Little Walter (real name Marion Walter Jacobs)

Instrument(s): Harmonica, Voice

Life span: Born May 1, 1930, Marksville, LA; Died Feb 15, 1968, Chicago, IL

Style synopsis: Little Walter defined the sound known as Chicago blues harp. He may not have been the first person to clasp a mic directly to the harp, and lay a little echo on, but very few of his followers have ever ventured beyond the territory that he mapped out, and most of them have only explored a small part of it. He was the first of many luminaries to hold the harp chair in Muddy Waters' band, as Waters created amplified blues. He left Waters in 1952 to begin a solo career that spawned many hits over the following fifteen years. Starting with the instrumental "Juke" and continuing with songs like "Last Night," "Blues With a Feeling," "Mean Old World," and "Quarter to Twelve," he was incredibly powerful, endlessly inventive, and rocked like hell. He was killed in a street fight in 1968.

Representative Recordings: Boss Blues Harmonica and Best Of, Vol. II collect most of his greatest solo work. (Note that Boss Blues Harmonica includes all of Best Of, Vol. I, so that album is redundant.) Most of his other Chess collections are outstanding, though many duplicate each other. For a taste of what he sounded like before amplification, try The Blues World of Little Walter on Delmark.

Contributor: Ken Ficara (ficara@acm.org)

Contributor's Comments: This is the man that inspired Otis Spann to say, "The harmonica is the mother of the band."

HTML-ized by: Ken Ficara (ficara@acm.org)