T-Bone Walker
T-Bone Walker, born Aaron Thibeaux Walker, was a significant figure in the development of electric blues music. Growing up in Dallas, Texas, he was influenced by the vibrant musical environment fostered by his mother and her musician friends, including the blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson. Walker's career began in the late 1920s and saw him become a pioneering guitarist known for his innovative playing style that combined single-string phrases with a horn-like tone. He moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, where his talent blossomed, leading to hit recordings in the post-World War II era, including classics like "Call It Stormy Monday" and "T-Bone Shuffle."
Walker is credited with shaping the vocabulary of electric guitar in blues, elevating it beyond mere amplification to a dynamic expressive instrument. His flamboyant stage presence and vocal prowess further distinguished him in the rhythm-and-blues scene. Despite a decline in commercial success later in his career, he remained a revered figure in the music community until his passing in 1975. His influence continues to resonate, inspiring countless musicians across genres.
T-Bone Walker
- Born: May 28, 1910
- Birthplace: Linden, Texas
- Died: March 15, 1975
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist
Walker pioneered the use of the electric guitar as a lead instrument in a blues band, and he enjoyed a string of hits in the new rhythm-and-blues field.
The Life
Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker was the only child of Rance Walker and Movelia Walker Randall. His parents separated when Walker was two, and both his mother and stepfather, Marco Washington, were musicians. Raised in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Walker was exposed to a wide variety of African American popular music, particularly blues, from his singing, guitar-playing mother and her circle of friends, which included Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1929 Walker made a record under the name Oak Cliff T-Bone, and he worked medicine shows, as a dancer and a multi-instrumentalist. Playing a banjo, he developed an act in which he billed himself as the Cab Calloway of the South. During this time, he crossed paths with Charlie Christian, who brought the electric guitar to jazz. Around 1936, Walker moved to Los Angeles, where he performed as a dancer with bandleader Big Jim Wynn’s show. His often-overlooked talent as singer took him on the road with bandleader Les Hite in 1939. The following year saw him honing his new skills on the electric guitar as well as on his flamboyant stage show at the Little Harlem Club in Los Angeles. In 1942 his signature guitar style first appeared on “I Got a Break Baby.” The hits started coming after World War II on the Los Angeles-based Black & White Records, recordings that paired Walker with small combos featuring the best West Coast rhythm-and-blues session men. Although he later made fine recordings for the Imperial and Atlantic labels, Walker’s career never regained its post-World War II momentum. Still, he remained a beloved legend in the Los Angeles rhythm-and-blues community, and he was widely mourned following his death from pneumonia in 1975.
The Music
Just as his friend Christian did for the electric guitar in jazz, Walker invented the vocabulary for that instrument in blues. His single-string phrases, double-string slurs, and punchy chordal vamps were ingenious pairings of idiom with instrument. The tone of early electric guitars enabled Walker to emulate the staccato punch of a horn. The sustain associated with later electric guitars was absent in the 1940’s, which encouraged Walker to create clipped, conversationally syncopated single-string phrases. While the originality of his guitar style cannot be overemphasized, his talent as both singer and songwriter provided a successful framework for that style’s display. Walker epitomized an urbane extension of guitar-based blues into the more horn-driven sound of emergent rhythm and blues.
“Mean Old World.” Recorded for the fledgling Capitol label in July, 1942, this was a song Walker would revisit throughout his career. The relaxed tempo of the tune and the cool assurance of Walker’s minute-plus guitar solo as the record opens contrast with the high-pitched urgency of his vocals. The lyrics are striking for representing an existential philosophy of the blues. Walker’s strong vocals and stinging guitar lines are ably abetted by pianist Freddie Slack and by an effectively understated bass-and-drums rhythm section.
“Bobby Sox Baby.” This 1946 song, written by Dootsie Williams, was an influential hit that combined an after-hours blues groove with novelty lyrics about a teenage girl seeking autographs of popular singers such as Frank Sinatra. If the combination seems odd in retrospect, it was effective in its day. The widespread popularity of the recording brought Walker’s distinctive guitar approach to the attention of Lowell Fulson and others, who have cited this performance as the incentive to emulating Walker’s style.
“Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad).” This 1947 recording became one of the enduring standards of the blues genre. Walker wrote the song, which catalogs the character of the days of the week. Expert playing by an ensemble that includes trumpeter Teddy Buckner and pianist Lloyd Glenn neatly augments the original nature of the song’s lyrics. Walker brings a witty resignation to his vocal performance, and his guitar weaves tastefully punctuate the vocals. B. B. King points to this recording as a major influence on his later development as a blues singer and guitarist.
“T-Bone Shuffle.” Walker’s tendency toward slow blues is broken by this boogie-based showpiece in the dance rhythm tagged a shuffle. Soloing in the company of another expert small ensemble, Walker makes economic but effective statements on guitar in the midst of unusually celebratory lyrics. This became a signature song he reworked later in his career.
Musical Legacy
Although he was not the first bluesman to record with electric guitar, Walker may be been the first to realize its potential beyond mere amplification. The single-string soloing of such pioneering bluesmen as Lonnie Johnson gained new dimension and vocabulary in Walker’s hands, thanks to his intuitive understanding of the electric guitar’s expressiveness as a blues voice. He was also a fine singer and a flamboyant showman, and other artists emulated his performance style.
Bibliography
Cohn, Lawrence, ed. Nothing But the Blues: The Music and the Musicians. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993. This collection of essays and evocative photographs offers an overview of Walker’s career in the context of the evolution of urban blues.
Dance, Helen Oakley. Stormy Monday: The T-Bone Walker Story. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. An affectionate jazz and blues insider’s portrait of Walker’s life and career.
Shaw, Arnold. Honkers and Shouters: The Golden Years of Rhythm and Blues. New York: Collier Books, 1978. Shaw’s expansive overview of rhythm and blues includes a fascinating 1973 interview with Walker.
Welding, Pete, and Toby Byron, eds. Bluesland: Portraits of Twelve Major American Blues Masters. New York: Dutton, 1991. Includes a chapter on Walker’s music, his life, and his significance by Helen and Stanley Dance, his early champions and longtime friends.
Principal Recordings
albums:I Get So Weary, 1961; Great Blues Vocals and Guitar, 1963; The Legendary T-Bone Walker, 1967; Stormy Monday Blues, 1967; Blue Rocks, 1968; I Want a Little Girl, 1968; The Truth, 1968; Bosses of the Blues, Vol. 1, 1969; Feelin’ the Blues, 1969; Funky Town, 1969; Good Feelin’, 1969; Every Day I Have the Blues, 1970; Dirty Mistreater, 1973; Fly Walker Airlines, 1973; Well Done, 1973.
singles: “I Got a Break Baby,” 1942; “Mean Old World,” 1942; “Bobby Sox Baby,” 1946; “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad),” 1947; “T-Bone Shuffle,” 1947.