Re: [Harp-L] Rhythm Willie

["Rick Dempster" <rick.dempster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mick;
        Enjoyed reading your story. There's a (Downbeat?) blindfold
test I read somewhere, where Larry Adler is played a little Walter
track. His response was to say that he'd "heard this kind of thing
before" and that he "preferred it when Sonny terry did it" (!)  - these
aren't exact quotes, just my memory. He explains that the chromatics are
missing, and lastly admits that he (Walter) might have been the worlds
greatest if he played the chromatic notes.
       Amazing that your Dad and Adler would lump Willie/Walter and
S.Terry Walter together in comparison. They always sounded so different
to my ears; that says something about the changes in  perception of
different generations, I suppose.
       I once had an old music teacher who would refer to 'Bill Haley
and the Beatles' to show he was up with the latest trends (this in the
mid-seventies mind you)
       I guess the musical differences didn't seem all that important
to him, because they seemed so far from his own influences.
       Thus my eldest son's shocked expression when lump 'Rap-metal'
and 'Death-metal' bands into the same bag! 
Cheers,
RD


>>> "Mick Zaklan" <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx> 8/10/2006 2:15:02 >>>
   Like a lot of guys, I started out with the Tony Glover book. 
Around
1968.  There was nothing else out there.  Didn't actually get much out
of
the book; but it was written in such a hip way and the names sounded
so
exotic that I felt like I had joined a secret, very cool club.  I
immediately went out and bought a copy of "The Best of Little Walter". 
I
remember my dad, a music and hi-fi equipment nut, wearing his earphones
and
seizing the record out of my hand.  He threw it on the turntable and
gave
each track about 5 seconds.  "The greatest harmonica player I ever
heard was
Rhythm Willie.  This guy's no Willie"; he said dismissively, handing me
back
the platter with a big thumbprint on it.
   It was a putdown I would hear over and over again during the next
couple
of decades. Everytime I brought a harp album into the house--"He's no
Willie".  Since I had never seen Willie's name in print or anything
recorded
by him, I assumed the my old man was off his rocker.  I worked
construction
with him for several summers and I always made a point of asking the
older
African-American laborers about Muddy, Wolf, both Walters, etc.  And
Willie.  Only found one guy who had seen Willie.  As I grilled the
old-timer, it became apparent to me that Willie had been playing
standards
in a swing jazz style on a diatonic harp.  I got the impression that he
was
sort of a Black version of Johnny O'Brien and was part of the house
band
review at one of the Southside Chicago nightclubs.  My dad frequented
those
clubs as a young man, particularly the Club DeLisa.  I'm guessing that
he might have seen Willie there.
   I vaguely remember someone, possibly Rick Estrin, asking about
Rhythm
Willie in an old issue of the American Harmonica Newsletter.  That
immediately gave him some credibility with me.  It was the first time I
ever
saw Willie's name on paper.  Of course, later Kim Field mentioned him
in the
Heavy Breathers book.  At the Memphis S.P.A.H. convention, Pete
Pederson
asked if he could walk back to the hotel with my buddy and I (it was
downtown after dark).  It was the only time I was ever able to converse
with
Pete.  Knowing that he had lived in Chicago in the 40's, I took the
opportunity to ask if he knew Willie.  "Sure", he said.  "There were
lots of
Willie's back then, 'Shoeshine Willie', etc., etc.".  I remember that
Pete
wasn't too impressed.  It was like "he was alright" or "yeah, he was
good".
I couldn't make up my mind whether he was bullshitting me or if Willie
was just an above-average player who Pete barely remembered.  Or if
Pete was
showing a chromatic bias.
  Was trading blues harp tapes with a guy named Boogie Bob Pitz in the
mid
to late 90's.  Every couple weeks Bob would send me a package and I
would
retaliate with some of my rarities.  One day, at the tail end of a
long
tape, there were 4 or 5 cuts listed under the name "Rhythm Willie".  I
can't
tell you how excited or emotional I got or the memories that came
streaming
back to me at that moment.  It brought back the whole father-son thing,
our
musical disagreements, and growing up with Django Reinhardt,
Leadbelly,
Jimmy Rodgers (the father of country music), Billie Holiday, and
Enrico
Caruso being blasted out of my dad's speakers daily.  Never realized
how
lucky I was to have that soundtrack until after he was gone.
   Anyway, Willie's harp work was first-rate.  The cuts I heard were
all
blues tunes, which puzzled me.  But that's probably what was selling
and
what the producer wanted to hear.  Most of them sounded trumpet
influenced
and played in 1st position.  One might've been in 4th--which would have
been
pretty damn sophisticated for that era.  Willie was a helluva player
and it
saddened me that my dad wasn't there to hear the tape with me.
   I had heard that Scott Dirks was working on a piece about Willie. 
I
think Joe Filisko told me about it and also said that someone, possibly
Dave
Myers, had told Scott that Rhythm Willie was the only player that
Little
Walter truly "feared".  Great to see that the article was completed and
that
there are a bunch of other Willie tracks out there.

Mick Zaklan
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