Marion Walter Jacobs revolutionized the way blues harmonica was played with his swooping, amplified attack in the early 1950s. He remains the model to which multitudes of blues harpists aspire; questions continue to circulate about the harmonicas, microphones, and amplifiers he used to achieve his sound. But when asked want kind of amp Walter used, one fellow musician retorted simply, “Whatever he could borrow.” For Walter, the question was not about equipment; it was about feeling and technique.
Little Walter was born on May 1, 1930 (by most accounts, although his biographers now believe it may have been 1928 or 1929), in Marksville, Louisiana, of mixed black, white and American Indian creole ancestry. Walter grew up playing accordion-like music of the region on his harmonica and picking up what he could from harmonica players he heard on the radio (mostly white country players at that time). He began to hone his blues style after hearing the two Sonny Boy Williamsons, Big Walter Horton, and others, rambling around Louisiana for a few years before establishing himself on the bustling blues scene in Helena, Arkansas. After his second trip to Chicago, Walter decided to stay, and hooked up with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Baby Face Leroy Foster, Louis and Dave Myers, Floyd Jones, and others who were formulating the classic Chicago blues sounds.
Like many blues harp men of the era, he played much in the mold of John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson at first, but as he experimented with amplification and began to incorporate jazz phrasing into his work (influenced especially by saxophonists), he emerged as the most innovative and influential musician ever to play harmonica. After a few early sessions in Chicago beginning with some for the Maxwell Radio Shop’s Ora Nelle label, Walter recorded as a member of Muddy Waters’ band for Chess in 1950, and in 1952 Chess gave Walter a chance to cut some sides of his own with the band. The first tune of the session was the jumping instrumental Juke, which soared to No. 1 on the rhythm & blues charts and inspired Walter to leave Muddy to go on tour as a featured act. He hired the Aces (Louis and Dave Myers and Fred Below), who had been playing with Junior Wells, as his band, and Wells took Walter’s place in Muddy’s group.
Walter ended up with more hit records than Muddy or any of Chess’ other blues icons of the era, including the instrumentals Off the Wall, Sad Hours, and Roller Coaster and others spotlighting his vocals, such as My Babe, Blues With a Feeling, Mean Old World, and Last Night, all on Chess’ subsidiary label, Checker, but his star had faded by the 1960s. A wild streak and a rough life on the streets took their tolls, and when Walter finally made it to Europe in 1964, he was but a shadow of his younger self, and back in Chicago he was relegated to low-paying gigs. On the night on February 14, 1968, according to drummer Sam Lay, Walter called to tell him he’d been hurt in a fight with his girlfriend’s brother, who was angry that Walter had pawned her watch. He died the next day. The official cause of death was listed as coronary thrombosis.
— Jim O’Neal
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