Little Walter

Blues musician

• Born: May 1, 1930
• Birthplace: Marksville, Louisiana
• Died: February 15, 1968
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois

A master of harmonica, Little Walter defined the instrument’s sound and changed its musical role in blues ensembles. He recorded extensively with Muddy Waters and had several hit records of his own.

Early Life

Marion Walter Jacobs was born in 1930 in Marksville, Louisiana. He was a child prodigy. When he was about eight years old, he became interested in harmonica when he heard John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson, the most popular harmonica player of the time. By the time he was eleven or twelve, Walter’s harmonica playing was good enough to allow him to make a living. He moved to Helena, Arkansas, where he hung out with the musicians who later became important in his career: harmonica players Williamson and Aleck “Rice” Miller and one of Walter’s future band mates, guitarist Jimmy Rogers.

With a guitarist friend David “Honeyboy” Edwards, Walter headed for Memphis, where he met another of his main influences, “Big Walter” Horton. Around 1944, Little Walter and Edwards moved to Chicago after hearing the reputation of Maxwell Street on the South Side, where numerous musicians were performing in a flea market. During this time, Walter learned to use an amplifier for his harmonica performances. His initial intention was to produce enough volume for gigs at crowded juke joints, but his experimentation with amplifier later resulted in harmonica sounds that no one ever had heard before. Also during this period, Walter was highly influenced by saxophone players of big band jazz and jump blues. His playing became fast, busy, and nonstop like that of his idol, Louis Jordan.

Life’s Work

In 1947, Little Walter made his first commercial recordings, “Ora Nell Blues” and “Just Keep Loving Her,” for Ora Nell Records, a small, independent label in Chicago. In the same year, he became acquainted with blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters through Rogers, who was playing regularly with Waters. Walter joined their ensemble, the Headhunters, which visited clubs for musical duels with bands playing there.

By the end of 1940’s, Waters had become an established artist with hit songs, but he had to use different ensembles in and outside the recording studio. While he regularly played with his band (Rogers, Walter, and drummer Leroy Foster), he recorded only with his own electric guitar accompanied by a standup bass, which was his producer Leonard Chess’s preference. In 1950, under the name Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy, Waters’s band released a single record, two versions of “Rollin’ and Tumblin’,” through Parkway Records. The record was a catalyst for Chess to bring Walter into Waters’s recording sessions. Waters’s “She Moves Me” (1951) captured how Walter was reinventing the blues harmonica style; he was no longer backing up the vocalist but collaborating by creating exquisite counter melodies.

In May, 1952, Little Walter had his first session as a leader and recorded the instrumental “Juke.” This record, released under the name Little Walter and the Night Cats (Waters, Rogers, and drummer Elgin Evans), topped the sales and jukebox categories of Billboard rhythm-and-blues charts and stayed in the top position for eight weeks. This success was beyond even what Waters experienced during his entire career. “Juke,” which captured Walter’s flawless amplified harmonica performance with a wide range of timbres and expressions, is a test piece for harmonica players to this day. This brisk, up-tempo tune shows how Walter’s musical direction differred from his band master Waters’s.

Walter soon left Waters’s band. Waters described the loss of his harmonica player as “like someone cutting off my oxygen.” Walter was interested in joining harmonica player Junior Wells’s band, the Aces, so he and Wells swapped positions; Walter became the harmonica player for the Aces and renamed the band the Jukes, while Wells played with Waters. However, Walter still played for Waters’s recording sessions.

Recognizing Walter’s appeal to young female audiences, Willie Dixon, a renowned house songwriter for Chess Records, offered Walter “My Babe” in 1954. Walter completed and released it in early 1955. Dixon’s idea to portray Walter as an ideal boyfriend through this song worked well. “My Babe” became Walter’s second number one hit and one of Dixon’s most famous compositions.

Besides “Juke” and “My Babe,” Little Walter produced thirteen other rhythm-and-blues hits from 1952 to 1959, including “Sad Hours,” “Mean Old World,” “Off the Wall,” “Blues with a Feeling,” “You’re So Fine,” “Last Night,” “Roller Coaster,” “Who,” “Key to the Highway” and “Everything Gonna Be Alright.”

Despite his “nice young man” public image, Walter had a wild side. He could not keep band members for long because of irresponsible management and his notorious temper. He even shot himself in the foot, an accident that left him disabled. Near the end of the 1950’s, he became an alcoholic. In the 1960’s, his lack of reliability limited his recording sessions. In 1968, he died from the aftereffects of a street fight. He was thirty-seven years old.

Significance

In addition to exploring the sounds of amplified harmonica, Little Walter pioneered the use of chromatic harmonica, with which he was superb at creating sensitive feelings, as heard in “Lights Out.” He occasionally switched from a diatonic harmonica to a chromatic harmonica in the same composition, such as in “Thunderbird.” His artistry set the standard for harmonica players of his and subsequent generations.

Bibliography

Barret, David. “Little Walter’s Rhythmic Playing.” Blues Revue: The Blues Authority 108 (October/November, 2007): 38-39. Discussion of Walter’s harmonica-playing techniques. With musical notations, his rhythmic skills are detailed in the comparison of his playing to what a drummer plays on the snare.

Glover, Tony, Scott Dirks, and Ward Gaines. Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story. New York: Routledge, 2002. A biography based on interviews with Walter’s family members, musicians he played with, and close associates. Detailed explanations of his harmonica techniques are valuable.

Little Walter and Louis Myers. “Living Blues Interview: Little Walter and Louis Myers.” Interview by Bill Lindemann. In The Voice of the Blues: Classic Interview from Living Blues Magazine, edited by Jim O’Neal and Amy van Singel. New York: Routledge, 2002. Little Walter’s sole existing interview appeared in the winter, 1967-1968, issue of Living Blues. With his band mate Myers, Walter talks about his techniques for making sounds with a microphone and a chromatic harmonica.

Townsley, Tom. “Little Walter: The Muddy Waters Years.” Blues Review 20 (December, 1995-January, 1996): 40-43. Summarizes Little Walter’s work with Waters.