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I can't let today end without marking the passing of Walter Marion Jacobs, 42 years ago today. Little Walter, as he was professionally known, was the King of the Blues Harmonica, and was on top of his game in the 40s and 50s.
Every harp player, both blues and rock n roll, who has picked up the instrument since the late 40s and early 50s, owes his style of play to Little Walter. Called Little Walter, perhaps to distinguish him from Walter Horton, later known as Big Walter, he is generally acknowledged to be the first to cup harmonica and microphone in the hands to produce the fully amplified "Chicago sound." While it is possible someone else did it first, certainly Little Walter perfected the technique, and is responsible for the full saxophone like sound that characterizes modern day harp playing.
One of my favorite stories about the beginnings of amplified harp playing stems from the early 50s. Walter's Juke, an instrumental, had just become a hit and was being played on juke boxes around the country. The horn players from one of the Big Band groups were in a diner in NYC after a late night gig. They heard Juke on the juke box and couldn't figure out what type of instrument was being featured. After playing the song over and over, they agreed it had to be a horn of some type and probably a reed type horn, but they never even considered the lowly harmonica as capable of producing the range of sound and fullness of tone they were hearing. And these were professional horn players. If they didn't know what they were hearing, it is obvious that no one else did either. The sound just didn't exist prior to Walter.
Of course Walter had been using this fully amplified sound while playing with Muddy Waters on Chicago's South Side and on tour with Muddy, but it didn't yet have the widespread audience exposure that other well established instruments had.
In March, 2008, forty years after his death, Walter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He gave us so much in his short and troubled life that I think this is a fitting tribute to one of the true geniuses of the Blues Harmonica.
For other comments I wrote about Little Walter in the Blues thread, including a short bio, see this link toward the bottom of the page:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=30400&page=4
Every harp player, both blues and rock n roll, who has picked up the instrument since the late 40s and early 50s, owes his style of play to Little Walter. Called Little Walter, perhaps to distinguish him from Walter Horton, later known as Big Walter, he is generally acknowledged to be the first to cup harmonica and microphone in the hands to produce the fully amplified "Chicago sound." While it is possible someone else did it first, certainly Little Walter perfected the technique, and is responsible for the full saxophone like sound that characterizes modern day harp playing.
One of my favorite stories about the beginnings of amplified harp playing stems from the early 50s. Walter's Juke, an instrumental, had just become a hit and was being played on juke boxes around the country. The horn players from one of the Big Band groups were in a diner in NYC after a late night gig. They heard Juke on the juke box and couldn't figure out what type of instrument was being featured. After playing the song over and over, they agreed it had to be a horn of some type and probably a reed type horn, but they never even considered the lowly harmonica as capable of producing the range of sound and fullness of tone they were hearing. And these were professional horn players. If they didn't know what they were hearing, it is obvious that no one else did either. The sound just didn't exist prior to Walter.
Of course Walter had been using this fully amplified sound while playing with Muddy Waters on Chicago's South Side and on tour with Muddy, but it didn't yet have the widespread audience exposure that other well established instruments had.
In March, 2008, forty years after his death, Walter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He gave us so much in his short and troubled life that I think this is a fitting tribute to one of the true geniuses of the Blues Harmonica.
For other comments I wrote about Little Walter in the Blues thread, including a short bio, see this link toward the bottom of the page:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=30400&page=4
