W
T-Bone
Walker
b: May, 28,1910,
Linden, TX
d: Mar, 16, 1975, Los Angeles, CA
Modern electric blues guitar can be
traced directly back to this Texas-born pioneer, who began amplifying his
sumptuous lead line for public consumption circa 1940 and thus initiated a
revolution so total that its tremors are still being felt
today.
Few major post-war blues guitarists that come
to mind that don't owe T-Bone Walker an unpayable debt of gratitude. B.B.
King has long cited him as a primary influence, marveling at Walker's penchant
for holding the body of his guitar outward as he played it. Gatemouth Brown, Pee
Wee Crayton, Goree Carter, Pete Mayes, and a wealth of other prominent
Texas-bred axe-men came stylistically right out of Walker during the late
'40s and early '50s. Walker's nephew, guitarist RS Rankin, went so far as to
bill himself as T-Bone Walker Jr. for a 1962 single on Dot, "Midnight Bells are
Ringing" (with his uncle's blessing of course; the two had worked up a
father-and-son type act long before that).
Aaron
Thibeault Walker was a product of the primordial Dallas blues scene. His
stepfather, Marco Washington, stroked the bass fiddle with the Dallas String
Band, and T-Bone followed his Step dad's example by learning the rudiments of
every stringed instrument that he could lay his talented hands on. One notable
visitor to the band's jam sessions was the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson.
During the early '20s, Walker led the sightless guitarist from bar to bar as the
older man played for tips.
In 1929, Walker made his
recording debut with a single 78 for Columbia, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity
River Blues", billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Pianist Douglas Fernell was his
musical partner for the disc. Walker was exposed to some pretty outstanding
guitar talent during his formative years. Besides Jefferson, Charlie
Christian-who would totally transform the role of the guitar in jazz with his
electrified riffs much as Walker would with blues, was one of the playing
partners circa 1933.
T-Bone Walker split the
Southwest for Los Angeles during the mid-'30s, earning his keep with saxist Big
Jim Wynn's band with his feet rather than his hands as a dancer. Popular
bandleader Les Hite hired Walker as his vocalist in 1959. Walker sang "T-Bone
Blues", with the Hite aggregation for Varsity Records in 1940, but didn't play
guitar on the outing. It was about then, though, that his fascination with
electrifying his axe bore fruit. He played L.A. clubs with his daring new toy
after assembling his own combo, engaging in acrobatic stage moves - splits,
playing behind his back - to further enliven his
show.
Capitol Records was a fledging concern in
1942, when Walker signed on and cut "Mean Old World", and "I Got a Break Baby"
with boogie master Freddie Slack hammering the 88's. This was the first sign of
the T-Bone Walker that blues Guitar aficionados know and love, his fluid,
elegant riffs and mellow, burnished vocals setting a standard that all future
blues guitarists would measure themselves by.
Chicago's Rhumboogie Club served as Walker's home away from home during a good
portion of the war years. He even cut a few sides for the joint's house label in
1945 under the direction of pianist Marl Young. But after a solitary session
that same year for Old Swingmaster that soon made it's way onto another
established logo, Mercury, Walker signed with Los Angeles-based Black and White
Records in 1946 and proceeded to amass a stunning
legacy.
The immortal "Call it Stormy Monday" was the
product of a 1947 Black & White date with Teddy Buckner on trumpet and
invaluable pianist Lloyd Glenn in the backing quintet. Many of Walker's best
sides were smokey after-hours blues, though an occasional up-tempo entry -
"T-Bone Jumps Again" a storming instrumental from the same date, for
example-illustrated his nimble dexterity at faster
speeds.
Walker recorded prolifically for Black &
White until the close of 1947, waxing classics like the often-covered
"T-Bone Shuffle" and "West Side Baby", though many of the sides came out on
capitol, after the demise of Black & White. In 1950, Walker turned up on
Imperial. His first date for the Los Angeles indie elicited the after-hours gem
"Glamour Girl" and perhaps the penultimate, jumping instrumental in his
repertoire, "Strollin' With Bones".
No amount of
written accolades can fully convey the monumental importance of what T-Bone
Walker gave to the blues. He was the idiom's first true lead guitarist, and
undeniably one of its very best.
Sippie
Wallace
b: Nov. 1, 1898,
Houston, TX
d: Nov. 1, 1986, Detroit, MI
A classic female blues singer from the
20's Wallace kept recording and performing until her death. She was a
major influence on a young Bonnie Raitt, who recorded several of Wallace's songs
and performed live with her.
The daughter of a
Baptist deacon, Sippie Wallace (born Beulah Thomas) was born and raised in
Houston. As a child, she sang and played piano in church. Before she
was in her teens, she began performing with her pianist brother Hersal
Thomas. By the time she was in her mid-teens, she had left Houston to
pursue a musical career, singing in a number of tent shows and earning a
dedicated fan base. In 1915, she moved to New Orleans with Hersal.
Two years later, she married Matt Wallace.
In
1923, Sippie, Hersal, and their older brother George moved to Chicago, where
Sippie became part of the city's jazz scene. By the end of the year, she
had earned a contract with OKeh Records. Her first two songs for the
label, "Shortie George" and "Up the Country Blues", were hits and Sippie soon
became a star. Throughout the 20's, she produced a series of singles that
were nearly all hits. Wallace's OKeh recordings featured a number of
celebrated jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Eddie Heywood, King
Oliver, and Clarence Williams; both Hersal and George Thomas performed on
Sippie's records as well, in addition to supporting her concerts. Between
1923 and 1927, she recorded more that 40 songs for Okeh. Many of the songs
that were Wallace originals were co-written by Sippie and her
brothers.
Between 1936 and 1966
Sippie Wallace was inactive on the blues scene - she only performed a handful of
concerts and cut a few records. In 1966, she was lured out of retirement
by her friend Victoria Spivey, who convinced Sippie to join the thriving blues
and folk festival circuit. Wallace not only joined the circuit but began
recording again. Her first new album was a collection of duets with Spivey
appropriately titled Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, which was
recorded in 1966; the album wasn't released until 1970. Also in 1966
Wallace recorded Sippie Wallace Sings the Blues for Storyville, which
featured support from musicians like Little Brother Montgomery and Roosevelt
Sykes. The album was quite popular, as were Sippie's festivals
performances.
In 1970, Sippie Wallace suffered
a stroke, but she was able to continue recoding and performing, although not as
frequently as she had before. In 1982, Bonnie Raitt helped Wallace land a
contract with Atlantic Records. Raitt produced the resulting album,
Sippie, which was released in 1983. The album won the W.C. Handy
Award for the best blues album of the year and was nominated for a Grammy.
The album turned out to be Sippie Wallace's last recording - she died in 1986,
when she was 88 years old.
Mercy Dee
Walton
b: Aug. 3, 1915,
Waco, TX
d: Dec. 2, 1962, Stockton, CA
Mose Allison certainly recognized the
uncommon brilliance of pianist Mercy Dee Walton. The young jazz-based
Allison faithfully covered Walton's down-trodden "One Room Country Shack" in
1957, four years after Walton had waxed the original for Los Angeles based
Specialty Records (his original was a huge R&B
smash).
Walton was a Texas
émigré', like so many other post-war California R&B pioneers, who played
piano around Waco from the age of 13 before hitting the coast in 1938.
Once there, the pianist gigged up and down the length of the golden state before
debuting on a record in 1949 with "Lonesome Cabin Blues" for the tiny Spire
logo, which became a national R&B hit. Those sides were cut in Fresno,
but Los Angeles hosted some of the pianists best sessions for Imperial in 1950
and Specialty in 1952-53.
Walton, who usually
recorded under the handle of Mercy Dee, was a talented songsmith who's
compositions ran the gamut from low-down blues to jumping R&B items. A
half dozen tracks for the Bihari brothers' Flair imprint in 1955 included "Come
Back Maybellene", a rocking sequel to Chuck Berrys' then-current
hit.
After a lengthy layoff, Walton returned
to the studio in a big way in 1961, recording prolifically for Chris
Strachwitz's Arhoolie label with his northern California compatriots: K.C.
Douglas on guitar, harpist Sidney Maiden, and drummer Otis Cherry (some of the
material ended up on Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary). It's very
fortunate that Strachwitz took an interest in documenting Walton's versatility,
for in December of 1962 the pianist died.
Johnny "Guitar"
Watson
b: Feb. 3, 1935,
Houston, TX
d: May 17, 1996, Chicago, Il
'Reinvention' could just have easily
have been Johnny "Guitar" Watson's middle name. The multi-talented performer
parlayed his stunning guitar skills into a vaunted reputation as one of the
hottest blues axemen on the West coast during the 1950's. But the admirable
trait wasn't paying the bills as the 1970's rolled in. So he totally changed his
image to that of a pimp-styled funkster, enjoying more popularity than
ever before his dirty R&B smashes "A Real Mother For Ya" and "Superman
Lover".
Watson's roots resided in the fertile blues
scene of Houston. As a teen, he played with fellow Texas future greats Albert
Collins and Johnny Copeland. But he left Houston for Los Angeles when he was
only 15 years old. Back then, Watson's main instrument was piano; that's what he
played with Chuck Higgin's band when the saxist cut "Motorhead Baby" for Combo
in 1952 (Watson also handled vocal duties).
He was
listed as young John Watson when he signed with Federal in 1953. His first sides
for the King subsidiary found him tinkling the ivories, but by 1954, when he
dreamed up the absolutely astonishing instrumental "Space Guitar", the youth,
(he was just two days short of his 17th birthday) had switched over to guitar.
"Space Guitar" ranks with the greatest achievements of its era - Watson's
blistering rapid-fire attack, done without the aid of a pick, presages
futuristic effects that guitarists still hadn't mastered another 15 years down
the line.
Watson moved to the Bahari brothers'
RPM label in 1955 and waxed some of the toughest upbeat blues of their
timeframe (usually under saxist Maxwell Davis' supervision), "Hot Little Mama",
"Too Tired", and "OH Baby" scorched the strings with their blazing attack;
"Someone Cares For Me" was a churchy Ray Charles-styled slow-dragger, and "Three
Hours Past Midnight" cut bone-deep with its outrageous guitar work and laid-back
vocals (Watson's cool phrasing as a singer was scarcely less distinctive than
his playing). He scored his first hit in 1955 for RPM with a note-perfect cover
of New Orleanian Earl King's two-chord swamp ballad "Those Lonely, Lonely
Nights".
Though he cut a demo version of the tune
while at RPM, Watson's first released version of "Gangster Of Love" emerged in
1957 on Keen. Singles for Class ("One Kiss"), Goth, Arvee (the rocking
introduction "Johnny Guitar"), and Escort proceeded a hookup with Johnny Otis at
King during the early 60's. He recut "Gangster" for King reaching a few
more listeners this time, and dented the R&B charts again in 1962 with his
impassioned, violin enriched ballad "Cuttin'
In",
Never content to remain in one stylistic
bag for long, Watson landed at Chess just long enough to cut a jazz album in
1964 that placed him back behind the 88s. Along with long time pal Larry
Williams, Watson rocked England in 1965. Their partnership lasted
stateside through several singles and an LP for OKeh; among their
achievements as a duo was the first vocal hit on "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" in 1967
(predating the Buckingham's by a few
months).
Little had been heard of
this musical chameleon before he returned decked out in funk threads in the
mid-70's. He hit with "I Don't Want to Be a Lone Ranger" for Fantasy
before putting together an incredible run at DJM Records paced by "A Real Mother
for Ya" in 1977 and an updated "Gangster of Love" the next
year.
After a typically clever
"Strike on Computers" nicked the R&B list in 1984, Watson again seemed to
fall off the planet. But counting this remarkable performer out was always
a mistake. Bow Wow, his 1994 album for Al Bell's Bellmark logo,
returned him to prominence and earned a Grammy nomination for best contemporary
blues album, even thought its contents were pure old school funk. Sadly,
in the midst of a truly heartwarming comeback campaign, Watson passed away while
touring Japan in 1996.
Katie
Webster
b: Jan. 9,1939,
Houston, TX
d: Houston, TX
A piano pounding institution on the southern Louisiana
swamp blues scene during the late 50's and early 60's, Katie Webster later
grabbed a long deserved share of national recognition with three recent
Alligator albums before a 1993 stroke temporarily shelved
her.
Poor Katherine Thorne had to deal
with deeply religious parents that did everything in their power to stop their
daughter from playing R&B. But the rocking sounds of Fats Domino and
Little Richard were simply too persuasive. Local guitarist Ashton Savoy
took her under his wing, sharing her 1958 debut 45 for the Kry logo ("Baby
Baby").
Webster rapidly became an
invaluable studio sessioneer for Louisiana producers J.D. Miller in Crowley and
Eddie Shuler in Lake Charles. She played on sides by Guitar Junior (Lonnie
Brooks), Clarence Garlow, Jimmy Wilson, Lazy Lester, and Phil Phillips (her
gently rolling 88's powered his hit "Sea of
Love").
The young pianist also recorded some
terrific sides of her own for Miller from 1959-1961 for his Rocko, Action, and
Spot labels (where she introduces a dance called "The Katie Lee"). Webster
led her own band, The Uptighters, at the same time she was spending her days in
the studio. In 1964, she guested with Otis Reddings band at the Bamboo
Club in Lake Charles and so impressed the charismatic Redding that he absconded
with her. For the next three years, Webster served as his opening
act!
The 1970's were pretty much a lost decade
for Katie Webster as she took care of her ailing parents in Oakland, CA.
But in 1982 a European tour beckoned, and she journeyed overseas for the first
of many such jaunts. The Alligator connection commenced in 1988 with some
high profile help: Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray and Kim Wilson all made guest
appearances on The Swamp Boogie Queen. The loveable extroverted
boogie pianist encored with Two-Fisted Mama! and No Foolin'!
before suffering a stroke.
Lester
Williams
b: Jun. 24, 1920,
Groveton, TX
d: Nov. 13, 1990, Houston, TX
Though little is known outside of the
Houston blues circuit where he made his home for several decades,
vocalist/guitarist Lester Williams was a local phenomenon during the early
1950's whose success even led to an appearance at Carnegie Hall. Born in
Groveton, Texas on June 24th, 1920, he grew up infatuated with the sound of
T-Bone Walker, whose style William's consciously emulated; after serving in
WWII, he formed his own combo, and in 1949 signed up with Houston-based Macy's
Records. The label's, then stockboy, Steve Poncio, produced Williams' debut
single, "Winter Time Blues",; it became a regional hit, although subsequent
efforts were less successful. However, by 1951 Poncio owned and operated
his own distributorship, United Distributors, and through various channels
struck up a business relationship with Specialty Records owner Art Rupe;
as a result, Williams joined the Specialty stable, and with Poncio again behind
the boards scored his biggest hit in 1952 with "I Can't Lose With the Stuff
Use", a track later covered by B.B. King. The song was another regional
smash, and was sufficiently popular on a national basis to land the singer on a
February 1953 Carnegie Hall bill which also included Dinah Washington, Billy
Eckstine, and Nat King Cole. Williams' follow-ups failed to catch on,
however, and by 1954 he was regularly performing on Houston station KLVL and
touring throughout the South. He later recorded on Duke before one final
date for Imperial in 1956; in the years to follow he remained a staple of
the Houston club circuit, touring Europe four years prior to his
death.
Hop
Wilson
b: Apr, 27, 1927,
Grapeland, TX
d: Aug. 27, 1975, Houston, TX
Slide guitar blues with an
Elmore James flavor played on an 8-string table (non-pedal) steel guitar was the
trademarked sound of Houston blues legend Hop Wilson. Strictly a local
phenomenon, Wilson recorded fitfully and hated touring. Though he also
played fine down-home blues on conventional electric guitar and was a powerful
singer as well, it is Wilson's unique slide stylings that remain a signature
influence on Johnny Winter and Jimmie Vaughan, to name a
few.
Wilson learned how to play guitar and
harmonica as a child. By the time he was 18, he received his first steel
guitar and began playing it at local Houston juke joints and clubs. His
musical career was interrupted when he served in WWII. After his discharge
from the Army, he decided to pursue a serious career as a blues musician,
performing with Ivory Semien's group in the late 50's. Wilson and Semien
recorded a number of sides for Goldband Records in
1957.
Hop Wilson didn't lead his own sessions
until 1960, when he signed with the Ivory record label. Wilson only recorded for
the label for two years - his final sessions were in 1961. After 1961,
Wilson concentrated on playing local Houston clubs and bars. He continued
to perform in Houston until his death in 1975.
Johnny
Winter
b: Feb. 23, 1944,
Beaumont, TX
Winter arrived on the scene at a time when
young white America had discovered amplified Blues in a big way through the
guitar playing of a planeload of British and British-based guitarists and famous
rock groups. The Texan albino was quickly groomed as America's answer to
this invasion, his combination of blues and rock guitar techniques, from Muddy
Waters and Magic Sam to Jimi Hendrix, instantly appealing on his debit album,
made in late 1968, to a massive audience hungry for such sounds. Winter
has seen his share of ups and downs, and for periods has been content to stick
with rock at the expense of blues, but his roots have in recent years called
more strongly than any other force and he has carved a notable niche for himself
in today's blues scene.
Winter and his
brother, Edgar, were born in Beaumont, TX and before he was a teenager Johnny
had discovered his love of stringed instruments, starting out on ukulele but
swapping to guitar and copying blues artists he heard on the radio. So
enthusiastic was he that he spent some time in 1963 in Chicago trying to crack
the blues scene there, but his first success arrived via his own band, formed
back in Texas and locally popular as a group capable of good blues and pop
songs. In 1968 he threw the pop out and concentrated on the blues, getting
noticed around the same time by prestigious media outlets. A move to New
York and a contract with Columbia led to the much-hyped first album, Johnny
Winter, in which his blues roots were laid bare for all to hear, his searing
guitar lines plucked straight from the Chicago version of the Delta and brought
to white heat by rock amplification and extended renditions. Winter
quickly became an international star in both rock and blues fraternities, making
a successful second album and appearing at Woodstock, but by 1972, exhausted and
with a major drug problem, Winter took himself off the scene. On his
return, amid the advent of disco and a waning interest in the blues, Winter took
to the rock road, to know particular acclaim. His next work of note was as
a producer (and occasional participant) on Blue Sky records for Muddy Waters, a
move that produced four outstanding albums in the last years of Muddy Waters
life.
Winter's own career was in neutral until
his connection with Alligator records in the mid-1980's, a move that put him
back in the blues camp to which he remains wedded today. He plays with a
ferocity equal to that of his past efforts on Columbia, his slide guitar and his
Hendrix-inspired picking as powerful as 20 years or more earlier. Both
live and on record he remains an intense and exciting player and singer, able to
switch at will between blues and rock 'n' roll repertoire.