Biography
James Edward Pryor, 15 September 1921, Lambert, Mississippi, USA, d. 18 October 2006. As a child Pryor became drawn to the harmonica after watching an albino player, John Blissett, together with his friend Jimmy Rogers. When he was 13 he saw Rice Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson number 2) play. After settling in Chicago in 1945 after US Army service, Pryor joined the Maxwell Street group of blues singers which included Johnny Young, Floyd Jones and Moody Jones, with whom he recorded in 1948. Their records were harbingers of the amplified down-home sound of post-war Chicago blues, although at this time Pryor’s singing and harmonica were heavily influenced by John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson. Pryor made his first record, ‘Telephone Blues’, with guitarist Moody Jones in 1949. There were later singles for J.O.B. (‘Boogy Fool’, 1950), Parrot (1953), Blue Lake (1954) and Vee Jay Records (‘Someone To Love Me’, 1956). During the 50s...
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