Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him comparisons to such seminal artists as

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

and

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

.Glover, Tony; Dirks, Scott; and Gaines, Ward (2002). ''Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story''. Routledge Press. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica.Dahl, Bil
Little Walter: Biography
Allmusic.com. He was inducted into

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

in 2008, the first and, to date, only artist to be inducted specifically as a harmonica player.

Biography

Early years

Jacobs' date of birth is usually given as May 1, 1930, in

Marksville, Louisiana Marksville is a small city in and the parish seat of Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,702 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, an increase of 165 over the 2000 tabulation of 5, ...

. He was born without a birth certificate and when he applied for a Social Security card in 1940, his birthdate was listed as May 1, 1923. Over the years he often gave different years, but May 1 was constant. In some other documents he filled out before reaching the age of majority he indicated birth years of 1925 and 1928, probably to appear to be of legal age to sign contracts for recordings and club work. After reaching the age of majority based on a birth year of 1930, he consistently gave his birth year as 1930. In the 1940 U.S. Census, his mother Beatrice reported his age at 14, making his birth year 1925. He was raised in

Rapides Parish, Louisiana Rapides Parish () (french: Paroisse des Rapides) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2010 census, the population was 131,613. The parish seat is Alexandria, which developed along the Red River of the South. ''Rapides ...

, where he learned to play the harmonica. He quit school and by the age of 12 had left rural Louisiana and travelled, working odd jobs and busking on the streets of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena and West Helena, Arkansas, and St. Louis. He honed his musical skills on harmonica and guitar, performing with older bluesmen including

Sonny Boy Williamson II Alex or Aleck Miller (originally Ford, possibly December 5, 1912 – May 24, 1965), known later in his career as Sonny Boy Williamson, was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He was an early and influential blues harp st ...

Sunnyland Slim Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906March 17, 1995), "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give t ...

Honeyboy Edwards Honey Boy may refer to: People * Honeyboy Edwards (1915–2011), American Delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi *George "Honey Boy" Evans George Evans (10 March 1870 – 5 March 1915) known as "Honey Boy" Evans was a Welsh-born songw ...

, and others. Arriving in Chicago in 1946, he occasionally found work as a guitarist but garnered more attention for his already highly developed harmonica playing. According to Chicago bluesman

Floyd Jones Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989) was an African-American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after World War II, and a number of h ...

, Little Walter's first recording was an unreleased demo recorded soon after he arrived in Chicago, on which Walter played guitar backing Jones. Jacobs, reportedly frustrated with having his harmonica drowned out by electric guitars, adopted a simple but previously little-used method: He cupped a small microphone in his hands along with his harmonica and plugged the microphone into a public address system or guitar amplifier. He could thus compete with any guitarist's volume. However, unlike other contemporary blues harp players, such as

Sonny Boy Williamson I John Lee Curtis "Sonny Boy" Williamson (March 30, 1914 – June 1, 1948) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter. He is often regarded as the pioneer of the blues harp as a solo instrument. He played on hundreds of rec ...

and

Snooky Pryor James Edward "Snooky" Pryor (September 15, 1919 or 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his ...

, who had also begun using the newly available amplifier technology around the same time solely for added volume, Little Walter purposely pushed his amplifiers beyond their intended technical limitations, using the amplification to explore and develop radical new timbres and sonic effects previously unheard from a harmonica or any other instrument. In a short biographical note on Little Walter, Madison Deniro wrote that he was "the first musician of any kind to purposely use icelectronic distortion."

Success

Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abrams' tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the

Maxwell Street Maxwell Street is an east-west street in Chicago, Illinois that intersects with Halsted Street just south of Roosevelt Road. It runs at 1330 South in the numbering system running from 500 West to 1126 West.Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee (1988). '' ...

district in Chicago. These and several other of his early recordings, like many blues harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to the pioneering blues harmonica player

(John Lee Williamson). Little Walter joined

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...

' band in 1948, and by 1950 he was playing acoustic (unamplified) harmonica on Waters's recordings for

Chess Records Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll ...

. The first appearance on record of Little Walter's amplified harmonica was on Waters' "Country Boy" (Chess 1952), recorded on July 11, 1951. For years after his departure from Waters' band in 1952, Chess continued to hire him to play on Waters' recording sessions, and as a result his harmonica is featured on most of Waters' classic recordings from the 1950s. As a guitarist, Little Walter recorded three songs for the small Parkway label with Waters and Baby Face Leroy Foster (reissued on CD by

Delmark Records Delmark Records is an American jazz and blues independent record label. It was founded in 1958 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when then owner, and founder, Bob Koester released a recordi ...

as ''The Blues World of Little Walter'' in 1993) and on a session for Chess backing pianist Eddie Ware. His guitar playing was also featured occasionally on early Chess sessions with Waters and

Jimmy Rogers Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924December 19, 1997) was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters's band in the early 1950s. He also had a solo career and recorded several popu ...

. In January 1952, talent scout

Ike Turner Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. (November 5, 1931 – December 12, 2007) was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1 ...

tried to get Jacobs to record for

Modern Records Modern Records (Modern Music Records before 1947) was an American record company and label formed in 1945 in Los Angeles by the Bihari brothers. Modern's artists included Etta James, Joe Houston, Little Richard, Ike & Tina Turner and John Lee ...

while in Helena, but Jacobs was on his way to Mississippi. They played together in Clarksdale. Jacobs had put his career as a bandleader on hold when he joined Waters' band, but he stepped out front again when he recorded as a bandleader for Chess' subsidiary label

Checker Records Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary of Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded ...

on May 12, 1952. The first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session became his first number one hit, spending eight weeks at the top of the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. The song was " Juke", and it is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to be a number-one hit on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. The original title of the track file was "Your Cat Will Play", but was renamed at Leonard Chess' suggestion. (Three other harmonica instrumentals by Little Walter also reached the Billboard R&B top 10: "Off the Wall" reached number eight, "Roller Coaster" reached number six, and "Sad Hours" reached number two while "Juke" was still on the charts.) "Juke" was the biggest hit to date for any artist on Chess and its affiliated labels and one of the biggest national R&B hits of 1952, securing Walter's position on the Chess artist roster for the next decade. Jacobs had fourteen top-ten hits on the ''Billboard'' R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two number-one hits (the second being "

My Babe "My Babe" is a Chicago blues song and a blues standard written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a number one R&B single ...

" in 1955), a level of commercial success never achieved by Waters or by his fellow Chess blues artists

Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time. Over a four-decade care ...

and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Following the pattern of "Juke", most of Little Walter's singles released in the 1950s featured a vocal performance on one side and a harmonica instrumental on the other. Many of Walter's vocal numbers were written by him or Chess A&R man

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

or adapted from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and up-tempo than the popular Chicago blues of the day, with a jazzier conception and rhythmically less rigid approach than that of other contemporary blues harmonica players. Jacobs left Waters' band in 1952 and recruited his own backing band, the Aces, a group that was already working steadily in Chicago backing

Junior Wells Junior Wells (born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., December 9, 1934January 15, 1998) was an American singer, harmonica player, and recording artist. He is best known for his signature song "Messin' with the Kid" and his 1965 album ''Hoodoo Man Blues'' ...

. The Aces—the brothers David and Louis Myers on guitars and

Fred Below Frederick Below, Jr. (September 6, 1926 – August 13, 1988) was an American blues drummer, best known for his work with Little Walter and Chess Records in the 1950s. According to Tony Russell, Below was a creator of much of the rhythmic stru ...

on drums—were credited as the Jukes on most of the Little Walter records on which they played. By 1955 the members of the Aces had each separately left Little Walter to pursue other opportunities and were initially replaced by the guitarists Robert "Junior" Lockwood and

Luther Tucker Luther Tucker (January 20, 1936 – June 18, 1993) was an American blues guitarist. While soft-spoken and shy, Tucker made his presence known through his unique and clearly recognizable guitar style. Tucker helped to define the music known as ...

and drummer Odie Payne. Among others who worked in Little Walter's recording and touring bands in the 1950s were the guitarists Jimmie Lee Robinson and Freddie Robinson, and drummer George Hunter. Little Walter also occasionally included saxophone players in his touring bands during this period, among them the young

Albert Ayler Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer. After early experience playing R&B and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. Howev ...

, and

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

on one early tour. By the late 1950s, Little Walter no longer employed a regular full-time band, instead hiring various players as needed from the large pool of blues musicians in Chicago. Jacobs often played the harmonica on records by others in the Chess stable of artists, including

John Brim John Charles Brim (April 10, 1922 – October 1, 2003) was an American Chicago blues guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He wrote and recorded the song "Ice Cream Man" which was later covered by the rock band Van Halen for their first album, and ...

, Rocky Fuller,

Memphis Minnie Lizzie Douglas (June 3, 1897 – August 6, 1973), better known as Memphis Minnie, was a blues guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter whose recording career lasted for over three decades. She recorded around 200 songs, some of the best known being "Wh ...

, the Coronets,

Johnny Shines John Ned Shines (April 26, 1915 – April 20, 1992) was an American blues singer and guitarist. Biography Shines was born in the community of Frayser, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was taught to play the guitar by his mother and spent most of h ...

, Floyd Jones,

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

, and

Shel Silverstein Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, poet, cartoonist, singer / songwriter, musician, and playwright. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended universit ...

. He also played on recordings for other labels, backing

Otis Rush Otis Rush Jr. (April 29, 1934 – September 29, 2018) was an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter. His distinctive guitar style featured a slow-burning sound and long bent notes. With qualities similar to the styles of other 1950s art ...

Johnny "Man" Young Johnny "Man" Young (January 1, 1917 – April 18, 1974) was an American blues singer, mandolin player and guitarist, significant as one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after the Second World ...

, and

Robert Nighthawk Robert Lee McCollum (November 30, 1909 – November 5, 1967) was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk. He was the father of the blues musician Sam Carr. Nighthawk was in ...

. Jacobs suffered from alcoholism and had a notoriously short temper, which in the late 1950s led to violent altercations, minor scrapes with the law, and increasingly irresponsible behavior. This led to a decline in his fame and fortunes, beginning in the late 1950s. Nonetheless he toured Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967 (the long-circulated story that he toured the United Kingdom with the

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

in 1964 has been refuted by

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

). The 1967 European tour, as part of the

American Folk Blues Festival The American Folk Blues Festival was a music festival that toured Europe as an annual event for several years beginning in 1962. It introduced audiences in Europe, including the UK, to leading blues performers of the day such as Muddy Waters, Howl ...

, resulted in the only known film footage of Little Walter performing. Footage of Little Walter backing

Hound Dog Taylor Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor (April 12, 1915 – December 17, 1975) was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer. Life and career Taylor was born in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1915, though some sources say 1917. He first played the piano and ...

and

Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for ...

was shown on a television program in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 11, 1967, and was released on DVD in 2004. Further video of another recently discovered television appearance in Germany during this same tour, showing Jacobs performing his songs "My Babe," "

Mean Old World "Mean Old World" is a blues song recorded by American blues electric guitar musician T-Bone Walker in 1942. It has been described (along with the single's B-side) as "the first important blues recordings on the electric guitar". Over the years ...

," and others, was released on DVD in Europe in January 2009; it is the only known footage of him singing. Other television appearances in the UK (in 1964) and the Netherlands (in 1967) have been documented, but no footage of these has yet been uncovered. Jacobs recorded and toured infrequently in the 1960s, playing mainly in and around Chicago. In 1967

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

released a studio album, '' Super Blues'', featuring Little Walter, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters.

Death

A few months after returning from his second European tour, Little Walter was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. He apparently sustained only minor injuries in this altercation, but they aggravated the damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend, at 209 East 54th Street in Chicago early the following morning. The official cause of death stated on his death certificate was coronary thrombosis (a blood clot in the heart); evidence of external injuries was so insignificant that the police reported that his death was due to "unknown or natural causes",''Chicago Defender'', February 21, 1968 and no external injuries were noted on the death certificate. His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, in

Evergreen Park, Illinois Evergreen Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. In 2020, the population was 19,943. History As early as 1828, a German farming family had settled in the area of what is now Evergreen Park. In the succeeding decades, other Ge ...

, on February 22, 1968. Little Walter's grave remained unmarked until 1991, when fans Scott Dirks and Eomot Rasun had a marker designed and installed.

Legacy

The music journalist Bill Dahl described Little Walter as "king of all post-war blues harpists", who "took the humble mouth organ in dazzling amplified directions that were unimaginable prior to his ascendancy." His legacy has been enormous: he is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre that combines elements of blues and rock music. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock (electric guitar, electric bass guitar, and drums, sometimes w ...

harmonica players. Biographer

Tony Glover David Curtis Glover (October 7, 1939 – May 29, 2019), better known as Tony "Little Sun" Glover, was an American blues musician and music critic. He was a harmonica player and singer associated with "Spider" John Koerner and Dave "Snake ...

notes Little Walter directly influenced

James Cotton James Henry Cotton (July 1, 1935 – March 16, 2017) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, who performed and recorded with many fellow blues artists and with his own band. He also played drums early in his career. ...

George "Harmonica" Smith George "Harmonica" Smith (born Allen George Smith, April 22, 1924 – October 2, 1983) was an American electric blues harmonica player. Apart from his solo recordings, Smith is best known for his work backing both Muddy Waters and Big Mama Thornt ...

, and

Carey Bell Carey Bell Harrington (November 14, 1936 – May 6, 2007) was an American blues musician who played harmonica in the Chicago blues style. Bell played harmonica and bass guitar for other blues musicians from the late 1950s to the early 1970s bef ...

. He includes

Jerry Portnoy Jerry Portnoy (born November 25, 1943 in Evanston, Illinois, United States) is an American harmonica blues musician, who has toured with Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton. Biography Portnoy grew up in Chicago. He first heard the blues played out ...

, Rick Estrin of

Little Charlie & the Nightcats Little Charlie & the Nightcats was an American electric blues and swing revival combo, active from 1976-2008. Several members reformed as Rick Estrin & The Nightcats. Biography Charles Baty (1953–2020) was studying mathematics at Un ...

Kim Wilson Kim Wilson (born January 6, 1951) is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for the Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s, " Tuff Enuff" (which was the group's only Top 40 ...

Rod Piazza Rod Piazza (born December 18, 1947, Riverside, California) is an American blues harmonica player and singer. He has been playing with his band The Mighty Flyers, which he formed with his pianist wife Honey Piazza, since 1980. Their boogie sound ...

, and William Clarke among those who later studied his technique and helped popularize it with younger players. Little Walter's daughter, Marion Diaz Reacco, has established the Little Walter Foundation in Chicago, to preserve the legacy and genius of Little Walter. The foundation aims to create programs for the creative arts, including music, animation and video.

Awards and recognition

* 1986 –

Blues Hall of Fame The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...

: "Juke" (Classics of Blues Recordings – Singles or Album Tracks) * 1991 – Blues Hall of Fame: ''Best of Little Walter'' (Classics of Blues Recordings – Albums) * 1995 –

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...

: "Juke" (500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll) * 2008 –

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

: "Juke" (Grammy Hall of Fame Award) * 2008 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Little Walter inducted (Sideman category) * 2008 – Blues Hall of Fame: "My Babe" (Classics of Blues Recordings — Singles or Album Tracks) * 2009 – Grammy Awards: ''The Complete Chess Masters: 1950–1967'' (Best Historical Album) * 2010 – ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'': ''Best of Little Walter'' (number 198 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time")

Discography

*'' The Best of Little Walter'' (1958) *''The Essential Little Walter'' (1993) *'' His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection'' (1997) *''The Complete Chess Masters (1950–1967)'' (2009)

References

External links

Little Walter Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Walter 1930 births 1968 deaths People from Marksville, Louisiana American blues harmonica players American blues singers American street performers Chicago blues musicians Louisiana blues musicians Songwriters from Louisiana Deaths from coronary thrombosis Checker Records artists Songwriters from Illinois Singers from Louisiana African-American male songwriters 20th-century African-American male singers