Mojo Buford - Champagne & Reefer (1999)

The various bands led by harmonica player and singer George "Mojo" Buford hark back to the classic Chicago blues sounds of the early '60s. Among harmonica players, Buford has the distinction of being the only musician to have played with various bands led by the late Muddy Waters in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. (Waters died in April 1981.) Buford left Mississippi for Memphis in his teens and honed his chops around Memphis before heading to Chicago in 1952. He began playing with Waters in Chicago in the late '50s, but by 1962 Buford relocated to Minneapolis, where he recorded several obscure albums for the Vernon and Folk-Art labels. He rejoined Waters' band in 1967 for a full year and then toured with him again in the early '70s, after harmonica player Jerry Portnoy left to form the Legendary Blues Band. By 1979 Buford was recording and touring around with bands under his own name. He recorded Mojo Buford's Blues Summit in 1979 for Mr. Blues, later reissued on the Rooster Blues label, and his 1990s recordings include Still Blowin' Strong and Harpslinger, both issued in 1996 by the Blue Loon Records label; a 1998 release for British blues label JSP Records entitled State of the Blues Harp; and a 1998 stateside release, Home Is Where My Harps Is, also for Blue Loon. More recently, he recorded a live album, Champagne & Reefer, in 1999 for New York-based Fedora Records and Chicago Blues Summit in 2002 for P-Vine Records. He continued to play until his death in October 2011.