Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Little Willie Littlefield

 
Artist: Little Willie Littlefield
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Pop Artists

Similar Artists:

Roy Hawkins, Wilbert Harrison, Amos Milburn, Floyd Dixon, Billy Wright, The Treniers, Tiny Kennedy, H-Bomb Ferguson, Linda Hopkins, Titus Turner, Sister Wynona Carr, Faye Adams, Bull Moose Jackson

Influenced By:

Charles Brown

Followers:

Rosco Gordon, Fats Domino

Performed Songs By:

Willie Littlefield
  • Born: September 16, 1931, Houston, TX
  • Active: '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s
  • Genres: Blues
  • Instrument: Piano, Vocals
  • Representative Albums: "Kat on the Keys," "Going Back to Kay Cee," "It's Midnight"
  • Representative Songs: "Little Willie's Boogie," "K.C. Lovin'," "It's Midnight (No Place to Go"

Biography

Before he was 21 years old, Texas-born pianist Little Willie Littlefield had etched an all-time classic into the blues lexicon. Only trouble was, his original 1952 waxing of "Kansas City" (here titled "K.C. Loving") didn't sell sufficiently to show up on the charts (thus leaving the door open for Wilbert Harrison to invade the airwaves with the ubiquitous Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller composition seven years later).

Influenced by Albert Ammons, Charles Brown, and Amos Milburn, Little Willie was already a veteran of the R&B recording wars by the time he waxed "K.C. Loving," having made his debut 78 in 1948 for Houston-based Eddie's Records while still in his teens. After a few sides for Eddie's and Freedom, he moved over to the Bihari brothers' Los Angeles-headquartered Modern logo in 1949. There he immediately hit paydirt with two major R&B hits, "It's Midnight" and "Farewell" (he added another chart entry, "I've Been Lost," in 1951).

Littlefield proved a sensation upon moving to L.A. during his Modern tenure, playing at area clubs and touring with a band that included saxist Maxwell Davis. At Littlefield's first L.A. session for King's Federal subsidiary in 1952, he cut "K.C. Loving" (with Davis on sax), but neither it nor several fine Federal follow-ups returned the boogie piano specialist to the charts.

Other than a few 1957-58 singles for Oakland's's Rhythm logo, little was heard from Little Willie Littlefield until the late '70s, when he began to mount a comeback at various festivals and on the European circuit. While overseas, he met a Dutch woman, married her, and settled in the Netherlands, where he remains active musically. ~ Bill Dahl, All Music Guide
Search unanswered questions...

Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics

Wikipedia: Little Willie Littlefield
Top
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
Little Willie Littlefield

Little Willie Littlefield in Germany, 2006
Background information
Born September 16, 1931 (1931-09-16) (age 78)
El Campo, Texas, United States
Genres R&B
Occupations Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments Vocalist, Piano
Years active 1949 - present
Labels Modern Records, King Records, Ace Records, EPM/Blues Collection
Website Official website

Little Willie Littlefield (born September 16, 1931, El Campo, Texas[1]) is an American R&B pianist and singer.

Contents

Career

By 1947, at the age of sixteen, Littlefield was already a local attraction on many of Houston's Dowling Street Clubs and was recording for local record shop proprietor Eddie Henry who ran his own label "Eddies".[2]

Influenced by Albert Ammons, Charles Brown, and Amos Milburn[1] his first recording, "Little Willie’s Boogie" was a hit in Texas in 1949, and brought him to the attention of Jules Bihari, one of the Bihari brothers of Modern Records in Los Angeles, California. There, he recorded "It's Midnight", which became a national hit reaching #3 on the Billboard R&B chart. He became a major nightclub attraction and recorded with West Coast musicians such as Maxwell Davis.

Don Wilkerson, Littlefield's old school buddy and the leading saxman in his band, also travelled to Los Angeles, but Milburn promptly stole him to lead his own new band 'The Aladdin Chickenshackers'.[2]

Modern Records booked Littlefield for three recording sessions during October 1949, followed by more sessions in the following two months at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. During these three months alone, over 22 sides were cut - an unusual output when compared to most other artists who averaged only two sessions a year. Other musicians for these sessions included Maxwell Davis and Buddy Floyd, guitarists Chuck Norris and Johnny Moore, and drummers Al Wichard and Jessie Price.[2]

In 1952 he moved to the Federal subsidiary of King Records, his first session producing "K. C. Lovin´" (written by Leiber and Stoller and later re-recorded by Wilbert Harrison as "Kansas City"). By 1957 Littlefield had moved to Northern California and continued to record for Don Barksdale's Rhythm label in San Francisco where he produced his last hit "Ruby, Ruby".[2]

Littlefield’s recording and his subsequent releases were not successful, although he remained a popular club act in the San Francisco area.

In the late 1970s he toured Europe successfully, later settling in the Netherlands and releasing a number of albums for the Blues Connoisseur label. Littlefield built a considerable European reputation with his vigorous boogie-woogie piano playing and smoky singing.[3]

He continues to perform occasionally, mainly at festivals. In 2008 he played at the 20th Burnley Blues Festival and in July 2009 at the 5th annual UK Boogie Woogie Festival at Sturminster Newton in Dorset. He is set to play at Shakedown Blues in the Village Hall in Castor near Peterborough, on 29 January 2010.

Discography

  • Going Back to Kay Cee (Ace Records)
  • Paris Streetlights (EPM/Blues Collection)[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Allmusic biography - accessed December 2007
  2. ^ a b c d Jump with Little Willie Littlefield, Ace Records, CHD114, sleeve notes by Ray Topping, 1984
  3. ^ a b Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. p. 137. ISBN 1-85868-255-X. 

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:

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 Willie Littlefield".  Read more

Related answers
» More
 
Answer these
» More

Mentioned in

» More» More