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Blind Mississippi Morris

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Today is the birthday of blues harmonica player Blind Mississippi Morris. He arrived on the planet on this day in 1955, in Clarksdale, Mississippi as Morris Cummings.

His artistry is the subject of this short documentary.

Blind Mississippi Morris from Bill Totolo on Vimeo.

Blind Mississippi Morris lost his harmonicas and a valuable microphone when his truck was robbed three years ago. It was just one in a series of losses and disappointments which included losing his eyesight to glaucoma, his childhood to institutionalization, and a home to foreclosure. He has also parted company with at least a dozen wives along the way if this article is to be believed.

Turning fifty-eight today, Morris began playing harmonica when he was four and has now become old enough and has suffered enough trouble to comfortably wear the persona of a genuine Old Blues Guy.  It’s reassuring to know such characters still exist in the digital world.

What was the first musical instrument you remember playing?

87 thoughts on “Blind Mississippi Morris”

  1. Good morning. I have never been able to learn to play a musical instrument. It is possible that as a young boy I had a harmonica as a toy. I know I owned one when i was older and made some failed attempts at learning to play one of those instruments. In junior high I had some piano lessons in a music class where we were given a paper key board to use for practice. My family didn’t own a piano when I was young so I did need the paper key board to practice my piano lessons. Those lessons were a failure. I have tried out various musical instrument without learning to play more than a few simple tunes. Due to my lack of skill at mastering musical instruments, I would need to put a lot of time into practice in order be able to play at all well and I don’t seem to be willing to do that.

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  2. Kazoo, I think, or a toy bamboo flute. Also a makeshift stringed instrument made out of rubber bands stretched across a cardboard box.

    When I first saw the title Blind Mississippi Morris I thought this post might be about that game you play in which you construct a blues name for yourself using a selection of common terms.

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        1. and that was a gas! me – Boney Sugar Washington! lol and my sons -Peg Leg Killer, Buddy Bad Boy and Pretty Bones Washington -ouch! Joanne Boney Gumbo! lol

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  3. I got my first instrument when I was in my third year of graduate school–too late in life to pick up a complex instrument, I fear. I was hanging out at the old Scholar Coffeehouse back then (the one on the West Bank) listening to a marvelous mixture of musicians, but especially a charismatic kid from Saint Cloud named Leo Kottke. Because I was simply ravished by Leo’s 12-string guitar work I bought a little classic guitar and tried to plunk Leo’s tunes on it. I later tried to hide my mediocrity by playing a six-string Dreadnought guitar and (briefly) a 12-string guitar like my idol used. As I’ve posted before, I have officially sworn off abusing guitars and no longer own one.

    When I was part of the Scholar scene one of the most fascinating musicians was a figure something like Blind Mississippi Morris. Lazy Bill Lucas had been born to a sharecropping family in Arkansas, escaping a life of poverty by moving gradually northward and learning to play the blues. Lazy Bill was a big figure in the Chicago blues world in the 1950s. He somehow drifted to the West Bank in the 1960s, where he played happily until his death. Bill had a distinctive piano style and a pinched, heavily accented singing voice. He was one of the sweetest human beings I’ll ever know. He reached many listeners when he hosted a blues show on KFAI, the Lazy Bill Lucas Show.

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    1. At the start of the 80s, when we first moved to Minnesota, I heard Lazy Bill play some place on the West Bank, probably at the Riverside Cafe. He sat at a portable electronic key board on which he accompanied himself and did a very good job of singing traditional blues.

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  4. Either a toy guitar with a crank to play some silly kid’s song or the cheapest toy drum set imaginable. I think it was literally made out of cardboard with something like aluminum foil wrapped around the body of each drum to make them look like they were made of real metal. That drum set couldn’t have lasted more than a week with my sister and I, about ages 4 and 3 at the time, whaling away on it.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  5. My mother made all of us kids take piano lessons when we were young. She was an excellent musician with an amazing ear. While I was practicing, she would verbally correct my mistakes shouting from the kitchen, “that’s a B-Flat!…the black key!!”. Eventually she would scoot me over on the piano bench and play the piece like it was supposed to sound. Great memories of a wonderful woman

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    1. My mom did the same thing when I took piano lessons, Mike. Didn’t matter if she had never heard the piece, she somehow knew when I missed a note. (And now, for better or worse, I find myself doing the same thing with my daughter…oh dear…)

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  6. Tupperware. I was a fierce Tupperware player. When I was a wee lass, my family used to have “family band” nights from time to time – I think, early on, to encourage my brother in his piano playing (and in playing with a group…did I mention my mother had a degree in music education and would sneak music lessons in when you weren’t expecting them?..). Dad would pluck things out on his acoustic guitar (he was better on piano, but gave up the keys to my brother), Mom would play flute, Big Brother got the piano, and that left me with percussion. I learned all about the relative noises of Tupperware based on size and shape (and ferocity of whacking it with a wooden spoon handle). By the time my brother started french horn, I was taking piano – so I could “move up” from Tupperware on the floor…I gotta say, though, that french horn, flute, guitar and piano…there’s a reason you don’t find much music written for that particular quartet combo (though maybe it would sound better if the pianist weren’t 7 and the horn player 11…).

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  7. The first one I remember LEARNING to play (instead of just making noise with it), is the recorder in elementary school. It was during our music class. Listening to an entire class on recorders couldn’t have been fun for our music teacher, but she never made it known. She was fantastic. If only I could remember her name…

    I believe it was from the recorder influence that I wanted to learn to play the clarinet. Then the saxophone, and then the oboe. I attempted the flute – because my mom plays – but I whistle when I play. I’ve also attempted string instruments, but alas, my hands dislike doing different things.

    The thing I hate most about living in an apartment is the fact that I feel bad about practicing. I don’t want to disturb my neighbors with my playing, but I need to practice too. Someday I’ll get a house…

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  8. I started out singing! My mom, my sister and I all loved singing. I recall singing and being read to in nursery school as my favorite activities. At the Catholic boarding school, I was a member of the church choir and loved singing in the wonderful acoustics of the church, even if I thought the Gregorian chants terribly boring at the time. In high school I joined the school choir, but I don’t recall us ever performing anywhere, but we practices a lot. The choir’s repertoire was old Danish folk tunes, many of which I love today, but which at the time were of little interest to me, especially after endless repetition. My sister and I were responsible for doing the evening dishes all through our teen-age years; when we weren’t fighting, we were singing. Loudly, and probably not particularly well, but a repertoire that was of our own choosing, i.e. all the popular tunes of the day , music that I wouldn’t listen to today. I guess that was the price my parents paid for having free dishwashing service.

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    1. PJ, I’m glad you jumped in with singing. I was going to mention my 5 years playing piano, a micro-brief stint studying viola and my taking up recorder at age 35 but singing has always been my first love.
      I sang in church choir from 3rd grade. One other girl and I were designated as altos because we were the only ones who could hold a part against the others. I’ve since sung alto, tenor and second soprano but alto is my fave because I love harmony and being in the middle of the action.

      This recalls a stupid huff I held on a drive back from Milwaukee to Minneapolis many years ago. Wasband and I had gone to visit some old friends of his. They had been in a folk/bluegrass band together years before. One of them asked if I played any instruments. Somehow he answered the question (I’m not sure why I didn’t answer) by saying that I played recorder. I was quite proud of my singing voice but was just a beginner at playing recorder.
      My huff was that he thought that only playing an instrument counted and didn’t value singing (or maybe he didn’t like my voice). The response he was SUPPOSED to give, in my mind, was “no, but she has a lovely singing voice”. Or, let me answer.

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      1. I’ve heard it said that singers aren’t truly musicians. Musicians are the ones playing the instruments. I feel your pain on that one, Lisa.

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        1. Well, I’m with Lisa, I consider the voice and instrument. I too sang alto in the high school choir, and for the same reason. At the time I thought it a judgment on the quality of my voice, but in retrospect I realize that it wasn’t.

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        2. Now that is just silly.

          I truly believe everyone can sing, but in this culture, we do seem to have a real gift for training people to think they can’t (same goes for the visual arts-every pre-schooler can draw, then all of a sudden, you are hard-pressed to find a child who thinks they can). Sad and wrong.

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        3. I feel the need to clarify. As a singer myself, I don’t agree with that opinion. I was as offended and annoyed as Lisa when I heard it. Hear are some of our favorite musicians:

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  9. Playing an instrument? “Playing” is not what I would call it when I touch an instrument. Torture is a more apt word. My memory is hazy on this, I think that I had piano lessons for a short time when I was young…and I’m pretty sure the lessons didn’t last too long. I would guess that I never made it out of the very first lesson book – probably never made it past the first few pages – and the teacher refused to teach me any longer. Fortunately, total ineptness in making music does not keep me from listening to and enjoying music by others.

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      2. My dad took piano lessons as a kid. Or I should say he had two or three piano lessons. Then he came home from his lessons with a piece of paper pinned to his shirt, a note from the teacher that just said: “ENOUGH!”

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  10. I’ve always been a singer. I think I came into the world singing (or hiccuping) – it’s just what I do. The first instrument I ever played, though, was my grandma’s ukulele. She knew enough on it to teach me a couple of songs, although I don’t remember them anymore. I still have her uke. It’s the one hanging on the wall.

    The next instrument was a catalog classical guitar which my mom bought for me when I was eight. She sent me to the only guitar teachers she could find in Owatonna – the nuns at the Catholic school. I took just a few classes from them and learned C-F-G and A-D-E (Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, etc.) and I taught myself from there.

    In high school I took some piano lessons but I can’t play piano without music anymore – and it would sound really bad if I tried to play.

    I picked up the mandolin when I was almost 40. I love playing mandolin when I play with a group. I wish I was a better mando player.

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  12. Piano. Started in third grade and played seriously through high school. Had a disastrous teacher in college and that, as they say, was that.

    Have one in my house, do not even open it. I should, it would stretch out the sewing cramped hands.

    I just need to get to the place where it doesn’t bother me so much to be so lame a player now.

    Blues name from Linda’s generator: Lame Apple Nixon.

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  13. I’ve attempted any number of instruments, most of them unsuccessfully. Like Edith, I played piano, four long years, as a child until my second teacher, the church organist, advised my mother that she could probably invest her money more wisely. Part of the trouble was that mom didn’t like to listen to me practice; she also didn’t care for the repertoire of Für Elise, the Blue Danube Waltz, the Radetzky March, and other such classical beginners’ fare. She wanted me to be able to play stuff she could sing along with.

    All of my friends played the recorder, and I longed to be able to join them, but no, I had to learn an instrument that you couldn’t carry around with you. As an adult I’ve attempted the balalaika; it only has three strings, how hard can it be? But, I’ve never mastered a stringed instrument, not even the autoharp which is collecting dust somewhere in this house. Hans recently added a ukulele to the mix of instruments we own, and neither of us can play. I think he was inspired by the Hawaiian shirts my friend, Helen, bought me from Goodwill when I was in the hospital last year, but even though he invested in one for himself, it has proven to not be enough of a motivator. Sigh! We should probably stick with the radio and the CD player.

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  15. Afternoon all. Piano for me, starting at age 5. Some recorder and guitar in high school (heck it was the early 70s… didn’t EVERYBODY try the recorder back then!)

    When Child was in 4th or 5th grade, she really wanted to play the violin. We rented the violin from school and I swear, torturing cats has to sound better. Everybody said “in a couple of weeks it will get better.” Everybody was wrong. And, of course, the fact that she couldn’t play something that sounded like a song right away was a big probem for Child. After a couple of weeks, I couldn’t get her to practice at all. She had a practice log and on the fourth week, I made her tell the truth on the log – all zeros – before she took it to school. That day when she came home, I asked what the music teacher had said about her log, the look on her face told me something was up. I looked at the book and at some point after it left the house that morning, Child had erased all the zeros and written in actual times. I made an appointment w/ the music teacher for the next day and I made her tell him what she had done. He was quite gracious about the whole thing and spoke directly to Child about how she was feeling about the violin. They decided to give it another week and when Child still didn’t want to practice, we called it a day.

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  16. Here’s a video I saw a few days ago on Facebook. A 6 year old boy with autism playing and singing Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” with a lot of enthusiasm:

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  18. I just remembered that in grade school, music class included playing a plastic, recorder-like instrument. I think they were called Tonettes. Does anybody else remember those?

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    4. Edith, I read that first line as in ” grad school,” and I was thinking “where the hell did she go to grad school?” Had to laugh when I realized my mistake.

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        2. Anna – I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I didn’t have a toni home perm – and the fact that I couldn’t play the Tonette worth a darn – was why I flunked out.

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    6. We had ’em – in my school they were flutaphones. Perfectly awful sounding things, but anyone could get notes out of them. Anyone.

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  19. In Fargo with family. we went to several music stores here in Fargo/moorhead looking for a particular guitar book that husband was insistent that Daughter in law should have, since she is starting guitar lessons. She is an accomplished pianist who wanted to start something new. My first instrument was the piano, then recorder in grade 4 (we called them tonettes), the clarinet, bass clarinet, and then the bass guitar. Daughter wants to keep singing and playing violin in college next year. Music stores are real money pits for our family.

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  20. I’m either Muddy Bones Rivers or Plump Banana Eisenhower

    I’m like my mom, in that I can play some by ear. So even before lessons, I could pick out a tune on our old upright or the toy xylophone, and it helped with the Tonette in 3rd grade (recorder later on), and the guitar in high school & beyond. I tried out the cello in jr. high, too, but left it behind – the guitar is so much more portable!

    But the instruments I actually USE are my voice and my feet – I feel kind of like feet the way Lisa et al. do about the voice. I sometimes wish my folks had noticed that what I really loved doing was dancing. Ah well, I found it eventually, in my own way. So happy to have singing and dancing in my life. Earlier today got to be at a Ukrainian dance workshop – heaven!

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    1. BiR, perhaps you were lucky that your parents didn’t notice. My mother sent my sister and me to dance class every winter for as far back as I can remember and until I was 16 years old. Learned dances, everything from Rheinlander Polkas to Tango and Cha Chas, from old Danish folk dances to the Fox Trot and Quickstep, but somehow it also made me feel less secure in improvising. I’ve never thought of my feet as instruments, but you’re right, I don’t see why not. Especially if you see step and tap dancers. One of my neighbors used to dance with the Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, just loved to see them perform.

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      2. Love clogging! You’re right, PJ, it was actually just as well that I found dancing on my own without learning a “prescribed” kind of dance at a tender age.

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  21. Evening–

    I got a toy drumset when I was a kid; I think it came from a neighbor. One cymbal stuck on a stick that was wedged into a box or something and the snare drum was set on a 5 gallon redwing crock. Somewhere I have a picture of it. Don’t remember playing it very long. Then, yes, had the recorder in elementary school. Mine is probably downstairs in a box somewhere.
    I took private guitar lessons for a summer when I was maybe 10? Got a jews harp once but it was hard to really get much sound out of it. Got a harmonica for a birthday when I was in my teens. Started trumpet in the summer of 5th grade and that’s what I stuck with even post high school. Played with the Chatfield Brass Band for one summer.
    Then the banjo and ukelele and haven’t gotten far with either of those either. I’ve got a pretty good ear; I can fake out a song on trumpet or piano.

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  22. started out with my depression era dads comb with wax paper over it and a toilet paper rool with wax paper and a rubber band nearned spoon on the side of your mouth where you change the pitch by changing the shape of your mouth, always sang with the broadway musical albums that were laying around, my fair lady, oklahoma camelot ten the transistor radio in the back yard brought hermans hermits and the mamas and the papas to earworm status with the beatles and stones leading the way, elvis the motown sound and a box of 45’s playing guitars made of broomsticks in scotty bowmans basement and then i talked my parents into guitar lessons, my little brother had been bugging them for years and i said id like to also. i went to catolic school so music was the nun teaching frer jaque 20 minutes a day for a month then as soon as we learned it we would start on some other song that took a month to get the hang of. we sang hymns for the church stuff but no music from
    my brother was serious as hell about guitar and was playing the house of the rising sun a month into his challange. i was playing pop tunes like i fought the law and blowing in the wind c f and g chords then g d and a it was all about an accompanying role for my singing. i have never been good at guitar. i have gotten enough down to play living room concerts for my self. i always wanted to play sax but man all those keys doing different stuff is duanting. i have a house full of instruments for my kids to have access to but none really took to it, piano, guitars and bass guitars are always at the ready there are sax, trombone tuumpet and clarinets are sitting around if anyone want to pick them up have harp hammer dulcomer percussion stuff waiting for the youtube teachers to show my family how to whenever they care enough to try.
    bobby mcferrin was at a music festival in india and the other musicians were standing around and one asked him what instrament he played and he responded my voice. they all bowed and said that the voice is the truest instrament and the closest to god. i always like thinking that when i am singing, it is a gift and a remarkable thing to be able to pull it out whenever you want to.

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  23. Yo. Contrarian Tomato Harrison here. I started playing cornet in grade school band and continued in school bands until high school. Sometime in junior high, the band director persuaded me to switch to french horn and I played that for a year or so before switching to a baritone horn. In high school, one could not be in the band unless one also marched, in formation at football games and at various civic parades. I hated marching and so I quit band. Since the baritone I played belonged to the school, that also ended my horn playing at that time. I might have gone back to the cornet, but my ambature was pretty much ruined for that and, anyway, I didn’t have a context for playing anymore.
    I took piano lessons for about a month. I don’t remember why, but they just didn’t stick. I took guitar lessons and worked on it a while, but drifted away from that as well. I wish I hadn’t.
    I played the jug in a jug band for about two hours. We performed on an open stage at the Scholar Coffeehouse, but none of us were really serious about taking it any further.
    A few years ago I got a hankering to take up the baritone horn again, after over forty years away from it. I found a good old horn on eBay and bought one for myself. The horn felt good and natural even after all those years and I worked on recovering my facility for a while. There doesn’t seem to be much music available for the baritone horn that is fun to play all by yourself, so I worked with music written for trumpet and sometimes piano. I haven’t kept it up, unfortunately, and when I go back to it, as I expect I will, I’ll have to recover my facility all over again. I have heard that community bands are often in need of large horn players that own their own instrument and thus are less critical of their skill, so I may someday try that route. Unless there’s marching involved…

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    2. Edinburgh, Scotland has an orchestra called The Really Terrible Orchestra. Alexander McCall Smith, the author, helped start it. It was started to have a place for people to play instruments just for the fun of it. That’s the sort of thing you need.

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    3. Community bands ALWAYS need baritone players. I know this from being in many community bands 🙂 Have fun!

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  24. on my instrament id tags i always have fun with the owners name. scatman jones and rockin johnnie, bluesman mofo, so sufferin nectarine taft or jailhouse baby jefferson work good for me

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    1. The. Best. It is fun to watch him “play” the microphone with his fingers as he sings.
      I saw him here a few years ago and the part where people came up to dance and he accompanied was great. BiR, you could have shown him a thing or two.

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    2. A Bobby McFerrin performance is a tour de force of talent, exuberance and creative genius. I’ve been fortunate enough to see him twice, and was blown away both times by his energy and ability to get the audience involved. He’s a national treasure. This is a clip from the first time I saw him, at the Fitzgerald Theater. So much fun.

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  27. Just used the blues name generator-Skinny Liver McGee is mine. Husband wants to be Gout Toe Slim-he really does have the bluies. He is a Wisconsin native who had to give up all beer because of gout.

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