Re: Little Walter biography reviewed by Glenn Weiser for Metroland magazine

[tom ball <havaball@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Glenn,

While I hate to nitpick, it should be mentioned that Little Walter 
did in fact record on guitar.  That's him on guitar on "Bad Acting 
Woman," "Muskadine Blues" and "Moonshine Blues" (rec 1950 and 
released as by Baby Face Leroy and/or by Little Walter Trio,) and he 
also played guitar on Muddy Waters' "Honey Bee" and "Still A Fool."

How was he as a guitarist?  Ummm.... in my humble opinion?  Let's 
just say he was a truly astonishing harp player.  :)

cheers,

Tom Ball
Santa Babs
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                    Blues With a Feeling: The Little Walter Story
                    By Tony Glover, Scott Dirks and Ward Gaines
                    Routledge, 315 pages, $24.95
                    Reviewed by Glenn Weiser

           Along with jazz saxman Charlie Parker and rock guitarist 
Jimi Hendrix, postwar blues-harmonica great Marion ìLittle Walterî 
Jacobs ranks as a groundbreaking American instrumentalist. His 
playing graced most of Muddy Watersí classic 1950s sides, and under 
his own name he also waxed some of the greatest recordings in blues. 
Innovative in his use of distorted amplified tone and jazzy phrasing, 
Jacobs was, like Parker and Hendrix, widely imitated, musically 
unrivaled, and dead at a young age. It may seem surprising that no 
book about him appeared before the well-researched Blues With a 
Feeling: The Little Walter Story, but Little Walterís life is one of 
a meteoric rise followed by a long, painful decline and fall. Of any 
blues biography you could pick up, this has to be the most tragic.
Many details of Walterís earlier years were already available, 
although the book is not without fresh information on the subject. He 
was born to Creole parents in Louisiana in 1930, and began playing 
harmonica at age 8. By the time he was 12 he was on his own, 
performing waltzes, polkas and popular songs on the sidewalks of New 
Orleans for tips. A year later, the youngster learned blues harmonica 
in Memphis, absorbing the influences of virtuosos John Lee ìSonny 
Boyî Williamson, Rice Miller and Big Walter Horton. Shortly 
thereafter, he began to listen to the ìjumpî sound of saxophonist 
Louis Jordan, setting the stage for a synthesis of swing and electric 
blues that was not to crystallize until  the early 1950s.
                    By the mid-í40s, Chicago had become a mecca for 
blues musicians, so Little Walter moved there looking for work. 
Performing on legendary Maxwell Street, he eventually came to the 
notice of Muddy Waters. Waters and Walter, along with Muddyís backing 
guitarist, Jimmy Rogers, began working the clubs of the South Side. 
To be heard in the noisy taverns, Waters and Rogers adopted electric 
guitars, and Little Walter blew through cheap microphones and 
amplifiers. Waters, backed by stand-up bass only, recorded his first 
hits on Leonard Chessí Aristocrat label in 1948, and Walter
was added in the mix in 1950.
                    The next five years saw Little Walter rise to 
stardom. He stayed on as Watersí sideman until 1952, when his first 
single, the honking, saxlike instrumental ìJuke,î hit the top of the 
R&B charts, something even Muddy hadnít been able to do. It is at 
this point that the book becomes based almost entirely on the 
authorsí original research. Flush with success, Walter left Muddy, 
took over fellow harmonica player Junior Wellsí band and struck out 
under his own name, although he continued to record with Muddy 
afterwards. The living was easy for the next few years: Walter had 
more than a dozen Top 10 R&B hits, played prestigious venues like New 
Yorkís Apollo a sack full of money in the trunk of his Cadillac. The 
book reveals that he loved chess, was a Mason, andóalthough he never 
recorded itócould play down-home blues well on the acoustic guitar.
             In 1955, rock & roll swept the nation and eclipsed the 
popularity of blues in its hometown of Chicago. Seeing his record 
sales dwindle, an embittered Walter entered a long decline in the 
late í50s marked by heavy drinking, an inability to keep a band 
together, and violent encounters both with the law and other blacks. 
Jacobs ultimately died, at age 37, from a head injury sustained in a 
1968 street fight.
           This slow, inexorable slide to doom takes up the last half 
of the book, and both it and Walterís personal failings are 
chronicled in unsparing detail. All this, unfortunately, makes for 
grim reading. And it is here, in the later chapters, that the bookís 
principal weakness becomes evident: We are forced to watch as a 
musical genius goes down the tubes, but little is said to answer the 
question of whether or not he ever tried to pull himself out of his 
tailspin, or if the people around him attempted to help him. All we 
learn is that he was aware of his plight, as evinced by passing 
references to his ìgoing down,î as he put it. Besides that 
shortcoming, there are also a few errors of fact: The harmonica was 
more than 100 years old when Walter picked it up, not less, as the 
authors state; and blues is usually played in a key a fifth above the 
key of the harmonica, rather than a fourth above. But none of these 
flaws is fatal.
         All in all, ìBlues With a Feelingî is a major addition to our 
knowledge of American music, and a must-read for any blues or 
harmonica fan.