Category: Harmonica Blues

ARTIST	SONG	ALBUM
Little Walter	Lights Out	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	You're So Fine	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	That's It	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Too Late	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	My Kind Of Baby	The Complete Chess Masters
Muddy Waters	Who's Gonna Be Your Sweet Man	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	Blow Wind Blow	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	Turn The Lamp Down Low	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Little Walter	I Love You So (Oh Baby)	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Come Back Baby	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Rocker	The Complete Chess Masters
Muddy Waters	Oh Yeah	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	I'm A Natural Born Lover	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Jimmy Rogers	Chicago Bound	Complete Chess Recordings
Jimmy Rogers	Sloppy Drunk	Complete Chess Recordings
Jimmy Rogers	Chance To Love	Complete Chess Recordings
Jimmy Rogers	Going Away Baby	Complete Chess Recordings
Little Walter	Last Night	Complete Chess Recordings
Little Walter	My Babe	Complete Chess Recordings
Muddy Waters	I'm Ready	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	I Don't Know Why (1954)	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Little Walter	Blue Light	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	I Got To Find My Baby	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Big Leg Mama	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	You'd Better Watch Yourself	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Mellow Down Easy	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Thunderbird	The Complete Chess Masters
Muddy Waters	Loving Man	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	Forty Days & Forty Nights	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	My Eyes (Keep Me in Trouble)	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Little Walter	Roller Coaster	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	I Hate To See You Go	The Complete Chess Masters
Muddy Waters	Sugar Sweet	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Muddy Waters	Trouble No More	The Complete Aristocrat & Chess Singles As & Bs 1947-62
Bo Diddley	Diddley Daddy	Bo's Blues
Jimmy Rogers	You're the One	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Who	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Boom, Boom, Out Goes the Lights	The Complete Chess Masters
Little Walter	Flying Saucer	The Complete Chess Masters

Show Notes: 

In recent shows I’ve been taking a look back at major artists that have not be featured in-depth in past shows. On the heels of shows devoted to Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Boy Williamson II, we turn our attention to Little Walter. Today’s show is the first of three devoted to harmonica wizard Little Walter as we trace his career chronologically as lead artist and in a supporting role. Most of the notes come from Blues with a Feeling: The Little Walter Story by Tony Glover, Scott Dirks and Ward Gaines. Of Walter, they state: “Not only did he set the standard by which all who followed would be measured, he was responsible for creating much of the musical language that would be used by those who chose to take up the instrument in his wake. Almost a half-century after his greatest achievements, it’s difficult at times to gauge his influence: not because you can’t find it, but because it’s hard to find anything related to both blues and harmonica that isn’t influenced by him. It’s so pervasive that it simply seems like it was always there.” Walter packed plenty of recordings in a career that spanned from 1947 through 1967, ending when he passed at the age of 37 in 1968. Initial recordings were cut for the tiny Ora Nelle label before beginning a long stint with Chess starting in 1952. Along the way he recorded prolifically as a backing artists behind Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim, Leroy Foster, Johny Shines, Floyd Jones and Muddy Waters among others. Despite a decline in his fame and fortunes, beginning in the late 1950’s, he toured Europe twice, in 1964 and 1967.

Marion Walter Jacobs was born in Marksville, Louisiana on May 1st, 1930, some 140 miles north and west of New Orleans in east central Louisiana, in Avoyelles Parish, along the northern edge of an area known as “Cajun country.” Walter said he started blowing harmonica when he was eight years old, which would have him first picking up the instrument around 1938. He recalled that the “first harp player I heard was a white feller, Lonnie Glosson, who yodeled and played a lot of hillbilly stuff.” His parents sent him to New Orleans, to stay with distant relatives in the early 40s. “Walter probably played solo on the streets at first, playing instrumental pieces (he would later tell those who asked that he only took up singing in order to give himself a breather from his harp playing), imitating the sounds of the squeezebox-driven Zydeco and Cajun tunes around Marksville, in addition to mimicking other popular blues and country harmonica players. …Walter was also listening to jukeboxes and the radio, and assimilating riffs from popular artists like Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. …Walter’s wanderlust, because after a short time in New Orleans, he began rambling in earnest.”

Eventually, Walter worked his way north to Helena, Arkansas. Walter was exposed to more blues harp players than he’d heard before, both firsthand and through the jukeboxes in the local joints. He’d derived much of his early inspiration from the records of John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. But in Helena, Walter began hearing about another harp man who also called himself Sonny Boy Williamson. This “new” Sonny Boy hadn’t yet recorded but had developed substantial local fame. In Helena, Walter first encountered three guitar players who all would play roles in his musical life: Honeyboy Edwards, Jimmy Rogers and Robert Lockwood. Eventually Walter headed to St. Louis. Having extensively worked the route from New Orleans to St. Louis, the next logical stop for Walter was Chicago. He and Honeyboy had heard about Maxwell Street, Chicago’s bustling weekend outdoor market neighborhood. They made it Chicago in 1945 and was back in 1946 after another trip to Helena. He was again on Maxwell Street, playing gigs with Sunnyland Slim and reconnected with Jimmy Rogers.

Evidence that Walter made his presence known at The Purple Cat during Sonny Boy’s stay comes from a display ad that appeared in the Defender the following week, on July 27th, 1946, when he was hired to replace Sonny Boy as one of the attractions at the club. The boldface type at the top of the ad went to recent RCA recording artist “Memphis Jimmy,” and Johnny Temple, who had records out on Decca, but right in the middle it was listed: “The Wonder Harmonica King ‘Little Walter,'” his first known published billing. Walter told blues historian Paul Oliver that he spent his first three years in Chicago playing mainly on the street, and that he came under the wing of Bluebird recording artists and Chicago blues legends Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy. During this period Henry Townsend recalled Walter and his idol Sonny Boy competing for listeners on Maxwell Street: Jewtown was Sonny Boy’s hangout over on the West Side. We used to have music duels, Otha Brown and Little Walter, [guitar player] Eddie El and myself. We used to get together and do what they call “battle royals.” I would work with Sonny Boy and Otha would work with Little Walter. One of the businesses on the street was Maxwell Radio and Records at 823 Maxwell St., owned by Bernard Abrams. It was here that Little Walter made his first recordings. Guitarist Floyd Jones recalled of Abrams, “He had a record shop. And we’d go in there and I’d see him cuttin’ little dubs. He come down the street to see us playin’. He says, ‘Whyn’t y’all come on. I want to make a dub ofy’all.’ So we went in there and made a dub.’  It was on one of these one-shot “vanity” discs that Walter made his recording debut, probably playing second guitar with Floyd on a version of the song “Ora Nelle Blues,” which he would soon come back to recut—on harp this time backing singer/guitarist Othum Brown. Jones acknowledged that it was Brown who sang and played on Walter’s first issued record but proudly stipulated that “. . . me and Walter made the first one Little Walter had on wax.” These records were pressed under the “Ora-Nelle” label.

Jimmy Rogers, who was now playing with Muddy Waters, remembered the young harp man from Maxwell Street and mentioned him to Muddy. At the time Muddy said, “Bring him by.” So Rogers carried Walter over and the three started jamming together in Muddy’s living room. Waters was impressed; “Yeah, he’s real good,” he told Rogers. It wasn’t long before Walter was a playing regular with them at a place called the Chicken Shack . Recognizing Walter’s superior skills on harp, Rogers switched to guitar full time. Some nights, three guitars would be lacing together, probably with Muddy taking the bass lines, Jimmy playing chords, and Blue Smitty taking the leads. Around this time Sunnyland Slim landed a session with Tempo-Tone and brought Walter aboard for the date. Sunnyland also brought along Muddy and Floyd Jones on guitars, and another of their local running partners, “Babyface” Leroy Foster, on drums. This session produced the first-ever recordings of Muddy Waters and Little Walter together. Walter took the vocals on “Blue Baby.”

In mid-January 1950, shortly after the band’s return from Helena, Muddy accompanied the band (minus Rogers) into the studio for yet another company, the newly formed Parkway Records. Parkway session produced eight titles, with two singles apiece issued by The Baby Face Leroy Trio and The Little Walter Trio. Walter recorded three songs accompanied by his guitar and the rest of the band at the Parkway session. Due to thier club reputation and the recent Parkway recordings under his name that made it obvious that Walter had drawing power on his own, did not escape the attention of Leonard Chess, and he finally relented and okayed bringing Walter in on the next Muddy session.

Despite the success the band was demonstrating with Chicago blues audiences, Aristocrat didn’t see any reason to rock the boat by recording Muddy with his full group, preferring to stick with the winning sound that had produced his first hit. In late 1949, Muddy finally recorded for Aristocrat with a full group backing: still not quite his regular working line-up, but getting closer. Muddy’s band got another shot at recording, this time for Regal. Rogers was up front on vocals, backed by Walter on harp, either Johnnie Jones or Sunnyland on a distant piano, Crawford on bass, an unknown drummer, and possibly Muddy on guitar. The tune was Rogers’s “Ludella,” and though unissued at the time, it is the earliest known recording of Muddy’s core band from this era. On Wednesday, July 11, 1951 Leonard Chess finally allowed Walter to record with Muddy using the amplifier he’d been playing on club gigs for several years now.

1952 was a pivotal year for Little Walter and the sound of Chicago blues as a whole. If Williamson made people take the harp seriously, Walter moved it into position as the primary focus of the band. On May 12, 1952, five months after the groundbreaking first session featuring Muddy’s full band, Leonard Chess called another session at Universal Studios on Chicago’s near North Side. Chess had no doubt taken note of the fact that Walter was emerging as a star attraction in his own right. Guitarist Jimmy Rogers recalled the first tracks that Walter cut for Chess as being organized the same way his own were, at the end of a Muddy session. And of course it was Muddy s complete band in the studio backing Walter. And so it was that Little Walter’s breakthrough harmonica instrumental “Juke,” the song that would become the “national anthem of blues harmonica,” was recorded that day. Take 2—which was probably closest to the version they were playing on the bandstand, and therefore the best rehearsed—was chosen for release, and give the title: “Juke.”

Eventually Walter quit Middy’s band over money. Walter the n took over the band The Aces, the band that had been recently featuring teenage harp player Junior Wells, consisting of brothers Dave and Louis Myers on guitars, and Fred Below on drums. He then took them out on tour billed as “The Jukes” to capitalize on his still-popular hit. By October, “Juke” was number one in half of the Cashbox city-by-city charts, hitting the Top 10 in all but Los Angeles and NYC. The Shaw Agency soon signed Little Walter to a five-year booking contract. With “Juke” riding high on the charts, in October 1952 Walter was back at Universal Studios, for the first time leading his own band, soon to be known on record as The Jukes.

Eventually Walter quit Middy’s band over money. Walter the n took over the band The Aces, the band that had been recently featuring teenage harp player Junior Wells, consisting of brothers Dave and Louis Myers on guitars, and Fred Below on drums. He then took them out on tour billed as “The Jukes” to capitalize on his still-popular hit. By October, “Juke” was number one in half of the Cashbox city-by-city charts, hitting the Top 10 in all but Los Angeles and NYC. The Shaw Agency soon signed Little Walter to a five-year booking contract. With “Juke” riding high on the charts, in October 1952 Walter was back at Universal Studios, for the first time leading his own band, soon to be known on record as The Jukes.

They were back on the road again during this period and were part of a southern package tour that included Ray Charles. On Monday, May 4th, Walter was back in the studio, rejoining Muddy as a sideman on a session for the first time since “Juke” had been released. As was frequently the case with Muddy s sessions at the time, it was then Jimmy Rogers’s turn to step up to the vocal mike and Walter was featured on these sides. That same day, John Brim was back again to cut another couple of titles, backed by Muddy’s band. On Thursday, July 23rd, Walter was back at Universal for one of his most productive sessions yet. One tune became one of Walter’s standards: “Blues With A Feeling.” One tune became one of Walter’s standards: “Blues With A Feeling.” Five of the tracks eventually were released on singles, and most of the rest could well have.

On Thursday, September 24th, Walter was back in the studio with Muddy’s band, which now included Otis Spann on piano. (This was Spann’s first recording session with Muddy, although he’d been gigging with the group for a while.) With his addition, the classic Chicago blues combo was in place; two guitars, harmonica, piano, and drums. Both Muddy and Walter had singles in the Top 10 in January of 1954. Chess scheduled another Muddy session, with Walter on board as sideman, that would produce one of Muddy’s signature numbers. On a lucky Thursday the 7th, Muddy began by working on a Willie Dixon number, “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man.” Out on the road, the band began encountering a new phenomenon: local blues harp “gunslingers” were starting to show up at the gigs, looking for a chance to show the brash young star what they could do.

When Walter next entered the recording studio, he had a new guitar player on hand, Robert Lockwood. In a 1995 interview Lockwood saud: “In a 1995 interview Lockwood said: “I was like a father to Litde Walter . . . the Myers brothers stayed with him for a while, they were gigging all the time. Finally Louis quit. Walter come to me on his knees, “Please come help me!” Well, really, I don’t especially care about a harp, I don’t really like a harp that much. Walter’s the first harmonica player I ever had—the very first. I told Walter, “Okay man,” I said. “I’m gonna help you ’til you find somebody. That cost me two or three years.”  In the winter of 1954, Phil Chess told the trade papers that the newly released “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters was “… taking off, selling 4,000 copies a day,” while Walter’s “You’re So Fine” was top-ten in most of the major markets.

Back in Chicago, on Tuesday, April 13, 1954, Muddy Waters was in the studio to cut another Willie Dixon number, “Just Make Love To Me,” as his new single, with Walter again on board. At the end of the session, Walter backed Jimmy Rogers on a track, a remake of Sonny Boy Williamson’s 1941 “Sloppy Drunk.” Walter was riding high; he was running his own band, now with sidemen that he’d hired, rather than occasionally fronting someone else’s preexisting unit. But 24-yearold Walter was having problems dealing with his new responsibilities. Dave Myers mused years later, “Walter was reckless, when he was playing with Muddy, he never had to take care of business, all he had to do was sit back and play. When he made ‘Juke,’ naturally he wasn’t ready for what happened, he wasn’t ready to take responsibility or nothing. He didn’t know he had to become Little Walter, he wasn’t ready.” As the summer of 1954 began to cool down, Walter and company continued with their residency gig on Tuesdays at The 708 Club, with Muddy Waters again filling out the other weeknights and weekends. Walter was also regularly featured in major events and benefit concerts.

With Dave Myers gone from The Jukes, Robert Lockwood brought in his protege, 18-year-old Luther Tucker, to fill the musical void. On Tuesday, October 5th, Walter was recording again. At this date, he cut the tunes for a single that would be one of his longest-lasting favorites. First off, he took another shot at the slow blues number he’d tentatively run down in July, “Last Night.” Ten years later, Walter told an English journalist, “I made ‘Last Night’ after my best friend Henry Strong got killed … he was my best friend, so I made ‘Last Night’ as a tribute to him.” Next up was “Mellow Down Easy,” a Willie Dixon number. During the fall, Chess released Muddy’s “I’m Ready”; it soon entered the R&B charts. With two weeks left to go in the 1954 Cashbox Magazine Reader’s Poll to choose the year’s favorite musicians, the editors published the vote tally so far. In the Best R&B Record category, Muddy had two titles, followed by Walter’s “You’re So Fine”; in the best R&JB Male Artist listing, Muddy was leading by a couple thousand votes over Walter”—but both were ahead of Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, and Memphis Slim.

On Tuesday, January 25th, Walter was back in the recording studio. Following was another stab at the Dixon gospel takeoff, “My Babe,” which Walter had tried six months previously without much enthusiasm. He also cut the instrumental “ThunderBird.” A week later, Walter was back in the studios, for a Muddy Waters session. Three tunes by Dixon were recorded. After Muddy’s songs were recorded, Jimmy Rogers again stepped to the mike, to take his first stab at the number that would ultimately be his next hit, “You’re The One.” By mid-March, Walter’s “My Babe” arrived on the market, and it soon began a steady climb into the charts where it would hold sway for some time, eventually becoming his second #1 single. Early in April, Bo Diddley’s first single was released on Checker, and the new sound caught the ear of DJs and kids across the country, selling in both black and white markets. Walter was due to hit the road soon, so Chess called another session. Little Walter’s band backed Bo and cut the instrumental, “Roller Coaster”, “I Got To Go,” and “Hate To See You Go.” December 1955, Walter stepped back into the studio again, and made a noticeable attempt to appeal to a younger market with more pop-oriented material where he cut “Boom Boom Out Go the Lights.”

Walter returned to the studio with Muddy within the month, in January 1956. Muddy’s fierce vocals on the first, “40 Days & 40 Nights,” made for one of his most intense numbers in some time. The flip side, “All Aboard”, features the debut of James Cotton on harp on a Muddy recording. In July, Muddy was called back into the studio, with Walter on board, for a three song session that would feature one of Walter’s highwater marks as a sideman: “Just To Be With You”, “Don’t Go No Farther” and “Diamonds At Your Feet.” Saturday, December ist, Muddy was in the studios for a four-song session, one that has caused a degree of controversy among discographers; some credit James Cotton on harp, others split the date between Cotton and Little Walter. Most likely it’s Little Walter on all the Muddy tracks. The final track cut that day, “Got My Mojo Working,” became a signature tune for Muddy. He’d picked up the song while touring the south the previous month; singer Ann Cole was part of the package and Waters’ band backed up her set, which included this number. In January 1957, Checker released Walter’s “Too Late Brother”; it had some chart action. On Tuesday, March 5th, Walter was in studio for his first session in seven months, the longest gap between sessions yet since his first hit, “Juke.” Songs cut included “Nobody But You”, Shake Dancer” and “Everybody Needs Somebody.” Later that month, Walter did some moonlighting, recording over at Cobra Records where Willie Dixon was producing. He backed Otis Rush but Walter is mostly buried in the mix.

On Thursday, June 20th, Walter was back at Chess, for his first session in the new studio, which would ultimately result in three completed masters” “Temperature”, “Ah’w Baby” and “I’ve Had My Fun.” In January 1958 Walter returned to the studio for a two-song session: “The Toddle” and Confessing the Blues.” Although accounts vary widely, it was most likely during this winter that an incident took place that deeply affected Little Walter’s future: He was shot in the left le^ during some sort of altercation. Consciously or unconsciously, most people whe were around Walter at the time seem to divide his career into “pre-shooting” and “postshooting” eras, and it seems as if there are as many versions of the circumstances af there are narrators. His sister Lillian noted this was the beginning of a major change in Walter’s personality, “After he got shot in the leg, that’s when he really started getting depressed.”

If Walter was fading in record-sales popularity, he nevertheless remained a big attraction in the clubs. Chess Records, the wind was definitely shifting. Sales figures and chart trends made it obvious to the brothers that there was a larger market for the Rock & Roll records by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and vocal groups like The Moonglows, than for the straight blues acts on the label’s roster. Chess was also taking big steps in the marketplace by compiling some of their successful singles onto long-playing albums for the first time. Not long after came The Best ofLittle Walter, twelve tracks compiled from his hit singles to date, including of course “Juke” and “My Babe.” In August of 1958 Chess called a session which found both Muddy and Walter’s bands in the studio. Muddy laid down three new titles that day, while Walter completed two. Songs cut include “19 Years Old”, “Close to You”, “Walking Through the Park” while Walter cut  a fine version of “Key To The Highway.” Key To The Highway” was issued, climbing to #6 on the charts. It was to be Walter’s last Top-Ten hit.

Muddy was back in the studio in January with Walter on board for a recording date that was spent almost entirely working on songs based on the same slow groove. The session is notable for a couple of other reasons: for the first time, Muddy was recording with a Fender electric bass player (Andrew Stephenson); and for the first studio date in years, Walter was playing acoustic harp exclusively. Walter had a session resulting in “Crazy Mixed Up World.” The final tune recorded that day was a cover of pianist Big Maceo’s 1941 Bluebird release “Worried Life.” In an interview done several years later, Walter reiterated his feelings about the way he should be recorded. “All my best records, I made ’em with amplifiers. They started putting me on the [acoustic recording] mike, that just took my drive, take my drive from me when they take my mike.” But it wasn’t just Walter who was beginning to fall on harder times. All of the bigname Chess blues acts were having a more difficult time on the charts and on the road; the hits, and the big national tours, weren’t coming as frequently anymore. On a Tuesday, July 21st, Walter returned to the studio, with Otis Spann joining in on piano cutting “Everything Gonna Be Alright” and “Mean Old Frisco.” Barely a month after the previous session, on Wednesday, August 12th, 1959, Walter was back in the studio again cutting “One Of These Mornings” and “Blue and Lonesome.”

In September 1959, Checker released “Everything Gonna Be Alright,” which ironically marked the beginning of an era where almost nothing was going to be all right for Walter; as it turned out, although “Everything Gonna Be Alright” reached #25 on the charts, it would be his last hit single. In November, Jimmy Rogers was back at the Chess studio, recording with Walter and his band—augmented by Otis Spann on piano—working towards a new single. Two songs were recorded—”You Don’t Know” and “Can’t Keep From Worrying.” After Rogers finished, it was Walter’s turn. Walter must have convinced Chess to let him record his harp with his amplifier once again, cutting “Me and Piney Brown”, “Break It Up.”  Barely a month later, Walter was back in the studio; once more the session began with a blues standard, this time a remake of St. Louis Jimmy’s 1941 Bluebird recording “Going Down Slow” and “You’re Sweet.” April 23, i960, Walter made his first trip into the studio in the new decade, for a four-song Muddy Waters date for Chess. In December i960, Walter was in the Chess studio for his first session as a leader in over a year. For the final tune of the day, Walter pulled out one he’d heard while playing in the package shows. “I’m Just Your Fool” had been a Top 10 hit for Buddy and Ella Johnson on Mercury in 1954.

Walter’s decline in health—exacerbated by his increasing alcoholism—and his lackluster attitude towards his career was growing increasingly evident in the mid-‘6os. He often worked with whoever was available, and his playing was limited primarily to the Chicago area. The few concerts he played outside of Chicago for the growing blues revival audience met with only limited success. While Walter was only gigging sporadically in Chicago, like many American blues artists whose fortunes were sagging at home, he was beginning to draw more attention abroad. A group of enthusiasts in England led by Mike Leadbitter started a blues magazine, Blues Unlimited. With the market growing in England for pure, electrified Chicago Blues, Chess recordings were now being successfully reissued on the British Pye label. In the fall of 1963, Muddy Waters and Otis Spann traveled overseas as members of the second annual American Folk Blues Festival tour.

In January 1966, Chess released another Muddy Waters compilation LP. Titled Real Folk Blues, it was aimed at the folk devotee white audience; there were also albums under that heading issued by Howlin’ Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson #2 at the same time. The tracks were compiled from Muddy’s singles over the course of his career, and Walter was heard on three cuts. But there was no such LP in the pipeline for Walter. In February, Walter was back at Chess studios for his first session as a leader in three years. Backed by guitarist Lee Jackson and tenor saxman J. T. Brown, Walter took another stab at a hit single. “Back in the Alley” is an instrumental based, directly or indirectly, on jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell’s popular tune from 1963, “Chittlins Con Carne.”

Walter was apparently in an advanced state of alcoholism, with very little tolerance for alcohol, and his liver could no longer absorb booze the way it used to. Guitar Red said, “… in his last years he got to where he couldn’t blow, he could only blow about two songs, he’d have to quit …” Leonard Chess had been grooming his son Marshall to take over more responsibility at the company. He was soon producing sessions. He had a younger generation’s sensibilities, and perceived the Chess artists in new roles, reaching new markets. As an extension of Marshall’s plan, on Wednesday, January 4, 1967 a rather odd summit meeting took place at Chess Studios: Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter were booked for a joint session. According to Marshall, “. . . the series I put out, Super Blues, that was to get money for the artists and for the company … it was about expanding them to that generation, they were designed and marketed.

Meanwhile, things were percolating in England, where amateur musician Frank Weston was working for the Malcom Nixon agency, a London booking firm that handled folk, blues, and jazz artists. They sponsored concerts with American folk artists such as the Weavers, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and Jesse Fuller, and had arranged monthlong trips around the U.K. for piano men Memphis Slim and Champion Jack Dupree. Slim introduced him to Willie Dixon, who was considered “the man, the fixer,” as far as lining up stateside talent. The idea of bringing Walter over was discussed. “We just thought that Walter was a name somebody’d be interested in seeing,” Weston explained. Budgets were tight, and the agency could only afford to bring Walter over, so he’d be backed by whichever local groups were available. Walter’s scheduled month-long tour was well-publicized, with Blues Unlimited listing dates well in advance. The weekly beat-scene music paper Melody Maker ran a feature by critic Max Jones, quoting Paul Oliver’s impressions from his American sojourn. Oliver had written, “.. . although he has featured many rock-and-roll numbers, Little Walter is a superb blues player, very exciting and exhilarating.”

An April 1967 session found Muddy back in the studio with his then-current band. Some later discographers have attributed the harp on this session to Mojo Buford, but a number of harmonica aficionados have asserted that in fact it is Walter who is heard on the four-song session, albeit not anywhere near up to his usual form, even for the time. couple of months later, in June, Muddy returned to Chess for another session. Again, some discographers later credited the harp to others, but the aural evidence here is much stronger that it’s actually Walter on “Find Yourself Another Fool” and “Kinfolk’s Blues.”

With fall coming, it was time for the Seventh Annual American Folk Blues Festival tour in England and Europe. Once again, the German promoters Horst Lippman and Fritz Rau contracted Willie Dixon to book the musicians. Walter was scheduled to play behind Hound Dog Taylor with the band for a couple, then do a few of his own. The opening concert in Stockholm was broadcast on the radio. With the kinks beginning to be worked out, things sounded a bit better by the next show, in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday the 12th. For his feature numbers, Walter kicked off with “You So Fine,” giving it an expressive vocal. “Blues With A Feeling” fared a bit better, largely because the harp was loud enough to add some interest to the pedestrian backup. With a few shows now under their belts, “My Babe” was actually sort of driving, resulting in some prolonged applause. After the interval, the band backed Koko on three tunes. Walter jumps in prematurely and plays over Koko’s intro to her second number, “What Kind OfMan Is This,” but acquits himself well in the backing on it and her hit number, “Wang Dang Doodle.”

Walter told music journalist Val Wilmer: “There are some good musicians in the white race who can really play their instruments, but they don’t have the feeling . . . you’ve got to live it to know it. You can pretend but that really ain’t the soul of it. All of your music has to have soul, without it it’s just pluck, pluck, pluck. It’s the same in what they call jazz. When Louis Jordan was making records and Nat King Cole had his trio and Erskine Hawkins and Lionel Hampton had swinging bands, there was some soul. But the bands now don’t really have the feeling. Records today, only kids buy ’em. They look on the title of a record and name a dance after it!” Walter laughed wryly. On September 17th, Walter played his debut London gig at the Marquee Club to a capacity audience of some 400 people. Walter was lucky; the backup band arranged for him was familiar with his material and knew something about playing it. “Long” John Baldry was fronting The Hoochie Coochie Men and were familar with his material. From this point forward, the tour lurched on, with Walter playing dates in various venues, always with different—and usually barely competent—accompanists. On Friday the 25th, Walter appeared on British TV’s popular “beat” program, “Ready, Steady, Go,” in London.

Walter cut “Dead Presidents” on Tuesday, February 5th, 1963, along with three other tunes; this was Walter’s first Chess session in a little over two years. He didn’t have a regular working band at the time so Chess arranged for some studio musicians to back him. Buddy Guy was on guitar, Jack Meyers on bass, Al Duncan on drums, Billy “The Kid” Emerson on keyboards, and there were a couple of saxophone players on board as well. It was the last Little Walter session where the Chess brothers found anything usable to release . . . and the resulting single saw virtually no chart action. Walter’s days as a viable singles artist with the label he’d helped to build were over. The handwriting was on the wall: it was the beginning of the end. Walter’s decline in health—exacerbated by his increasing alcoholism—and his lackluster attitude towards his career was growing increasingly evident in the mid-‘6os. He often worked with whoever was available, and his playing was limited primarily to the Chicago area. The few concerts he played outside of Chicago.

A growing “folk-revival” scene at the University of Chicago led to several concerts being staged there featuring “rediscovered” musicians. The preference was usually for “acoustic” musicians; urban blues often was viewed as too modern and commercial to be true “folk” music. Nonetheless, these concerts helped introduce blues performers to a wider audience. On May 9, 1964, about 150 people attended a concert put on by Pete Welding and The University of Chicago Folk Society at Mandell Hall. Featured were blind street gospel singer Arvella Gray, Mississippi guitarist Avery Brady, mandolinist Johnny Young, and guitarist Robert Nighthawk, with Little Walter accompanying them latter two on their short acoustic sets. During the course of the next year or so, Pete Welding continued his recording, dropping in several times at Johnny Young’s place to tape him, often backed by Walter and pianist Jimmy Walker. Several cuts have turned up on various compilation reissues.

The European tour over, once again Walter returned to Chicago and his day-to-day scuffle, playing sporadic low-rent gigs in local taverns. On the night of February 14th, Lay received a call from Walter around 11:30 pm or so: Anyway, he told me to come across town there. I say why? He say he got into it with a fella, a fella hit him over the head. I said who? He said “My old lady’s brother.” Sam didn’t give this conversation another thought. A few hours later, in the early hours of Thursday, February 15th, there was another call to Sam’s house—not from Walter this time, but about him. Howlin’ Wolf’s wife Lillie Burnett was calling to tell Sam to wake up and turn on the radio, quickly, to station WOPA.: turned it on, I said ‘Yeah, that’s Walter, what about it?’ Lillie, on the phone, said “Walter’s dead!” I said, “That can’t be, I just talked to him a couple hours ago!” The song ends, the DJ says something like, “That was the very late Walter Jacobs” Word spread quickly as each person who heard the news passed it on. News of Walter’s death made the papers a week later. According to Buddy Guy, Walter died on the verge of making a comeback; Chess was considering giving Walter one more recording shot.