Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter (Horton) or Walter "Shakey" Horton (April 6, 1921 – December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming, shy man, he is remembered as one of the premier harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton "the best
harmonica player I ever heard." He was also known as "Boss of the Blues Harmonica" and Robert Palmer named him as "one of the three great harmonica soloists of modern blues", with the two others being cited as Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson II.
Horton was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi. Horton claimed
to be born in 1917, although some sources give the year as 1918 or 1921. His
mother soon moved to Memphis where Walter taught himself how to play the
harmonica at five years of age. He later learned more about his instrument by
working with harp players Will Shade and Hammie Nixon.
Like many of his peers, he lived on a meagre income
during much of his career and endured racial discrimination in the racially
segregated U.S. In the 1930s he played with numerous blues performers in the
Mississippi Delta region. It is generally accepted that he was first recorded
in Memphis, backing the guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on Doyle's recordings for
Okeh Records and Vocalion Records in 1939.These recordings were acoustic duets,
in a style popularized by Sleepy John Estes and his harmonicist Hammie Nixon,
among others. On these recordings, Horton's style was not yet fully realized,
but there are clear hints of what was to come.
Horton eventually stopped playing the harmonica for a
living, because of poor health, and worked mainly outside the music industry in
the 1940s, but by the end of the decade he had moved to Chicago and appeared on
the blues scene, frequently playing with Memphis and Delta musicians who had
also moved north, including the guitarists Eddie Taylor and Johnny Shines.
Johnny Shines recalls that Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice
Miller), used to come to Walter for lessons. He also says that he used the name
"Little Walter" before the Little Walter Jacobs did, but gave it up
to Jacobs. Jacobs acknowledges that he "ran" with Big Walter in
Memphis during the 1940s.
Horton later called himself "Big Walter" to
distinguish himself. When Junior Wells left the Muddy Waters band at the end of
1952, Horton replaced him long enough to play on one session, in January 1953.
John Lee Hooker and Big Walter Horton
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He was among the first to be recorded by Sam Phillips, at
Sun Records in Memphis, who later recorded Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and
Johnny Cash. For his recordings for Sun, Horton was accompanied by the young
pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr., who later was a well-known jazz pianist. Horton's
instrumental track "Easy", recorded around this time, was based on
Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind".
Also known as Mumbles and Shakey (because of his head
motion while playing the harmonica), Horton was active in the Chicago blues
scene during the 1960s, as blues music gained popularity with white audiences.
From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and frequently performed as a sideman
with Taylor, Shines, Johnny Young, Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon and many others.
He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk music festivals in the United States and Europe, frequently with Dixon's Chicago All-Stars. He also performed on recordings by blues and rock stars, such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter.
He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk music festivals in the United States and Europe, frequently with Dixon's Chicago All-Stars. He also performed on recordings by blues and rock stars, such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter.
In October 1968, while touring the U.K., he recorded the
album Southern Comfort with the guitarist Martin Stone (previously with the
band Savoy Brown and later a member of the band Mighty Baby). In the late 1970s
he toured the United States with Homesick James Williamson, Guido Sinclair,
Eddie Taylor, Richard Molina, Bradley Pierce Smith and Paul Nebenzahl, and he
performed on National Public Radio
broadcasts. Two of the best compilation
albums of his work are Mouth-Harp Maestro and Fine Cuts. Also notable is the
album Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell, released by Alligator Records in 1972.
Big Walter Horton & Little Pat Rushing
in Chicago
1978
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He worked at blues festivals and often performed at the
Maxwell Street market in Chicago. In 1977, he played on the Muddy Waters album
I'm Ready, produced by Johnny Winter. He also recorded for Blind Pig Records
during this period. Horton accompanied John Lee Hooker in the 1980 film The
Blues Brothers. His final recordings were made in 1980.
After returning from a European tour, Horton died of heart failure due to acute alcoholism in Chicago in 1981, at the age of 60 and was buried in Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
Walter at his last concert in Holland ‘81
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After returning from a European tour, Horton died of heart failure due to acute alcoholism in Chicago in 1981, at the age of 60 and was buried in Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
(Edited from Wikipedia & All Music Guide to The Blues)
7 comments:
For “The Blues Harmonica of Big Walter Horton
- In Session, 1951-1956” go here:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/F9zvELda
1. Mumbles - Now Tell Me Baby
2. Mumbles - Little Boy Blue
3. Mumbles - Black Gal
4. Mumbles - Jumpin' Blues
5. Willie Nix - Truckin' Little Woman
6. Walter Horton - Little Walter's Boogie
7. Walter Horton - West Winds Are Blowing
8. Johnny Shines - Evening Sun
9. Johnny Shines - Brutal Hearted Woman
10. Jimmy And Walter - Easy
11. Joe Hill Louis - Hydramatic Woman
12. Joe Hill Louis - Tiger Man
13. Tampa Red - Big Stars Falling Blues
14. Tampa Red - Rambler's Blues
15. Tampa Red - Evalena
16. Big Walter And His Combo - Hard-Hearted Woman
17. Big Walter And His Combo - Back Home to Mama
18. Shakey Horton - Have a Good Time
19. Shakey Horton - Need My Baby
20. Arbee Stidham - When I Find My Baby
21. Sunnyland Slim - It's You Baby
22. Sunnyland Slim - Highway 61
23. Otis Rush - I Can't Quit You Baby
24. Otis Rush - Sit Down Baby
25. Jimmy Rogers - If It Ain't Me (Who You Thinking Of)
26. Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself
27. Jimmy Rogers - I Can't Believe
28. Jimmy Rogers - One Kiss
A big thank you to Les @ Loadsamusics for original post
The latest volume in Jasmines 'In Session' series is devoted to one of the most influential but possibly least known blues harmonica players of all time, Big Walter Horton. All of Walter's own recordings are featured here, plus examples of the session work he undertook in Memphis and Chicago.
The five-year period from 1951 to 1956 that this collection covers features his work with such notable blues stars as Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Johnny Shines, Tampa Red and Sunnyland Slim. Willie was often quoted as saying that in his opinion 'Walter Horton is the best harmonica player I ever heard'. After listening to these 28 examples of his work you may well agree. (Jasmine notes)
WOW ...many thanks ... !!
Already got it, but I just want to comment that I've always agreed Big Walter was the best of them all.
I missed it the first time, please repost? Thanks
Hello Bobbo here's Big Walter...
https://www.imagenetz.de/iw2g5
Thank You!
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