Haskell Robert "Cool Papa" Sadler (April 16, 1935 – May 6, 1994) was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, United States, Sadler moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and worked in clubs in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

starting in the 1960s. He played a number of times at the

San Francisco Blues Festival The San Francisco Blues Festival was active from 1973 until 2008, and was located in San Francisco, California. It was one of the longest running blues festival in the United States. History Tom Mazzolini, the event's producer, founded the bl ...

. Sadler wrote "747" as recorded by

Joe Louis Walker Louis Joseph Walker Jr. (December 25, 1949 – April 30, 2025), known as Joe Louis Walker, was an American musician, best known as an electric blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. His knowledge of blues history is revealed by his u ...

, and "Yesterday" recorded by Tiny Powell. In the 1970s, he recorded as "Cool Papa" for TJ Records. Cool Papa proved to be a guiding hand to Gene "Birdlegg" Pittman, then a new arrival in the Bay Area, and Pittman played alongside Sadler for 13 years. He developed

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

, and had a leg amputated in 1990. He died, aged 59, in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

, in 1994.

References

External links

Cool Papa photos
1935 births 1994 deaths American blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists West Coast blues musicians 20th-century American singer-songwriters 20th-century American guitarists Singers from Denver Guitarists from Colorado 20th-century American male musicians American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Colorado {{US-singer-songwriter-stub

See also

References

External links