Big Walter Horton
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Big Walter Horton (born April 6, 1918 - died December 8, 1981) was an African American blues harmonica player.
Born Walter Horton in Horn Lake, Mississippi, he was playing a harmonica by the time he was five years old. In his early teens, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there with the Memphis Jug Band in the late 1920s, although there is no documentation, and many have since disputed this claim. As with many of his peers, he spent much of his career existing on a meagre income and living with constant discrimination in a segregated America. In the 1930s he played with various blues performers across the Mississippi delta region. It's generally accepted that his first recordings were made in Memphis, backing guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on recordings for the Okeh and Vocalion labels, in 1939. These recordings were in the acoustic duo format popularized by Sleepy John Estes with his harmonicist Hammie Nixon among others. On these recordings, Walter's style is not yet fully realized, but there are clear hints of what is to come. There are also rumors that he might have taught some harp to Little Walter and even the original Sonny Boy Williamson, but this is probably not true. He eventually stopped playing the harp for a living, due to poor health, and took different jobs outside of music. By the early 1950s, he was playing music again, and made some of the first recordings for Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, who would later record rock and roll superstars Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and country giant Johnny Cash. The early Big Walter recordings from Sun include performances from a young Phineas Newborn on piano, who later became a jazz piano genius.
During the early 1950s he first appeared on the Chicago blues scene, where he frequently played with fellow Memphis and Delta musicians who had also moved north, including guitarists Eddie Taylor and Johnny Shines. When Junior Wells left the Muddy Waters band at the end of 1952, Horton replaced him in Muddy's band long enough to play on one session with Muddy in January of 1953. Big Walter's style had then fully matured, and he was playing in the heavily amplified style that became one of the trademarks of the Chicago Blues. His harmonica playing is characterized by a deep, rich tone, and very precise articulation, using the full register of the harp and utilizing the higher notes of the harp with great dexterity. His tone was consistantly deeper or 'heavier' than Little Walter's, but with phrasing that was more in keeping with the Memphis traditions, and less adventerous and improvisational than the jazzier explorations employed by his chief harmonica rival Little Walter. He also made great use of techniques such as tongue-blocking.
Also known as "Mumbles", and "Shakey" because of his head motion while playing the harmonica, Horton was active on the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s when blues music gained popularity with white audiences. From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and appeared frequently as a sideman with Eddie Taylor, Johnny Shines, Johhny 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 festivals in the U.S. and Europe, alone and frequently with Willie Dixon's "Chicago Blues All-Stars." He has also appeared as a guest on recordings by blues and rock stars such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter. In the late 1970's he toured the country with Homesick James, appearing on National Public Radio broadcasts, with a band that included Rich Molina, Bradley P. Smith, Guido Sinclair and Paul Nebenzahl. His musical output was somewhat inconsistant over the course of his career, unpredicatably wavering between brilliant and workmanlike, and much of his best work was done as a sideman. Some of the best compilations of his own work are Mouth-Harp Maestro and Fine Cuts. Also notable is the low-key but excellent "Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell" album released by Alligator Records in 1972.
A quiet, unassuming man, Big Walter Horton is remembered as one of the most gifted harmonica players in the history of blues music. He died in Chicago in 1981, and was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
External links:
- http://www.customharmonicas.com/walterhortondiscography.pdf (A complete Walter Horton discography)
- http://www.bluesharp.ca/legends/bwalter.html
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