Although Stax Records never cultivated a reputation as a hub for blues harmonica players, Little Sonny nevertheless settled comfortably into the Memphis operation during the opening years of the 1970s. He even appeared, if only fleetingly, in the label’s ambitious concert film Wattstax.
Born Aaron Willis, the musician grew up on his father’s Alabama farm before relocating to Detroit in 1953, the year his mother first called him Little Sonny. While he performed regularly around the Motor City with John Lee Hooker, Eddie Burns, Eddie Kirkland, Baby Boy Warren, and Washboard Willie—the last of whom gave him his first paid engagement—he also earned fifty cents a photograph by taking pictures of club patrons.
A 1955 visit from Sonny Boy Williamson supplied Willis with practical advice that proved immediately useful. In 1958 he cut his first blues sides, recording “I Gotta Find My Baby” for Duke and “Love Shock” for local producer Joe Von Battle, who promptly leased the latter track to Excello in Nashville.
Early in the following decade Little Sonny purchased a two-track recorder and launched his own modest Speedway label. He licensed the tracks “The Creeper” and “Latin Soul” to Detroit’s Revilot Records in 1966, sharing the roster with Darrell Banks and George Clinton’s Parliament. Those releases led directly to a contract with Stax’s Enterprise imprint in 1970 and the release of his debut album, the largely instrumental New King of Blues Harmonica—a title that announced rather grand ambitions for a newcomer.
Enterprise soon issued two further collections that placed greater emphasis on Little Sonny’s singing: Black & Blue and the 1973 set Hard Goin’ Up. The latter album featured the Bettye Crutcher composition “It’s Hard Goin’ Up (But Twice as Hard Coming Down)” and several other tracks colored by soul sensibilities. After a long period of relative quiet, the British Sequel label issued Sonny Side Up in 1995. Keyboardist Rudy Robinson and guitarist Aaron Willis, Jr., Little Sonny’s son, both returned for the sessions, having already appeared on Hard Goin’ Up more than two decades earlier.
