating the struggles of being a black man in a white man’s industry. But as a musician he found his voice and used it to express his soul and unite audiences in the shared feelings the blues evokes for all.