In fact, Little Walter was about the best harmonica that was in Chicago-for the blues, at that time." So I took him down and introduced him to Muddy, and I told him he was a good harmonica player. A resident of the Maxwell district, guitarist Jimmy Rogers recalled his early association with the young harmonica great in Blues Guitar: "I met Little Walter. The reverse side featured Walter playing behind Brown on his original composition "Ora Nelle Blues."ĭuring this time, Little Walter's performances on Maxwell Street began to attract the attention of many musicians. Backed by Othum Brown on guitar, Walter cut the number "I Just Keep Loving Her," a blues boogie emulative of Williamson. Little Walter's burgeoning talent led to his recording debut for Ora Nelle-a small, obscure label located in Bernard and Red Abrams's Maxwell Street record shop -in 1947. Me and him be playing together, we'd go out to make some money and he wouldn't want to play the harmonica. Arkansas-born guitarist Moody Jones recalled in Chicago Blues how Walter displayed a deep interest in studying the instrument: " played harmonica y'know but he used to follow me to try to play the guitar. At this time he also took up playing guitar. On Maxwell Street he performed with guitarists Johnny Young, Othum Brown, and Big Bill Broonzy, who became his informally adopted guardian. Performing for tips and handouts, Walter's repertoire included waltzes, polkas, and blues numbers. In 1947 Little Walter arrived in Chicago and supported himself by playing on street corners and in the Jewish market district of Maxwell Street. After leaving home at age 13, the young musician played small night spots in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri. Taking up the harmonica at age eight, he learned to play blues by listening to the recordings of John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. Fusing the style of his mentor John Lee Williamson with the jump blues of saxophonist Louis Jordan, Walter varied the harmonica, to quote Paul Oliver in his work The Blackwell Guide to Blues Records, as a "capable but crude horn substitute." A country-bred musician with a modern sensibility for swing music, Walter created an amplified sound filled with dark, haunting tones and flowing melodic lines that became an integral element in the emergence of Chicago blues.īorn to Adams Jacobs and Beatrice Leveige on May 1, 1930, in Marksville, Louisiana, Marion Walter Jacobs was raised on a farm in Alexandria. His recordings as a solo artist and side musician with the bands of Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers are among the finest performances of Chicago blues-sessions that continue to be studied and idolized by musical artists around the world. The most commercially successful Chicago blues performer of the postwar era, harmonica stylist Little Walter Jacobs continues to attract a devoted legion of followers. Born Walter Marion Jacobs, May 1, 1930, in Marksville, LA died from a blood clot sustained in a street fight, Februson of Adams Jacobs and Beatrice Leveige.
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