Music Monday: Pete Cosey

There’s a lot of justified buzz surrounding Mary Halvorson lately and her About Ghosts is in heavy rotation in my world right now. In fact, I’ll do a dedicated Mary Halvorson post soon, but today I want to celebrate a far more obscure guitarist.  

When I was in college, I listened to a lot of blues and I was always secretly fascinated by the Muddy Waters, Electric Mud (1968). I knew all the criticism: it was too overtly commercial, Muddy hated it, and it wasn’t the real blues. 

That’s fine. I still enjoyed it particularly the slashing and grinding lead guitar. It was both psychedelic and cliche, but also somehow distinctive. The lead guitar was a cat called Pete Cosey who was, at the time, a session guy for Chess records.

It’s been vaguely heartening to see the album get some more positive vibes lately and it’s still a good listen. 

What’s even more fun is that Pete Cosey ultimately took his distinctive guitar sound on the road with Miles Davis where he played on Davis’s 1976 live album Agharta. It’s a great album, of course, but only if you have tolerance for Davis’s headlong dive into not only fusion but also R&B. 

Finally, Cosey is the kind of guy who doesn’t even have a discography section on his Wikipedia page. His entry did say that he played with an outfit call the Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber founded by, among others, Vijay Iyler, and Captain Kirk Douglas (who goes on to become the lead guitarist for the Roots). This group is an improvised jazz, fusion, funk, and R&B outfit that burns down the house while attracting some big name collaborators including Cosey. 

Check out their 2004 album: Black Sex Y’ALL Liberation & Bloody Random Violets. There’s a lot going on in this ensemble and the mix, but I think Pete Cosey’s guitar still comes through (or at least that’s what I tell myself).