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Little Walter

 
Black Biography: Little Walter
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blues musician; singer

Personal Information

Born Walter Marion Jacobs on May 1, 1930, in Marksville, LA; died on February 15, 1968, in Chicago, IL.

Career

Played in nightclubs in Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri, 1940s; arrived in Chicago, c. 1947; recorded for Ora Nelle label, 1947; performed as street musician; joined Muddy Waters touring band, 1948; recorded with Waters on Chess label; instrumental "Juke" released under name Little Walter & The Jukes, 1952; launched solo career; recorded for Checker subsidiary of Chess label, mid-1950s; 14 rhythm and blues singles in Top Ten, 1952-58.

Life's Work

The sound of the amplified harmonica--blaring out sharp contrasts of chords and intricate melody lines, exploding into voice-like moans and grunts, and often matching the musical expressivity of more technically complex instruments--is integral to the music recognized all over the world as Chicago blues. The musician most responsible for the harmonica's importance was Little Walter, who played the instrument in the band of pioneering Chicago blues guitarist Muddy Waters and later began making appearances and recordings on his own. Little Walter forged an entirely original harmonica style that has influenced virtually all later players of the instrument in the blues tradition.

Little Walter was born Marion Walter Jacobs on May 1, 1930, in Marksville, Louisiana. He grew up in rural poverty on a farm in Alexandria. At age eight he acquired a harmonica and taught himself to play it by listening to blues harmonica recordings by John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. When he was 12 he ran away from home and eked out a living playing in bars in New Orleans. From there he followed the Great Migration route of southern blacks north to Chicago. He made months-long stops in Helena, Arkansas, in Memphis, and in St. Louis, growing musically along the way as the result of meetings with Williamson, Honeyboy Edwards, and others. By 1947 he was in Chicago.

Joined Muddy Waters Band

Landing in the musically rich Maxwell Street market area, Little Walter at first had to keep himself alive by playing on the streets. But he quickly became acquainted with local blues stars such as Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy. He especially impressed guitarist Jimmy Rogers, who performed with Little Walter and introduced him to Muddy Waters. Little Walter made his first recordings in 1947 for the tiny Ora Nelle label headquartered on Maxwell Street. The following year, he joined Waters's touring band. In the words of the All Music Guide, "the resulting stylistic tremors of that coupling are still being felt today." The combination of Little Walter's harmonica and Waters's electric guitar helped to transform the blues from a rural music to a sound that reflected the new conditions of urban black America.

Little Walter toured with Waters until 1952 and was featured on many Waters recordings of the period on the Chess label--recordings that are now considered blues classics. These included national rhythm and blues hits such as "Louisiana Blues" (1951) and "Honey Bee," one of the occasional records on which Little Walter played guitar. An impatient, magnificent talent in his early twenties, Little Walter began to think of bigger and better things. His chance came when Chess released on the "B" side of a 45 rpm single record an untitled harmonica instrumental that the Waters band had been using as theme music.

Both the recording and the group were given new names by Chess co-owner Leonard Chess--the record was entitled "Juke" and the group was temporarily rechristened Little Walter and His Jukes. On tour, the band heard the song playing on a Louisiana jukebox. According to guitarist Jimmy Rogers, they looked at the label inside the machine and discovered the Little Walter and His Jukes moniker. "We said, 'Who's them Jukes, man?'" Rogers told Blues Review. "Wasn't no Jukes."

Embarked on Solo Career

Little Walter immediately skipped out of an appointment to pick up new matching sets of clothes for the Waters band, and soon he had returned to Chicago alone and gone his own way. "Juke" eventually rose to number one on Billboard's rhythm and blues chart, becoming one of the biggest hits of all time in the pure Chicago blues genre. He continued to record with Waters, but now his own recordings, released under the names Little Walter and His Jukes or Little Walter and His Nightcats, often eclipsed the sales of Waters's singles.

Backed often by Louis and Dave Myers (or Robert "Junior" Lockwood) on guitars and Fred Below on drums, the same instrumental combination as that of the Waters band, Little Walter created, in the words of Chicago blues historian Mike Rowe, "a different type of blues.... the sound was much more jazz-based, and so big was the sound of Walter's amplified harp and so revolutionary his phrasing that it seemed at times as if he was blowing a sax." Often recording on the Chess subsidiary Checker and performing both vocals and instrumentals, Little Walter placed 14 hits in the rhythm and blues top ten between 1952 and 1958. In 1955 his recording of Willie Dixon's "My Babe," a reworking of the age-old spiritual "This Time," brought Little Walter his second number one.

After 1958 things began to go sour for Little Walter. A combination of factors was to blame. One was the musician's increasingly heavy drinking; when he joined the Waters band he had drunk nothing stronger than colas, but in the late 1950s he became moody and unpredictable. His temper, always sharp, worsened: "If he liked you, he liked you," fellow harmonica player Golden "Big" Wheeler told the Los Angeles Times. "But if he didn't like you, you had a problem." Beyond any personal factors, though, was the fact that blues music was losing popularity among younger African Americans even as white revivalists were beginning to discover it.

Influenced Rock Musicians

Some of those white revivalists were British, and Little Walter wielded a mighty influence over the rock music of the 1960s. He toured Great Britain with the Rolling Stones in 1964, and his musical phrasing echoed in the recordings of blues-oriented British groups such as Cream and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. When Chicago blues finally began to re-establish itself in the United States as a permanent part of American musical tradition rather than as a contender for the top of the charts, younger harmonica players began to study Little Walter's style closely. These musicians wove Little Walter's music into the very vocabulary of the blues.

It all came too late for Little Walter himself, however. Gunplay began to enter into the musician's increasingly frequent street brawls, and he carried a slug in his leg that he himself had accidentally put there during one drunken shootout. Some traced his deterioration to the mental scars he had endured during several years of virtual homelessness when he was barely more than a child. A 1967 recording with Waters and Bo Diddley found Little Walter a shadow of his former self musically. On February 15, 1968, a blood clot caused by a street fight ended his life.

Awards

Selected: Posthumous winner of Blues Unlimited magazine reader's poll as best blues harmonica player, 1973.

Works

Selected discography

  • The Best of Little Walter, Chess, 1963.
  • Blues Boss Harmonica, Chess, 1972.
  • Confessin' the Blues, Chess, 1974.
  • The Blues World of Little Walter, Delmark, 1986.
  • The Best of Little Walter, Vol. 2, Chess, 1990.
  • The Essential Little Walter, MCA/Chess, 1993.
  • His Best, MCA/Chess, 1997.

Further Reading

Books

  • Contemporary Musicians, volume 14, Gale, 1995.
  • Herzhaft, Gérard, Encyclopedia of the Blues, trans. Brigitte Debord, University of Arkansas Press, 1992.
  • Hitchcock, H. Wiley, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Macmillan, 1985.
  • Romanowski, Patricia, and Holly George-Warren, eds., The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll, Fireside, 1995.
  • Rowe, Mike, Chicago Blues: The City and the Music, Da Capo, 1975.
Periodicals
  • Blues Review, Fall 1994.
  • Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1993, p. Valley Life-3.
On-line
  • http://afgen.com/little_walter.html
  • http://allmusic.com
  • http://music.lycos.com
  • http://physics.lunet.edu/blues/Little_Walter.html

— James M. Manheim

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Artist: Walter Vinson
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Will Shade, Mississippi Sheiks, Memphis Jug Band, Bo Carter

Influenced By:

Jazz

Worked With:

Johnny Parth, Charlie McCoy, Lonnie Chatmon, Bo Chatmon

Formal Connection With:

Sam Chatmon
  • Born: February 02, 1901, Bolton, MS
  • Died: April 22, 1975, Chicago, IL
  • Active: '20s, '30s, '40s, '60s, '70s
  • Genres: Blues
  • Instrument: Vocals, Violin, Guitar Representative Album: "Complete Recorded Works (1928-1941)"

Biography

One half of the legendary Mississippi Sheiks, singer/guitarist Walter Vinson was also among the most noteworthy blues accompanists of his era. Born February 2, 1901 in Bolton, Mississippi, Vinson (also known variously as Vincson and Vincent) began performing as a child, and during his teen years was a fixture at area parties and picnics. Even from the outset, however, he rarely if ever appeared as a solo act, seemingly much more at home in duets and trios; towards that end, during the 1920s he worked with Charlie McCoy, Rubin Lacy and Son Spand before forging his most pivotal and long-lasting union, with Lonnie Chatmon, in 1928. In addition to teaming with Chatmon in the Mississippi Sheiks, Vinson also recorded with him in the Mississippi Hot Footers, and even worked with Chatmon's brothers Bo and Harry. Upon the Sheiks' 1933 dissolution, Vinson recorded with various players in areas ranging from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans to finally Chicago; while an active club performer during the early 1940s, by the middle of the decade he had begun a lengthy hiatus from music which continued through 1960, at which point he returned to both recording and festival appearances. Hardening of the arteries forced Vinson into retirement during the early '70s; he died in Chicago in 1975. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Wikipedia: Little Walter
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Little Walter

Background information
Birth name Marion Walter Jacobs
Born May 1, 1930(1930-05-01)
Origin Marksville, Louisiana
Died February 15, 1968 (aged 37)
Genres Blues, Rock and roll, Rhythm and blues
Instruments Vocals, Harmonica, Guitar
Years active 1945–1968
Labels Ora-Nelle, Checker
Website http://www.littlewalter.net
For the radio personality, see Little Walter DeVenne.

Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), was an American blues harmonica player whose revolutionary technique has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix[1] for its innovation and impact on succeeding generations. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica.[2] Little Walter's body of work earned him a spot in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008[3][4], making him the only artist ever to be inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Jacobs was born in Marksville, Louisiana and raised in Alexandria, Louisiana. After quitting school by the age of 12, Jacobs left rural Louisiana and travelled around working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena, Arkansas and St. Louis. He honed his musical skills with Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sunnyland Slim, and Honeyboy Edwards.

Arriving in Chicago in 1945, he occasionally found work as a guitarist but garnered more attention for his already highly developed harmonica work. According to fellow Chicago bluesman Floyd Jones, Little Walter's first recording was an unreleased demo recorded soon after he arrived in Chicago on which Walter played guitar backing Jones.[5] Jacobs grew frustrated with having his harmonica drowned out by electric guitarists, and adopted a simple, but previously little-used method: He cupped a small microphone in his hands along with his harmonica, and plugged the microphone into a public address or guitar amplifier. He could thus compete with any guitarist's volume. Unlike other contemporary blues harp players, such as Sonny Boy Williamson I and Snooky Pryor, who had been using this method only for added volume, Little Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations, using the amplification to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica, or any other instrument[1]. Madison Deniro wrote a small biographical piece on Little Walter stating that "He was the first musician of any kind to purposely use electronic distortion."[6]

Success

Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abram's tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the Maxwell Street market area in Chicago. These and several other early Little Walter recordings, like many blues harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to pioneering blues harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson). Little Walter joined Muddy Waters' band in 1948, and by 1950, he was playing on Muddy's recordings for Chess Records; for years after his departure from Muddy's band in 1952, Little Walter continued to be brought in to play on his recording sessions, and as a result his harmonica is featured on most of Muddy's classic recordings from the 1950s.[7] As a guitarist, Little Walter recorded three songs for the small Parkway label with Muddy Waters and Baby Face Leroy Foster (reissued on CD as "The Blues World of Little Walter" from Delmark Records in 1993), as well as on a session for Chess backing pianist Eddie Ware; his guitar work was also featured occasionally on early Chess sessions with Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers.

Jacobs' own career took off when he recorded as a bandleader for Chess' subsidiary label Checker Records on 12 May 1952; the first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session was a hit, spending eight weeks in the #1 position on the Billboard magazine R&B charts - the song was "Juke", and it is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to become a #1 hit on the R&B charts. (Three other harmonica instrumentals by Little Walter also reached the Billboard R&B top 10: "Off the Wall" reached #8, "Roller Coaster" achieved #6, and "Sad Hours" reached the #2 position while Juke was still on the charts.) "Juke" was the biggest hit to date for Chess and its affiliated labels, and one of the biggest national R&B hits of 1952, securing Walter's position on the Chess artist roster for the next decade. Little Walter scored fourteen top-ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two #1 hits (the second being "My Babe" in 1955), a feat never achieved by his former boss Waters, nor by his fellow Chess blues artists Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Following the pattern of "Juke", most of Little Walter's single releases in the 1950s featured a vocal on one side, and an instrumental on the other. Many of Walter's numbers were originals which he or Chess A&R man Willie Dixon wrote or adapted and updated from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and uptempo than the popular Chicago blues of the day, with a jazzier conception than other contemporary blues harmonica players.[1]

Jacobs frequently appeared on records as a harmonica sideman behind others in the Chess stable of artists, including Jimmy Rogers, John Brim, Rocky Fuller, Memphis Minnie, The Coronets, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, Bo Diddley, and Shel Silverstein, and on other record labels backing Otis Rush, Johnny Young, and Robert Nighthawk.

Jacobs suffered from alcoholism and had a notoriously short temper which led to a decline in his fame and fortunes beginning in the late 1950s although he did tour Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967. (The long-circulated story that he toured the United Kingdom with The Rolling Stones in 1964 has since been refuted by Keith Richards). The 1967 European tour, as part of the American Folk Blues Festival, resulted in the only film/video footage of Little Walter performing to be released. Footage of Little Walter backing Hound Dog Taylor and Koko Taylor on a television program in Copenhagen, Denmark on 11 October 1967 was released on DVD in 2004. Video of a recently discovered TV appearance in Germany during this tour, showing Little Walter performing his songs "My Babe", "Mean Old World", and others was released on DVD in Europe in January 2009, and is the only known footage of Little Walter singing; other TV appearances in the UK and the Netherlands have been documented, but no footage of these has been found.

Death

A few months after returning from his second European tour, he was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. The relatively minor injuries sustained in this altercation aggravated and compounded damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend at 209 E. 54th St. in Chicago early the following morning.[1][8] The official cause of death indicated on his death certificate was "Coronary thrombosis" (a blood clot in the heart); evidence of external injuries was so minimal that police reported that his death was of "unknown or natural causes"[8]; no external injuries were noted on the death certificate.[1] His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968.[8]

Legacy

His legacy has been enormous: he is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and blues rock harmonica players.[2] His influence can be heard in varying degrees in virtually every modern blues harp player who came along in his wake, from blues greats such as Junior Wells, James Cotton, George "Harmonica" Smith, Carey Bell, and Big Walter Horton, through modern-day masters Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, William Clarke, and Charlie Musselwhite, in addition to blues-rock crossover artists such as Paul Butterfield and John Popper of Blues Traveler.

Awards and recognition

  • 1986 - Blues Hall of Fame: "Juke" (Classics of Blues Recordings - Singles or Album Tracks category)[9]
  • 1991 - Blues Hall of Fame: Best of Little Walter (Classics of Blues Recordings - Albums category)[9]
  • 1995 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Juke" (500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll)[10]
  • 2003 - Rolling Stone: Best of Little Walter (#198 on list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time)[11]
  • 2008 - Grammy Awards: "Juke" (Grammy Hall of Fame Award)[12]
  • 2008 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Little Walter inducted (Sideman category)
  • 2008 - Blues Hall of Fame: "My Babe" (Classics of Blues Recordings - Singles or Album Tracks category)[9]

Discography

Charting singles

Little Walter released fifteen singles that made the charts during his career. These were issued on Checker, a Chess subsidiary; the chart information is the peak position the single reached on the Billboard R&B chart.

Year Title Chart #
1952 "Juke" 1
1952 "Sad Hours" 2
1953 "Mean Old World" 6
1953 "Tell Me Mama" 10
1953 "Off the Wall" 8
1953 "Blues with a Feeling" 2
1954 "You're So Fine" 2
1954 "Oh, Baby" 8
1954 "You Better Watch Yourself" 8
1954 "Last Night" 6
1955 "My Babe" 1*
1955 "Roller Coaster" 6
1956 "Who" 7
1958 "Key to the Highway" 6
1959 "Everything Gonna Be Alright 25

*Also reached #106 on the Billboard Pop chart.

Selected albums

As with most blues artists before the mid-sixties, Little Walter was a singles artist. The one album released during his lifetime, Best of Little Walter, included ten of his charting singles, plus two B-sides. After his death, various singles would be compiled on albums, often with significant overlap. Currently available albums, released by the most recent Chess successor, are as follows:

Year Title Label Comments
1993 The Blues World of Little Walter Delmark includes 5 pre-Checker songs w/Little Walter on unamplified harp, plus 3 on guitar; reissue of 1980s Delmark album
1998 His Best: Chess 50th Anniversary Collection Chess/Universal includes 12 of his charting singles, plus 8 non-charting songs; essentially supersedes 1958 Chess Best of Little Walter
2004 Confessing the Blues Universal Japan reissue of 1974 Chess album, plus 6 extra tracks
2004 Hate to See You Go Universal Japan reissue of 1969 Chess album, plus 2 extra tracks
2007 Best of Little Walter Universal Japan reissue of 1958 Chess album, plus 3 extra tracks
2009 The Complete Chess Masters: 1950-1967 Hip-O/Universal 126 songs on 5 CDs; all available Checker/Chess recordings, including many alternate takes

Little Walter also recorded a number of songs as a sideman. Muddy Waters' The Definitive Collection (2006) and Jimmy Rogers' His Best (2003) (both on Universal) feature a selection of songs with Little Walter as an accompanist.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Glover, Dirks, & Gaines. Blues With A Feeling - The Little Walter Story, Routledge Press, 2002
  2. ^ a b allmusic: Little Walter Biography
  3. ^ Material Girl becomes a Hall of Famer, MSNBC, December 13, 2007
  4. ^ Little Walter's official entry into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2008
  5. ^ O'Brien, J. "The Dark Road of Floyd Jones", Living Blues #58, 1983
  6. ^ Biography retrieved 14 September 2007
  7. ^ Complete Muddy Waters Discography
  8. ^ a b c Chicago Defender, February 21, 1968
  9. ^ a b c "Blues Hall of Fame - Inductees". Blues Foundation. 1986, 1991. http://www.blues.org/halloffame/inductees.php#ref=halloffame_inductees. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  10. ^ "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 1995. http://www.rockhall.com/exhibithighlights/500-songs/. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  11. ^ "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 2003. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6599398/198_little_walter. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 
  12. ^ "Grammy Hall of Fame Awards". The Recording Academy. 2008. http://grammy.com/Recording_Academy/Awards/Hall_Of_Fame. Retrieved 2009-09-27. 

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

Copyrights:

Black Biography. Contemporary Black Biography. Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Little Walter".  Read more

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