Little Walter

Little Walter ( Marion Walter Jacobs actually; born May 1, 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana, † February 15, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois ) was an American blues musician.

The influence of Little Walter on the harmonica in blues is comparable to that of BB King on guitar. Critics compare Little Walter did with Charlie Parker. This comparison is probably due also to the fact that Little Walter as one of the first his harmonica played through a microphone and a guitar amp, scoring a sound that was very similar to a saxophone. In her brief biography of Little Walter's Madison Deniro wrote: " He was the first musician ever who used electronic distortion on purpose. "

Inspired by blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson I and Big Walter Horton, he created the Chicago blues a new style, were the solos of original chord progressions and a very " electric " sound had.

Life

Mid- forties had come to Chicago Little Walter of Louisiana on Helena, Memphis and St. Louis. In Helena, he had been in contact with the guitarist Houston Stackhouse and Robert Lockwood Jr.. Once in Chicago, Walter held often at Maxwell Street Market, which was a meeting place of many blues musicians from the south. There he also met Jimmy Rogers, who spent much time with Muddy Waters.

Muddy Waters recognized the skill of the great musician and took the young Walter to join his band. So they played in the occupation of Muddy Waters (guitar, voc. ), Jimmy Rogers ( git ), Little Walter ( hca. ), Ernest "Big" Crawford (bs) and "Baby Face" Leroy Foster ( dr ), later replaced by Elgin Evans. Recordings were made in May 1949 for the short-lived label Tempo Tone.

The first records appeared in 1950 on the same label of the brothers Leonard and Phil Chess. Chess should be in the following years the dominant record company of the blues. A large share of this market position is attributed to the success of Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

Rather a coincidence, it is thanks to them that Little Walter was recorded as a soloist of the Chess brothers. The instrumental Juke, which was acquired on May 12, 1952, should serve as a recognition piece for the band of Muddy Waters. It became a big commercial hit and to get started with a solo career for Little Walter. He became the first blues musician from Chicago who appeared at the Apollo Theater in New York by the success of the recording. Juke was also the first harmonica instrumental number that made ​​it into the Billboard R & B charts. There, the recording stopped for 20 weeks, including eight at No. 1

By 1957, Little Walter still appears in the cast lists for the recordings of Muddy Waters Band. Then he was replaced by the young Junior Wells, who with Buddy Guy was to form a successful musical duo years later.

Little Walter took over in return for the band by Junior Wells, the Aces, which he renamed the " Jukes " in the cast Louis Myers ( git ), Dave Myers ( Bs ) and Fred Below ( dr ). With the band Little Walter had a string of hits such as Mean old world, off the wall and Blues with a feeling.

But the musical success had not only positive sides for Little Walter - he was quarrelsome, arrogant and tried to take advantage of others. Little Walter separated from the Myers. Your place was taken by the guitarist Robert Lockwood Jr., Walter had already met years earlier in Helena. The bass took Willie Dixon, a well-known Chicago blues. Walter Dixon knew already from the environment of Muddy Waters. Dixon had a number of hits written that were the foundation for the success of Muddy Waters. For Walter Dixon wrote the song My Babe, with whom he again won the first places in the charts. But for Little Walter it was the beginning of the end.

In 1959 Robert Lockwood Jr. the band. Perhaps because it became increasingly difficult for even the taciturn guitarist to cope with Walter. The general interest for Little Walter subsided rapidly, and he describes this period as very moody. Chess rarely took on him, he was at the beginning of the sixties commercially at the end.

In the years 1964 and 1967 Walter came under the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe. But the blues revival in Europe was no longer on its feet this expert on the blues harp. A few months after his second tour of Europe, he was caught in a brawl when he had gone to a concert break on the road in the South Side of Chicago. The relatively small injury that he incurred, together with previous injuries from violence, meant that he died in his sleep. He had settled in the apartment of his girlfriend in the 209 E. 54th street to bed. The official cause of death on the death certificate is "heart thrombosis " (a closure in the pericardium ); there were found no external injuries. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Evergreen Park, IL on February 22, 1968.

In 1980 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. His song My Babe is found in her (2008). In 2008 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year the film Cadillac Records, which also tells some of his story appeared. Columbus Short played in the film Little Walter.

Discography

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