James Montgomery Band

b. c. 1950, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Playing harmonica and singing, Montgomery belied his origins by digging into the music of black Americans. As a student at Boston University, he formed his own band in 1970, which became locally successful. In his early years he sometimes worked, at first informally, with senior bluesmen such as James Cotton, John Lee Hooker and Junior Wells. The experience thus gained in blues clubs stood the young musician in good stead as he sought to succeed in a world where white musicians were viewed with some doubts. In Chicago, he was encouraged by ...