. Sourcebook of LS Little Walter/Big Walter Ee for Blues Harmonica N a By Tom BallSourcebook of Little Wallter/Big Walter Licks for Blues Harmonica ~-by Tom Ball ~ Big Walter Cover Photo of Walter Horton by E.W. Yescalis, courtesy of Bob Corritore, used by permission of Rich Yescalis Cover Photo of Walter Jacobs promotional from Shaw Artist Corp. Cover Art: Shawn Brown Music Notation: George Ports Paste-up: Cindy Middlebrook Layout and production: Ron Middlebrook ISBN 1-57424-096-X SAN 683-8022 Copyright © 2000 CENTERSTREAM Publishing P.O. Box 17878 - Anaheim Hills, CA 92807 [All xights for publication and distribution are reserved. No partof this book may be reproduced in any form or by any lectronic or mechanical means including information storage and reieval systems without permission in ‘wating fom the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote bref passages in review.Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, Based in Santa Barbara, Tom and Kenny play concerts, clubs and festivals all over the world. In addition to working with Kenny, Tom has over 100 CD cred- its on harmonica. The duo has a total of seven instructional books and eight albums, most of which are available either on Flying Fish/Rounder or on No Guru/Taxim, two labels which have been most helpful and honest, and which seem to contradict the general rule that record executives are living proof that new life forms evolve from gas station toilets. T: Ball was born on Sonny Terry's birthday, and is half of the popular acoustic blues duo For information on Tom’s other books “Blues Harmonica,” “The Nasty Blues” and/or “A Sourcebook Of Sonny Terry Licks,” write: Centerstream Publishing, P. O. Box 17878, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807 USA or email For information on most of Tom & Kenny's recordings, write: Rounder Records, One Camp Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA, or access: www.rounder.com/For info on Tom & Kenny's latest recording, access: www.taxim.com/For info on Tom's solo guitar recording, access: www fantasy.com/ For correspondence with the author or information on the Tom & Kenny duo, write: Tom Ball, P. O. Box 20156, Santa Barbara, CA 93120 USA, or access: www.bassharp.com/tomball. htm / Acknowl CD recorded at Lackner Studio ("What you Lack, we Ner”) Santa Barbara CA Engineered and mixed by Robinson Eikenberry Mastered to CD by Wayne Sabbak at Riviera Studios, Santa Barbara CA A ot of folks were responsible for helping to put this together, (I mention this in ease of any lawsuits.) Im addition to those named above, the author would also like to thank: Laurie Linn Ball, Scott Dirks, Pat Missin, Brian Smith, Mary Katherine Aldin, Chris Smith, Alan Bal- four, Tony Glover, David Barrett, Gorgen Antonsson, Steve Hoffman, Eric LeBlanc; Folk Mote Music, Jim Ball, Steve Ball, Michael T. Butorac Jr., Galen Gart, Shanynn Raigh, Michael Kieffer, Kenny Sultan, Danny “Bassharp” Wilson, Vartan at Chess/MCA, Jim O'Neal, Robert & Donna Mercer, Gary Le Gal- lant, Bob Corritore, the Harp-L community, No Guru/Taxim Records, and Rounder Records. Thank you one and all!a nTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE | CONTENTS Acknowledgements/About The Author. CD Track Listin; Introductior Little Walter 1930-196! Big Walter 1918-1981 Remedial Blues Harp.. notes of the diatonic harmonica. how to hold your hat the tablature system. single notes. straight harp and a few little ditties Seeing “Big” And Trying To See “Little” - a Short Personal Sag Little Walter's Style Big Walter's Style. Tongue Block. Amplification And Both Walters’ Equipment... Little Walter’s equipment (mics, amps, effect Big Walter's equipment (mics, amps, effects.. harp mics (photos a few intro licks. slow and/or easy licks. licks that rely primarily upon amplification. a few endings a few fast and/or tricky licks. Some Big Walter Lick a few intro licks slow and/or easy licks. licks that rely primarily upon amplification . a few endings a few fast and/or tricky licks. More Licks: “Sloppy Joe. Bonus Tracks. Discographies. Little Walter’s recordings. Big Walter's recordings.. Bibliography ee SESRRRSYRSSITSSSYBS SESS EE SRARBRRBALURRCD Track List 1. Introduction 2, Little Walter: A Few Intro Licks 3, Little Walter: Slow and/or Easy Licks 4, Little Walter: Licks That Rely Primarily Upon Amplification 5, Little Walter: A Few Endings 6, Little Walter: A Few Fast and/or Tricky Licks 7. Big Walter: A Few Intro Licks 8. Big Walter: Slow and/or Easy Licks 9, Big Walter: Licks That Rely Primarily Upon Amplification 10. Big Walter: A Few Endings 11. Big Walter: A Few Fast and/or Tricky Licks 12. “Sloppy Joe” 13, Bonus Track #1; Little Walter J. with Othum Brown, 1947 14: Bonus Track #2: Memphis Jug Band, 1927 (is it Big Walter?) 15: Bonus Track #3: Little Buddy Doyle w/ Big Walter, 1939 : Bonus Track #4: Salty Holmes’ talking harmonica RECORD [ry NEED MY BABY (Bedno) SHAKEY HORTON Unissued 78. Actually Big Walter, not Little| | Introduction A few years ago I had the pleasure of putting together a harmonica instructional book entitled Blues Harmonica - A Comprehensive Crash Course and Overview for Centerstream Publications. The response to that book far exceeded my expectations: letters filtered in from all corners of the globe discussing, analyzing and in some cases constructively criticizing the project. While most of the response was quite positive, some players were a bit less than satisfied by the lack of specific licks to play. This was by design - that project was intended to be a general overview and not a “lick book.” But the letters got me to thinking.....and I concluded that although there were dozens of fine harmonica books out there on the market, very few of them (if any) were devoted towards learning the specific licks of any given artist or artists. Like most of you reading this, I’ve always had my favorite blues harp players: Sonny Terry for acoustic, Little Walter for amplified, Walter Horton for his gorgeous tone, Sonny Boy Williamson II for sheer soul, etc. As a diatonic player who most often plays acoustically, my natural first affinity was towards the Sonny Terry “country blues” style - so I decided to concentrate on an analysis of his playing first. The result was a second book that came out a couple years later, entitled A Sourcebook Of Sonny Terry Licks For Blues Harmonica, the concept of which was quite different than that of the first: it was intended to be a lick book, nothing more and nothing less. The hope was that players would be supplied with some source material - and that when they heard a bewildering Sonny Terry lick and thought “Damn, I wonder how he did that?” they might have a place to go for answers. (Admittedly, there are some Sonny Terry licks that nobody else can play - myself included. And these were conveniently omitted!) The experience of putting together the Sonny Terry book was very gratifying, and the concept of a lick book seemed to ring a bell among many harp players. So with that in mind I've decided to repeat the process, and this time the attempt is to discuss, understand and hopefully demystify some of the playing of the phenomenal Walters: Big Walter Horton and Little Walter Jacobs. The purpose of this project is simply to supply players with tablature (and a CD) of a sampling of licks from both artist’s repertoires. There are no completesongs here - just licks that the artists played in various spots and in various songs. Each lick is both played on the CD and mapped out in easy-to-read harmonica tablature. While it would have been ideal to have Horton’s and Jacobs’ own playing on the CD, licensing nightmares precluded that obvious approach, so the licks are played by me. Please note that this is not a method book, per se. Although there are fourteen pages of remedial harp lessons provided, and a look at each Walter’s style, it is assumed that the reader is already somewhat accomplished on the instrument. If, for example, you do not already know how to play single notes at will, or cannot bend notes fluently, this book may be a bit advanced for you.... in that case, I might recommend either my aforementioned Blues Harmonica or one of the other fine beginners books on the market. The modest book you hold in your hands is nowhere near an attempt at completeness - such a tome would rival in size the telephone directory of a small nation. Nor is it an attempt to do note-for-note transcriptions of actual entire songs. While there's nothing wrong with that approach, it simply isn’t what I'm trying to get across. At the risk of sounding hypocritical, it is important to remember that no musician ever truly makes a statement by completely copying anyone else note-for- note. Eventually, all players need to develop styles of their own. In so doing we also all must initially learn from others - it is difficult to become a master without first digesting the masters - but it is hoped that players will learn from and then vary upon this sampling of licks. I am also aware of the fact that there can be some disagreement over transcriptions. Recently on the Harp-L newsgroup on the internet there was a lively discussion/argument/debate that lasted for weeks over how, exactly, Little Walter played the six-note signature riff to the song “Juke.” Literally dozens of harp players got involved - some stating that it ended with a simple 6-blow (with sympathetic overtones caused by Walter's amp,) some vehemently disagreeing and swearing it was a 3/6 octave (with tongue-block,) and others insisting it was a 6/9 octave. Outside of resurrecting Little Walter himself, I’m afraid we'll never know for sure but the brisk outpouring of opinion made me all the more aware of how serious an undertaking it is to attempt any transcription, however minimal. (Just for the record, I hear it as a 3/6 octave and am transcribing it as such; to my ear the ghosted higher note sounds like an amp-induced overtone.)As mentioned elsewhere in this book, Little Walter Jacobs was a master of both diatonic and chromatic harps. Not me. My chromatic playing sounds like geese farts on a rainy day, so rather than insult the chromatic community I’ve chosen instead to direct this book toward his 10-hole diatonic work. That’s what he played most of the time anyway. And Big Walter Horton was strictly a diatonic player. At one point Horton said, “The chromatic will fry your brain.” Why concentrate on the Walters? The answer should be obvious: both of them were infinitely inventive players. These days many harpists play the same five licks over and over again - and listening to some of them can become as irritating as hearing Bob Segar scream, “Like a RRRRROCK” on the Chevy commercial for the 467-millionth time. Not so for Horton or Jacobs; both of them managed to consistently reinvent and play endless streams of new phrases. While it may be argued that there was little that was technically astounding about their actual techniques, both men’s musicality was astonishing. Almost all of both Walter's recorded legacies are now available on CD, so if you want to hear how it’s really supposed to sound, don't rely on this book - instead, go out and get some of their stuff, or some early Muddy Waters (most of which features either Horton or Jacobs.) It’s all brilliant - you can't go wrong. So you might be asking yourself, “Why is someone who is primarily an acoustic player (i.e. this writer) putting together a lick book on the Walters?” Well, part of the answer is that nobody else has taken the time to do it... when you're the only nominee, you usually get elected. Yes, there are more qualified folks out there, players whose knowledge of (and friendship with) these men would put them in a position to discuss both the techniques and the personalities of the Walters more eloquently than I -- Snooky Pryor and James Cotton immediately come to mind. But, for whatever reasons, those two masters have chosen to let their own expressive musical skills do their talking for them. Please remember that this book is far from the last word on the Walters; in fact I've heard rumors of an upcoming Little Walter biography that I'm hoping will surface soon. Finally, should you have any questions, comments, or if you simply want to say hello, feel free to drop me a letter. Unless I’m out on a tour with my pal Kenny Sultan, I’m usually a fairly decent correspondent. Please be aware, however, that nowadays we travel a lot. Too much, in fact. When we tour Europe and points east, we usually just travel and travel until they won't let us on any more planes because our armpit vapors keep inducing comas amongst the drug-sniffing doggies. Theagencies like to send us out on “CD promotional tours,” amusing little exercises which usually involve driving 500 miles a day on the autobahn to get to some town called Niijenveldshoovensvaard, for a radio interview that goes something like this: Interviewer: “Welcome to Radio Baklaliviatatlaglooshen. Our guests today are American follyblues artists Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan. So, fellas, you have a new CD out now, right?” Me: “Erm, yes we do.” Interviewer: “Well, that’s terrific, boys! Thank you for coming in. Our guests tomorrow are American actor Lee Harvey Keitel, and the English band Electric Prostates. Good night.” (Fadeout to irritating Kenny G music.) PS: as if this Big/Little Walter stuff weren't confusing enough, there’s also a fine harpist in Minnesota named “Big Walter” Smith; and be advised that recordings by “Big Walter” on the Peacock and Goldband labels are not Horton or Smith but are actually “Big Walter” Price; and 78s by “Little Walter Jr.” on Lapel Records are actually by George Smith. “Little Red Walter” on Le Sage is actually Walter Rhodes, and “Little Papa Walter” on Savoy is actually Papa Lightfoot. Also I’ve seen an LP called “Big Walter Solek Sings Jolly Polish Songs,” plus there are 78s by artists named “Happy Walter” and “Handy Walter,” and I once saw a band in the Netherlands called “Ugly Walter.” PPS: I’m still trying to fill out my collection of Little Walter, Big Walter (and Sonny Terry) 78s. If anyone should have something off-the-wall for sale or trade, please let me know? Thanks and happy harpin’, -Tom Ball, Santa Barbara CALittle Walter Jacobs 1930-1968 ‘The year 1947 was an auspicious one for the world of American music. A new generation of postwar blues musicians was on the verge of turning the scene upside- down with a powerful synthesis of Mississippi Delta traditions driven by electricity, pickups, amplifiers and a level of intensity unrivaled before or since. Sometime during that year a guitarist from Richmond, Mississippi named Othum Brown walked into the Maxwell Radio Company, a family owned radio shop on chaotic Maxwell Street in Chicago, and persuaded the owner, Bernard Abrams, to let him record a song or two on the shop's second-rate recording machine. Tagging along with Othum was a small, tough-looking kid with a harmonica in his pocket. The duo recorded two songs, “I Just Keep Loving Her” and “Ora Nelle Blues.” Othum Brown is said to have died soon after, but no death certificate has ever turned up.... perhaps he is still living today. Abrams apparently liked what he heard, and hastily organized a tiny record company named after one of the duo's songs - Ora Nelle Records. From his vantage point in the midst of the Maxwell Street Market, the budding entrepreneur envisioned a ready-made record buying public, one that would hopefully be eager to take home the kind of music that was being played outside by the street performers. A month or so later, Ora Nelle #711 was pressed, credited to “Little Walter J - harmonica, Othum Brown - guitar.” Little Walter Jacobs was 17 years old. (Note: the result of that. session - Little Walter's first recording - is included as a bonus track on the accompanying CD.) Ora Nelle Records turned out to be a short-lived enterprise. A few other Maxwell Street musicians came calling and although Abrams recorded several more of them, only one other 78 was issued: Johnny Young's “Money Takin’ Woman” b/w “Worried Man Blues.” Certainly no one’s lives were severely impacted by these releases - a fact which seems to be supported by the relative scarcity of the 78s on collectors’ shelves today. Little Walter went back to playing on the street, an “occupation” he'd already been working at for years. Setting up a primitive amp there on Maxwell, in between the used clothing stores, ancient radio repair shops, the tire piles and street hawkers and Italian ice cream vendors, it is said that Walter could (and would) play “Little Walter was the best I ever heard.” - Muddy Watersany kind of music the public wanted to hear: polkas, Mexican songs, hillbilly, Irish, waltzes and blues. He had already been out on his own for five years, and had a wealth of experience - no doubt both good and bad - under his belt. Marion Walter Jacobs was born May 1, 1930 in Alexandria, Louisiana, son of Adam and Beatrice Jacobs. On Walter's affidavit of birth, his father Adam's occupation is shown as “musician” but it is unknown what instruments or styles of music he may have played. Not much is known of Walter’s early childhood but sources agree that he learned harp as a boy, ran away from home at the age of 12 to play the clubs in New Orleans, and over the next five years gradually made his way north. A street-wise adolescent with a genius for the harp, Walter scuffled and slept on pool tables in Helena, Arkansas (where he learned to play guitar from Houston Stackhouse and Robert Lockwood, Jr.,) then on to Memphis (where Sonny Boy Williamson II took him under his wing,) and then St. Louis (crossing paths there with Dave “Honeyboy” Edwards.) Trouble never stayed far away from Walter, though; Sonny Boy recalled having to intervene one night in West Helena when a woman tried to stab the moody youngster. By early ‘47, Little Walter and Honeyboy Edwards had made their way to Chicago where they settled into the Maxwell Street scene. The street was rich with talent in those days - other musicians working there included Floyd Jones, Johnny Young, Daddy Stovepipe, Johnny Williams, Moody Jones, Snooky Pryor and Arvella Gray. Even the most popular blues musicians of the era were not above going down to Maxwell, at least to listen, and it was there that Walter met and came under the musical influence of both Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red. Before long, Walter wasn’t playing polkas. The teenage kid who had previously prided himself on his versatility quickly became entrenched in the camp of the newer music that had permeated the big city’s soul - the awakening sound of amplified Chicago blues. Within a year, young Walter had made the acquaintance of “Baby Face” Leroy Foster, and then (probably through Big Bill,) with a guitarist from Mississippi whom everybody just called “Muddy Waters.” Soon they were all playing together and recording for another tiny label, Parkway Records. Little Walter was now 19 years old, Baby Face was 26 and Muddy was the “old man” of 34. Muddy Waters, of course, had already made something of a name for himself and was by then under contract to Aristocrat (soon to be Chess) Records, a somewhat larger company “Me and my harp was a love affair from way back.” - Little Walter 10located just down the street from Parkway. The Chess brothers were not happy to hear that Muddy had recorded for another label with Walter and Baby Face. To quote Jimmy Rogers, “Muddy got himself in pretty big trouble with Chess (laughs.) Yeah, yeah, they had a lot of fun! I laughed myself sick about it!” And from these portentous beginnings sprung one of the most remarkable musical associations in American blues. In a 1970 interview with Pete Welding, Muddy Waters recalled Little Walter's first 78 for Ora Nelle, and how it trickled out of Maxwell Radio over the next few years: “I remember that it wasn’t any more than maybe two times I worked on the (Maxwell) Street, and they were because I was trying to push a record for Walter. He had made this record for, I think it was Maxwell Street Radio. I was down in front of the record shop... went down there and tried to push his record. We sold a good bit that Saturday afternoon.” By 1950 Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers and Muddy were inseparable, at least on stage. Muddy repeatedly asked the Chess brothers to let him record with his new combo, but Leonard and Phil Chess were reluctant to change anything about the formula they'd already developed: simply Muddy Waters on guitar and Ernest “Big” Crawford on bass. “Chess wouldn't upset things,” said Muddy, “he wouldn't mess with the harp or the extra guitar.” Finally in the summer of that year, Walter got a chance to record with Muddy, and the rest was history. From that point on, the Muddy Waters Band would nearly always perform and record with a harmonica player- and arguably the greatest of them all was Little Walter. ‘The following summer on July 11, 1951, Walter used an amplified harp in the studio for the first time. And in ‘52, at the end of one of Muddy’s recording sessions, Walter unexpectedly began to play an impromptu instrumental that the band had been using as a ‘signature tune’ on live dates, called “Your Cat Will Play.” Leonard Chess liked what he heard and issued the tune as “Juke,” by Little Walter And His Night Cats. The record was a smash! Aside from redefining the role of the harmonica in a blues context, it went to number-one on the R & B Charts for eight straight weeks. Jimmy Rogers later said, “If a harmonica player couldn't play ‘Juke,’ he couldn't play harmonica.” Ironically it was the success of “Juke” that broke up the Muddy and Walter partnership, at least on the bandstand. Overcome by the headiness of success, Walter split off to front the “Four Aces,” leaving Muddy’s band mid-tour in “Little Walter was the best harmonica player I ever heard in my life.” - James Cotton 11Shreveport, Louisiana. As Jimmy Rogers remembered it, “We all went to get some uniforms in Shreveport... He (Walter) told me to bring his back. And when we left, he left... when we got back the girl at the desk said, ‘You talking about the little guy? He got a cab and left as soon as y'all left - he went to the train station.” Walter's new aggregation “The Four Aces” was then made up of the guitar playing Myers brothers, drummer Fred Below, and an 18-year-old harmonica player named Junior Wells. In an improbable twist of fate, Wells then replaced Walter in Muddy’s outfit. Muddy said, “When Little Walter quit me in ‘52, it was like someone cutting off my oxygen.” But of course Junior turned out to be a harmonica genius as well, as did most of Muddy’s harp players. Meanwhile with the Aces now renamed the “Jukes,” Walter went on to record such hits as “Blues With A Feeling,” “My Babe,” “You're So Fine” and many others, achieving two number-one and three number-two hits on the charts - a level of success that out paced his former boss. In addition, Chess was now insisting on his presence during Muddy’s recording sessions. Little Walter was flying high and enjoying the spotlight. Represented by the Billy Shaw Agency, he was touring and playing the biggest and best venues in the country. Although much has been written about Walter’s unreliability in later years, for the time being he was conducting his business as a consummate professional. Little Walter's playing in those years was not only brilliant, it was new. He was doing things with the harp that no one had done, somehow combining the traditions of the Sonny Boys with elements of big-city swing, R & B and jazz. His sound was also fresh - with the addition of studio-generated echo and reverb, Walter overdrove his small tube amps until the tone was sometimes more like that of a saxophone. It took the blues world by storm. Billy Boy Arnold later said, “Little Walter became so popular that you had to have a harmonica player to really get a job at that time. If you had a band, you had to have a harp player.” By the mid to late ‘50s, though, Walter's popularity (as well as Muddy’s) had begun to taper off as the country became embroiled in the new phenomenon known as Rock ‘n’ Roll. The Chess brothers fanned the flames by directing their marketing strategy to feature their teen-oriented artists like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Dale Hawkins. Muddy handled this gradual turn of events with his usual even- tempered aplomb, while Little Walter seemed to take it more personally. By the decade's close, Walter had become increasingly bitter and distrustful. “I might be wrong, but I don’t believe I ever seen Little Walter without his harp. ~ Robert Junior Lockwood 12 | |In the liner notes to the CD Blues With A Feeling, Mary Katherine Aldin wrote, “His own output of recorded hits was steady, but his mercurial personality took it’s toll. Never easy to get along with, he became occasionally violent as his drinking increased, and more than one band member quit when their leader waved an unsteady hand, holding an even unsteadier pistol, in a heated discussion about money.” There were sparks of genius in the ‘60s - a few wonderful sessions between intervals of inactivity, and a British tour opening (evidently at the suggestion of Mick Jagger) for the Rolling Stones. In ‘65 the Butterfield Blues Band covered three of Walter’s hits on their debut album, bringing him his first real measure of acclaim from the mainstream populace. By ‘66 and ‘67, though, things were not as good, Walter's playing had audibly deteriorated while his self-destructive habits had escalated. The “Super Blues” LP was considered a fiasco. He did get a chance to tour Europe again, this time under the auspices of the American Folk Blues Festival, but what should have been a triumphant return to Britain became less so when Walter alienated the rest of the musicians by berating them in the local press. On the brighter side, Walter played a successful tour of California and seemed buoyed by the reception he received there from the young white audiences. ‘Then he took off home to Chicago, evidently stranding his band in Berkeley - unpaid. Still, in Dylan’s words, the times they were a-changing, and with any luck and/or self-discipline, Walter could have been well-positioned to take advantage of the late “60s “blues revival.” But by then, luck and self-discipline were not his strongest suits. In her book Muddy Waters, The Mojo Man, Sandra Tooze put it thusly, “On Valentine's Day 1968, Little Walter provoked one fight too many. (By now) he was a renegade, brandishing a pistol on and off the stage. Heavy drinking exacerbated his quick temper; his compulsion to fight had left him battered and scarred. “Walter and another man were ‘shooting dice on the sidewalk outside a building,’ Junior Wells reports, ‘and Walter grabbed the money, and the guy took an iron pipe and hit him in the head.’ He didn’t seem hurt; all he wanted was an aspirin for his headache. He went to sleep that night and never woke up.” His life had spanned 37 years. Little Walter Jacobs’ impact on American music cannot be overstated. Had The records made money, but I didn’t get none.” - Little Walter 13he lived, no doubt he would be both amazed and amused by the fact that in virtually every town in the USA (and many towns outside the USA,) there is at least one bar with a local blues band, led by a harmonica player trying his best to sound exactly like Little Walter did a half century ago. In Jim Rooney's book Bossmen, Muddy Waters summed up: “(Walter) had a thing on the harp that nobody had. And today they're still trying for it, but they can't come up to it. It really fitted in with me, what I was doing and he was much younger than me, but he could really understand the blues and he knew what to put in there and when to put it in there. So all I can say is that he is the greatest I've ever heard.” Affidavit of Birth PERSONAL and STATISTICAL PARTICULARS Fullname of dit.A0F46R, Mater Jaoobe Diet i war 3.3932 ceo bin ALDAzSe,_ Ls sexta. uate Pl mame of ther AA BR TAR ERE a Residence a child’ birth S@ROAL DeRsvery...Markaride Loustane ‘Agen cil bie 2, (Clot oF 466m OBES.. " Birthplace... Mavkari2e, Lowalana ~ ceypation at ei Bh MBA EBRD nen oll maiden ame of ther -.-B4MEELO® LAME oernnnn Residence at cil birth... MAPKevEILe Loustana, ‘Age a hil’ inh Color 0F Ean Birthplace... ° ao : Occupation a il ith nn BOAR HES... 1 hereby certify dat Fam the. BSE otha, who was born 00 date shove sented amnawr ele lar LE. ApoRESs.... 20% 0. PH Subseribed and sworn to before me Ellice Aiactere 8. Wiiitoay nie aaa 24 Ah In and forthe. ee ile aa County of nnn ARMOR. 78 MARION WALTER JACOBS TS Sate of .RadAtorate.... \ LITTLE WATE ale, Uy { 5. 1968 ¥ 1.1930 | FEB, Fe MAY LES. KARP. MASTER 14Big Walter Horton 1918-1981 One evening in December of 1966 I sat in front row of the Ash Grove in L.A., having paid all of $2.00 to see slide guitarist J. B. Hutto and his Hawks, a band I knew only from a few cuts on a then-recent Vanguard LP. I had no idea who “his Hawks” would be that night, but midway through the first set I found myself transfixed less by Hutto, but more by the tall, lanky, angular harp player who seemed to be slightly tilted to one side, and who played with an undreamed-of eloquence. This was my introduction to Big Walter Horton. While I was familiar with his recordings for States and Argo Records I wasn't expecting to see him that night, and I remember being so enthralled with his playing that, at the break, I asked both he and J.B. if they would mind my returning the next night with a tape recorder. They somehow refrained from laughing out loud at my 16-year-old enthusiasm, and, to my genuine surprise, agreed. So the following night I hitchhiked back to the Ash Grove, dragging with me a huge, old Wollensak tape machine that my brother and I had acquired by rifling my mother's S & H Green Stamp collection, and placed the thing up near the front row. I had only one reel of tape with me so I set the machine at the slowest possible speed, blissfully unaware of how bad the resultant recording would then be; and I had no real idea how to record a band so I just aimed the tiny crystal mic toward the bandstand, threaded the tape through the beast, and flipped it on. A little red light confirmed that I was now a “recording engineer.” The Hawks were in top form that night, combining J.B.’s slashing guitar with Horton's playful harmonica figures. I became so entranced that I forgot all about the tape recorder. Toward the end of the set I glanced down to discover that I had somehow threaded the machine wrong, and all my tape was being dumped triumphantly, like a massive pile of spaghetti, onto the butt-strewn Ash Grove floor. So much for posterity and an engineering career. By that time Walter Horton was 48 years old. It would be less than honest to say he looked younger; Big Walter wore his hardships on the face. Wrapped up in an oversized gray coat and wearing a Cossack-style fur hat, he always looked as though he were freezing. And he was totally unlike anyone I had ever met before in my sheltered suburban existence. ‘A few months later he was back in town again - this time he was part of Big “There weren't no harmonica players I took from - no, I learned mine's the hard way.” - Big Walter 15Mama Thornton's band. As always his playing was magnificent, but that night he talked to me for awhile in the dressing room....he was drinking wine and told me outrageous stories about how he had taught both Sonnyboy Williamsons, Little Walter, Junior Wells and James Cotton everything they knew; about how Robert Johnson, Lonnie Johnson and (Howlin’ Wolf's one-time guitarist) Willie Johnson were all brothers, and other tales too whimsical to even remember, all delivered with a twinkle in his drifting eye. Even though I knew he was pulling my leg, and I think he knew I knew, I didn’t care as long as I was permitted to be in the presence of greatness. ‘The real Walter Horton story was somewhat different of course; it began with his birth in Horn Lake, Mississippi on April 6, 1918 (or possibly 1917.) Details of Walter's childhood are scanty and his own recollections are rife with ambiguity and flights of fancy, but it is known that he moved to Memphis as a child when his father, Albert, got a job with the city as a handyman. Young Walter became a harmonica prodigy at a very early age, and some of his boyhood friends included Johnny Shines, Eddie Taylor and Floyd Jones. In Memphis he played in the streets and at W.C. Handy Park with people like Little Buddy Doyle, Jack Kelly, Frank Stokes and the Beale Street Sheiks. Several published reports claim that he played and toured with Ma Rainey, and even recorded with the Memphis Jug Band as early as 1927; and there is a “Shakey Walter” listed in Godrich and Dixon's discography as having accompanied the Jug Band on two songs, but whether or not this was Horton remains both unclear and unlikely. More probable is that his recording debut occurred in 1989 on sessions by Little Buddy Doyle for Okeh/Vocalion. In an interview with Mike Rowe for Blues Unlimited, Horton mentioned that Doyle was a “midget,” (it has been speculated that he suffered from encephalitis,) and that they were both “just a couple of kids at the time.” Little is known of Big Walter’s childhood, but those who do remember the family recall Walter’s mother as having been a strict disciplinarian. It is unknown to what extent music was a factor in the home. Guitarist Johnny Shines stated in a self-penned article in The American Folk Music Occasional that the great Robert Johnson was a frequent “guest” at the Horton house, and that Johnson may have had a relationship with one of Walter's sisters: “I only know two women who might have been... close, and they were Shakey Horton's sister and Robert Lockwood Jr.'s mother,” said Shines. “I have heard Bob (Robert Johnson) talk more about Shakey’s “This harmonica blowing, it’s not something Big Walter picked up, he was born to do it.”- Johnny Shinessister than anyone else... Robert spent a lot of time getting the attention of girls...and he spent the rest of the time trying to get away from them.” No one has ever mentioned how Big Walter spent the War years, except it has been suggested (by David Whiteis, in his brilliant article “I Mean It From My Heart” - Juke Blues Magazine #37, 1996,) that he may have been able to avoid the draft by taking a government job. In a 1978 interview with Bob Rusch in Cadence, Horton himself commented, “I met John Lee (Williamson - aka Sonnyboy 1) in 1940, because the poor men were in the Army but my eyesight was bad.” In any event, it is known that some of his day jobs included driving a tractor for S. K. Jones Construction, delivering ice, cooking at the Peabody Hotel and driving a cab (first in Memphis and later in Chicago.) It has also been suggested that he may have spent at least some of the late ‘40s in a southern prison camp. By the early ‘50s Horton was alternating between Memphis and Chicago, and by ‘51 he was recording again, this time for Sam Phillips at the fabled Sun Studios. The Sam Phillips story has been told and retold to the point of redundancy, but suffice it to say that in those pre-Elvis years, Phillips’ studio was a small operation which concentrated almost exclusively on recording (and subsequently leasing to other labels) the music of Memphis’ black community. Many a fine blues artist from Howlin’ Wolf to Little Milton, James Cotton to B.B. King, and Dr. Ross to Junior Parker got their first real taste of recording at Sun Studios. Horton's first project there consisted of a test that Phillips sent on to the Bihari brothers at Modern/RPM Records in Los Angeles. After hearing the test (which was called simply “Walter’s Instrumental,”) the Bihari’s accepted and released - as by “Mumbles” - two complete sessions of Walter’s material. Not much came of these 78s, however, and they are among the scarcest post-war blues records coveted by today’s collectors. ‘The years 1952 and 1953 saw Big Walter bouncing back and forth between Chicago and Memphis, recording on a string of releases by Joe Hill Louis, Willie Nix, Gus Jenkins, Johnny Shines and finally, Muddy Waters. Some of his most important work was waxed during this period, including the tonal masterpiece “Easy” (for which Phillips paid Walter $3.00 plus .25 to buy a harp,) and his tour-de- force outings with Johnny Shines for J.0.B. Records. By 1954 Horton was firmly ensconced in Chicago, and recording for States Records. His big break came when Junior Wells was drafted into the Army and “I just loved Big Walter's sound. He had the most beautiful sound. To me, that is what harmonica playing is all about.” - Jerry Portnoy 17Walter was then asked to join the Muddy Waters band, a position that lasted not quite a year. Walter's side of the story was that he missed a gig due to having contracted pneumonia, sent Henry Strong in his place, and got fired for it. Muddy countered that Horton phoned in “sick” but actually took another (better paying) gig across town. For a few extra dollars, Big Walter may have lost the most prestigious job a blues harp player could have ever had. ‘The remainder of the ‘50s saw Big Walter living and recording in Chicago, and playing at the peak of his powers on sessions by Tommy Brown, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Rush, Sunnyland Slim, Otis Spann and others. But as the decade came to a close and the public's taste began to change, he faded more and more from the scene. The ‘60s were a down time for most of the Chicago blues players, at least until late in the decade when the “blues revival” got underway, but Horton persevered and (unlike Little Walter) lived long enough to take advantage of the newfound interest. He resumed touring, saw much of his early catalog reissued and made many new recordings during the ‘70s for Vanguard, Testament, Blind Pig, Alligator and other labels. The passage of time seemed to have little effect. on his playing - if anything, it added substance to his artistic perspective. Walter Horton was dogged by poor health throughout most of his life, a condition that was compounded in his adult years by bouts with alcoholism. Never quite comfortable in the limelight, he seemed content with his role as a master sideman, and was particularly revered overseas. Beginning in 1965, Big Walter made many trips to Europe where he was treated with both the respect and acclaim that somehow eluded him here in the States. Meanwhile, his personal life was going downhill and stories began to circulate regarding the severity of his alcoholism, episodes of family violence and various other difficulties, too-often the result of hard, ghetto life. Southland Blues recently ran an article on Horton (by Martin Gonzales) which included the following observation: “Anecdotes abound of Horton's ability to astonish audiences in Chicago nightclubs, with his ability to play seamless choruses of untold beauty while fending off bouts of drunken unconsciousness...” By 1978, Big Walter was plainly tired. From the previously cited interview in Cadence: “Bluesmen drink because they've got trouble. They got a hell of a lot of trouble. Then when they got the trouble, they drink the whiskey to kill the mind. When they kill the mind, then they can do anything they want. But the average “They underestimated Big Walter because he'd stay loaded most of the time, but once you'd get him in good condition, he could run rings around all of them.” - Willie Dixon Btperson that you see drink whiskey, they got trouble and that trouble hurts hurts... I've been out here (performing) for near 60 years, but I don’t bother nobody, I don't try to hurt no one. I'm lonesome. I feel bad. I get out here and hit the streets, I still feel bad.” In between tours, Walter continued to reside in Chicago. He worked small bar gigs with Floyd Jones, Sunnyland Slim, Eddie Taylor and others, played for tips on Sunday afternoons at the Maxwell Street Market and lived in a series of grim tenement apartments where he attempted to head a large, disorderly and sometimes violent extended family. In the obituary in Living Blues, Jim O'Neal wrote of Big Walter's death from heart failure due to cardiovascular disease in 1981: “Not long after returning from a triumphant performance in Europe, Walter Horton walked away for the last time from the endless domestic turbulence of his South Side home. One morning, a few days and several bottles later, he was found dead in a neighbor's apartment Walter's many friends and admirers knew that his heart had not merely stopped; it had been broken too many times.” As Chris Smith writes, "Walter Horton was a shy, sensitive man who had to deal with poverty and illness most of his life. Often uncommunicative in conversation, he ‘spoke’ through his instrument, creating a world of lyric beauty, wit and energy.” 19Remedial Blues Harp ~ Some Quickie Lessons ~ As stated in the introduction, it is assumed that the player reading this already has a working knowledge of blues harp. If you are familiar with the concept of twelve-bar blues, can hit single notes at will and can bend (and unbend) notes fluently, then congratulations! You get to skip over the next fourteen or so pages, and help yourself to a hot dog and a beer. What follows is a condensed version of a much longer explanation from my earlier book Blues Harmonica. J.T. Brown, Katie and Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers C. 1954 Photographer unknown Walter Horton, Willie and Patty Nix EVAN'S SHUFFLE (Muddy Waters) Vocal by ‘qj. MUDDY WATERS 4 & a Me Sress ngcono °°" 20KEY Notes of the Diatonic Harmonica 1 G BLOW| G DRAW| A 23 B|D D|F# 4 G A Q| Bla 6 D E 78 9 G|B|D A/c E 1 10 An) BLOW|Ap) DRAW|Bpb 2 3 C \Eb Eb| G F |B le F D#F# F# FHA#C# E G# iS) wo P| A/o 1KEY Eo F# Notes of the Diatonic Harmonica DRAW|F #| B |[D#F# A|C#D#F#| A |C# 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 BLOW| F/A\C/F/A\C/F/A F DRAW|G|C | E|G/Bp D|E |G D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 BLOW|Dp| F [Awe] F [Av[Dy] F [Aw DRAW|Eb|Ap} C |Ep|Go|Bu| C |En|Gu/ Bo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 BLow D [Fs A|D|F# A] D/F# A/D praw E|A/c# E|G/BicvE |elB 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 BLOW|Ep| G |Bo|Ep| G |Bv| Eb| G |Bo|/Ev DRAW| F |Bo| D| F |Ap| C | D | F |Au| C 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 BLow E G4 B/E |G# B/E G# B/E A 9 c Bo 9 1 BLOW|F#A#C4HF# dca Fades FH DRAW|G#C#| F |G# B D# F G4 B D#How To Hold Your Harp Basically, no set way - what ever’s most comfortable for you. Make sure the har- monica is face-up, though, meaning the low notes are on the left. (The little numbers are then visable on the top of the harp.) How the harp fits into your hands will depend upon how large your hands are. Big beefy paws (like mine) are an advantage. As a general rule, the harp is supported by the left hand, leaving the right hand to pivot, cup, wah-wah and otherwise effect the sound of the thing, (Some lefties might feel more comfortable reversing this.) A few harpists (including Sonny Terry) play the harp upside-down - i.c. low notes to the right, Obviously in Sonny's case this was no handicap. In The Harp Styles of Sonny Terry, Sonny told Fred Palmer, "They tell me that's wrong, you know. [f it is, I don't wanna be right. See, if | hold the bass on the left, and then I start to move on the harp, well, then I ain't got nothin’ left down there!” Stil, Sonny was the exception rather than the rule. Below you'll find some photos of various hand placements. Try them all and see what feels most comfortable, My own position most closely resembles the bottom right photo. In any case, the object is to form a cup with your hands around the back side of the harp. Experiment with this until this cup is as airtight as possible. The object is not to choke off the sound, but to be able to control it by opening up the cup at strategic times without dropping your harp. The resultant effects will be covered in a few pages. 23The Tablature System Harmonica tab really couldn't get much more basic. As you can see by looking at your harp, all the holes have numbers - | through 10. In the tab system, those numbers work in conjunction with arrows, An arrow pointing up designates a "blow:" a down arrow isa "draw." Thus, in the example below the player is to blow hole 4, then draw hole 4: 44 tt If the arrow is longer, this means to play that note for a longer period of time, as in: tht ‘If more than one number is present, the player isto hit all the numbers given, as in: 1 2 3 t Obviously harmonica tab is not a complete notation system, but more of a short- hand. The only consideration given as to time is the arrow length, and even that is subject to interpretation. But it's the nature of the harmonica to be freely interpreted, improvised and messed with. If there is any instrument for which standard notation would be too re~ straining and constricting, it is the harmonica. ‘OH BABY “ROCKER UTTLE WALTER (Checer 793) back into) the market with what looks like ane of hie strony The latest, “Oh Baby,” is lek feet jump ditty that ecm mouth organ and vee Keenult jen poscerful platter Walter given a botines reading te a guiek beat howe little Wate full advantage. Th " Some “trrife st arn wate ment. ‘Another © Little Walter ounces ight perhaps just 1 sade 24Single Notes The most important first lesson on the harp is to learn to hit single notes accurately and at will. And it'll take some practice. The initial tendency is to blow on 2 or 3 holes at the same time. To do so makes a nice chord, and sounds fine - but the essence of blues harp is single notes and bent notes, I cannot overemphasize the importance of accurate single notes. To start out with, take your 2 index fingers and cover up every hole except 4, then blow into hole 4. That's a single note. Now take your index fingers away and see if you can repeat this. Chances are your breath is now also leaking into one of the holes next to 4. Without realizing it, you may be hitting 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5.) Be aware of the shape of your mouth. The opening of your lips must be small - think of yourself as drinking through a straw. Pucker your lips, as though you're saying “ooo,” and if you're still having a problem try to alter the shape of the pucker. See if you can make the opening smaller, like a sideways oval RECORD [TT 3238 | 2B HAVE A GOOD TIME (Bedno) SHAKEY HORTON 5002 25Straight Harp Playing "straight harp" simply means playing the harmonica in the key for which it was designed - i, playing a "C" harmonica in "C." In order to understand the principle, we need to take a look at the way harmonicas are tuned. All diatonic harps have 10 holes, each of which contain 2 reeds - 1 blow reed and 1 draw reed. The blow reeds are located on the top of the harp, the draw reeds on the bottom. Here's a C harp layout: DIATONIC C HARP 1 2 3 BLOW C | E |G DRAW|D/G|B This configuration is known as Richter tuning, named after the Bohemian instru- ment maker who developed it. Notice the blow notes; they are all either C, E or G. Those of you who have studied a bit of music will recognize that C, E and G make up the 3 notes of the C-chord triad (i.e. the tonic, third and fifth of the C-scale.) This arrangement is far from accidental. ‘The original premise, no doubt, was to arrange the notes so that no matter where one blows multiple notes on aC harp, a C-chord (in one inversion or another) is the result. ‘Take a blow on holes 1, 2 and 3 simultaneously. What you'te playing is a classic C- chord. Move on up the harp and blow on 4, $ and 6, and you get the same C-chord one octave higher. Ditto 7, 8 and 9. Now let's explore the draw notes. They're a little more varied,, and contain G, A, B, Dand F. What is the relationship? These notes form a dominant ninth chord (G9) in rela~ tion to the root(C.) Because the harp is set up this way, “straight harp" is particularly suitable for simple melodies, folk songs, campfire ditties, etc. Both the basic melodies and the appro- priate chords are readily available. Whenever you hear some cowpoke play "Red River Valley" or "Oh Susanna" in a John Wayne movie, he's playing straight harp. Is it appropriate for blues? Sure, sometimes - but not all that often. We go into the why and wheres of that in our discussion of “cross harp." But still, straight harp is the place fostart! Ya gotta leam to walk before you can run. Straight harp is the easiest way to get familiar with the instrament, and to learn to get around on it. And everything you leam from playing straight harp will come handy later on. A little earlier we talked about single notes, and the importance of leaning to hit just one note at a time. Keep that in mind as you play the following: 44556677 fitdtedt 26This, of course is the C-major scale (do, re, mi, ete.) Practice this over and over again. Now try it backwards: 17665544 fretted If it sounds too full, you're probably hitting more than one note at a time. Make the opening in your mouth smaller and try it again. If something sounds rattly, don’t immediately assume you have a defective harp. More likely, you're simply drawing harder than you need to. Try playing it softer. Sure, I know it’s kinda stupid just to play the scale over and over again - but the pur- pose is to get you used to playing single notes. Once you feel like you've got it, then go on to one of these insipid little tunes: Here's one everybody knows. It only involves blow notes. TAPS eu —pu | | Taps is very forgiving, in that if you're having problems hitting single notes it still sounds pretty much OK. This is due to the way the harp is tuned. But, again, the object here isto hit single notes. Now let's incorporate the draw reeds. I'm assuming you all know how this one's supposed to gos zoe i * Phane OA, 43641 CHICAGO. WL \WAY MUDDY WATERS -G on ae, Chess Recorder esi) GC 4 KING OF THE BLUES ——— \ 502 4339 Lake Park Ave. Chicago 15,[IlinoisTTTET TATE 777666555444 Prete rrttttt Hegthpett | ttpat| tyCAMPTOWN RACES rretltt t] t] ttttatt [thy tttty Lut] 6656665 455544 5555555555445 4 555 555Cross Harp To understand cross harp is to understand blues harp - it's that basic. The over- whelming majority of all recorded blues harmonica (as well as bluegrass, country and rock n' roll) is played in this position and manner. So what is cross harp? Cross harp is simply the common name for second position or Mixolydian mode - but don't let that scare you, In essence, all it means is that instead of #4 biow being the Toot note (as in straight harp,) now #2 draw is the root note, Somewhere along the line, somebody discovered that if a player were to emphasize the draw notes and bend the draw notes, that a very bluesy sound was the result. And that if the root note was the #2 draw, the ensuing scale would lend itself toward that kind of sound. Hence, cross harp. ‘So what does it mean to the player? It means that you are no longer playing the harp inthe key for which it was designed. In fact, the harp you use is 4 steps up the scale from the key you want to play in; thus, to play in C you'd need an F harp. Take a look at the following chart: CROSS HARP CHART KEY YOU WANT TO PLAY IN Little Walter on harp Let's suppose some guitar player says to you: "Hey, let's play in A." Taking a peek at this chart will tip you off that you'll need to grab your D harp. often recommend to beginning students that they Xerox this chart and keep it with their harps until they've memorized it. Another idea is to mark each harp case with a magic marker, noting which cross key each plays in. Eventually, though, you'll need to memorize this information. By playing in cross position, the emphasis of the wind direction will change. In other words, instead of primarily blowing your harp, you will be primarily drawing, Blues harp is at least 80% draw notes, so warm up your chops and get ready to suck! “Big Walter started playing harp when he was only five years old. And he was the best....He could play any kind of harp in any style.” - David “Honeyboy” Edwards 30Bending WHAT? "Bending" notes is simply another way to describe the flattening or downward alter- ing of the pitch of a given note. Leaming to accurately bend notes is the key to playing blues harmonica, HOW? The bend is achieved by altering both the shape of the mouth and the nature of the wind supply. A tone on the harmonica can only be bent downward in pitch; it's impossible to bend a note upward (although it is possible to create the illusion of an upward bend - well explore that in a couple of pages.) WHY? There are several reasons for bending notes. As we discussed earlier, the diatonic harp is only capable of producing a limited number of tones, and does not include all the notes of the chromatic scale. By learning to bend the existing notes, a player expands the capability of the instrument dramatically. Perhaps even more important, the very nature of the bent note is the essence of blues. If we listen to an expert blues guitarist, for example, we'll constantly hear bent strings - the creation and release of tension employed by this glis- sando effect is a comerstone of blues. The basis for bent (or "blue") notes probably comes from the West African vocal scale, which employs minor thirds, flatted fifths and minor sevenths. These effects have be- corne so much a part of contemporary music that they are often taken for granted by both vocalists and instrumentalists, CROSS HARP ‘The main reason that cross harp is the favored position for blues has to do with the bent note. As we shall see, on the lower 6 holes of the harp it is impossible to bend the blow reeds - only the draw reeds can be bent. And since bent notes are the keystone of the blues sound, we will want to employ them often; thus, we must draw often. The result be- ‘comes cross harp. (See chapter on cross harp if confused.) T. - Ww. First of all its extremely difficult to bend 2 notes at the same time - therefore, if you're still having trouble hitting one note at a time you will not have success bending. Practice is essential... don't jump the gun. Be sure you are comfortable with single notes. Take an inhale on hoie #1. Listen to the note and memorize how it sounds. Now, as you're drawing in air, experiment with changing the pressure and shape of your mouth. Try sucking harder arid moving your jaw around slightly. Various people have success with various techniques, so you might try some of the following: 311, Say “oooh - aaah - oooh - aaah" to yourself while drawing the note. 2. Say "oooy - o00y - oooy."" 3. Raise and/or lower your jaw a bit. 4, Shift your tongue back in your mouth. 5. Pinch the wind supply by tightening the tension in the throat. 6. Tense your lips slightly. 7. Suck harder! At least one of these techniques (or perhaps all of them in conjunction) ought to work for you. ‘The result should be that the note dips downward in pitch, Is it working? If not, keep messing with it itll come. Bending can be elusive at first... recall having a terrible time with it until suddenly it just hit me, Norton Buffalo de- scribes the phenomenon as akin to trying to suck a really thick milk shake through a straw... a big chunk of ice cream'll get stuck, necessitating more pressure, but then it eventually comes free with a thunk. That "thunk" is the bend. Once you've gotten to the point where you can make #1 draw go down in pitch, move up the harp to #2 draw and try it there. Thisll be a litle harder because there are now holes both to the left and the right of the hole you're working. Again, make sure you're only hit- ting #2 draw. Give it a shot. Now try #3 draw, and #4, etc., right on up the harp. ‘What you'll notice is that once you get way up the harp (#7-#10) itl get impossible to bend the draw notes. This is due to the harp's construction, not your playing, so don't worry about it. BENDABILITY The various holes have differing amounts of "bendability” - that is to say you can bend certain holes further in pitch than others. Hole #2 can be bent 2 semitones, hole #3 can be bent 3 semitones, and holes #1, 4, 5 and 6 can only be bent 1 + semitone. These factors apply no matter what key harp you use, and are the direct result of the Richter tuning. Bending these draw notes (#! - #6) is something you will want to practice again and again and again! This is the single most important technique in blues harp! "UPWARD" BENDS Again, it is not possible to bend a note upward in pitch; we can only flatten a note downward. But let's look a litte closer: Try bending hole #2 draw. Start out by drawing normally, then slowly bend it down in pitch, and then slowly release the bend until it returns to it's normal pitch. On a graph, such a tone would look like this: normal \ J normal bent _As you've just discovered, if you allow your mouth to return to "normal" while bending a note, the pitch rises back up to "normal," Let's look at that graph again: normal N\ 4 ‘normal bent 32If we chop off the first part of the graph, in other words if we start the note already bent and simply release the bend, then the graph looks like this: Ina nutshell: while we can't truly bend a given note upward, we can create the illusion of an upward bend by pre-bending the note downward, and then simply releasing the bend. Like everything else, this takes practice. You'll need to attack the note in a more aggressive fashion and really bite into it. The more comfortable you get with pre-bending, the easier everything else be- comes, Another technique is to chop off both the first part and the last part of this graph. in other words, to hit only the bent part of the note. To do this adds a (previously unattain- able) note to your harp. Extrapolate this over the entire harp and you've now added a lot of new notes, HIGH-NOTE BLOW-BENDS ‘These are not as essential to master as the draw bends, but they do add a lot in terms of variety and dynamics. As we discovered earlier, on the bottom holes of the harp, only the draw notes can be bent, Itis a quirk in design, though, that on the top holes, only the blow notes can be bent. The technique used to get these high-note blow-bends is somewhat different, and a bit more difficult, Right off the bat you'll notice that they are much easier to accomplish on lower-keyed harps, so try this out on a G. A, or Bb harp. (You'll find it nearly impossible on, for example, an F harp.) First let's isolate #9 blow on an A harp. Play it lightly and listen to the tone. Now, purse your lips, blow harder, and raise your tongue upward as you blow. Hopefully, the re- sult will be a downward lowering of the pitch. Again, this technique is not easy at first - you may have to mess around with it for awhile before it clicks. Keep trying though, and eventually it'll come to you. Incidentally if you'te a feline fancier, this'l drive your cats right out of the house... also, this turns some dogs into psychopathic howling banshees, which may open up a whole career for you on Letterman's "Stupid Pet Tricks." Just put my 15% in the mail. These blow-bends are particularly handy on holes #8-#10. Take a listen to Jimmy Reed for a lesson from a master of this technique IN SUM Basically, blues harmonica is nothing more than a series of bent, unbent and partially bent notes strung together in cohesive phrases over a skeletal structure. Later on I'll map out (in tablature) many of the most recurrent phrases, together with a bunch of riffs and tricks - but before we go on, practice bending until your lips bleed! “When (Big) Walter was in the right mood, he could be the most ferocious, the most in- ventive, the most dangerous harp player I ever heard.” - Charlie MusselwhiteSeeing Big and Trying to See Little 4 short personal saga During the mid-to-late’60s I was a high school student in Los Angeles, gigging occasionally as a singer/harmonica player with a local outfit called the Yerba Buena Blues Band. We played the “Love-Ins,” the Sunset Strip nightclubs, private parties and the like, and I gained a world of stage experience during that era. Thanks to clubs like the Ash Grove and the Troubadour (both of which allowed minors,) we were also able to see nearly all our musical heroes play live - that is, all except for Little Walter. I first saw the Muddy Waters Blues Band in ‘66. Although Little Walter had left that band years before, he still recorded intermittently with Muddy so my band mates and I were hoping to see him on stage. Of course he wasn’t there, but that night I was introduced to a couple of other inspirations - young guys named James Cotton and Otis Spann. It was also in 1966 that I saw Walter Horton for the first time, at the Ash Grove, and he was brilliant! Playing through one of the cheesiest-looking microphones I had ever seen, he still managed to generate a tone so thick it almost knocked me over. I went to see him two nights in a row, and on the second night I recall asking him if he still played “Hard Hearted Woman,” a harmonica tour-de- force he had recorded twice. Walter vehemently denied ever having recorded (or even having heard of) the song, and became visibly angry and upset about it. About an hour later he played a masterful, 15-minute version. In the summer of ‘66, we heard that Little Walter was finally coming to California. The nearest he would get to us was the Bay Area, some 400 miles north, but that didn’t stop some of us from trying to attend. The Yerba Buene’s bass player and I took off hitchhiking, broke, fully prepared to sneak into the Longshoreman’s Hall in San Francisco to see his gig. But after four hours stranded without a ride in the city of Oxnard, we had to give it up. Had I known that would be my only chance to see Little Walter, I might've pressed on... but who would've thought he would only live to be 37? In mid ‘67 an ad ran in the L.A. Free Press: Little Walter was coming to the Ash Grove! Our whole band descended on the place, hours in advance of the show. 34T'd never seen a picture of him and I remember wondering why they called him “Little” Walter, because onstage he was a rather large man - bigger, in fact than Big Walter. The guitarist, Pee Wee Crayton, played a few tunes and then introduced him: “Ladies and Gentlemen, please put your hands together for Little Walter!” But the harp player scowled. “I ain't Little Walter,” he said, “my name is George Smith.” Turned out the Ash Grove had billed the show as “Little Walter Jr.,” a moniker George had occasionally used on recordings. In the ad, the “Jr.” was in such tiny print that we hadn’t noticed it. And George was great....and he became a friend... Meanwhile, Big Walter was playing the Ash Grove with some regularity, and I was attending with equal frequency. An engaging if quirky man, he took to calling me “Grampa”.....1 was very flattered until I realized that he called everyone “Grampa,” regardless of their age or gender. By early ‘68 'd graduated high school and immediately hitchhiked up to Berkeley, partly to raise hell and try to meet girls, but also partly to see some good music. In those days Berkeley was a hotbed of activity - ‘60s politics, the arts, and the “new morality” all combined to make it an interesting place for a 17-year-old in search of new experiences. Living on my band mate John Koenig's floor and subsisting almost entirely on a diet of potatoes, I somehow managed to sneak into a lot of terrific concerts: Magic Sam, Albert Collins, Shakey Jake, and the California debut of Albert King (on a bill with Paul Butterfield and Jimi Hendrix.) One night in mid-February, John and I went to see the new James Cotton Blues Band - James was on fire that night - and after the show it was drummer Francis Clay who told us of Little Walter's death. The following year I decided to hitchhike from California to the Ann Arbor Blues Festival. Took me a week to get there, but that’s another story. After the festival - three days of blues heaven. - I'd heard so much about Theresa’s Lounge in Chicago that I took a side trip to the Windy City on the hitch home. Reaching downtown on a Monday night, I checked into the YMCA and proceeded to try to negotiate the El down to 48th and Indiana on the South Side. Horton was supposed to be playing at Theresa’s that night but he was sick, so a tired looking and uninspired Junior Wells filled in. I don't know exactly what I was expecting from Theresa's - maybe something extreme: I wanted it either to be a shrine to Muddy and Little Walter, or to be a ghetto hell-hole. But it was neither; it was just a rather down-on-its’-luck local bar in a marginal neighborhood. (This filled me with 35the same vague disappointment I felt when I asked a cop in San Antonio how to get to the Alamo and he said,” You can’t miss it - it’s right around the corner, across from Woolworth’s.” And it was - complete with a “Vasquez Sno-Kone” stand in front of it.) Anyhow, Walter Horton continued to tour and I saw him many more times until he passed in 1981, but I never did get to see Little Walter Jacobs. I know that by most accounts Little Walter was past his prime by the mid-’60s, but it wouldn't have mattered to me..... instead I spent my remaining teenage years wearing out his web-top Checker 45s. And I still curse the place under my breath every time I pass through the city of Oxnard. Little Walter Little Walter's first amplified recording 36 ss2yD/VOW As2uIM09 o1ouLittle Walter's Style Diatonic vs. chromatic Little Walter was a master of the diatonic and no slouch at the chromatic; he used both - sometimes in the same song! Although this book is directed toward his diatonic playing, the decision to do so is based more upon the author's shortcomings than anything else. Fact is, I’m not much of a chromatic player so rather than insult the intelligence of the chromatic-playing public by merely dabbling with it, I've chosen to leave that particular aspect of his style to those with a more thorough understanding of it. Although he often posed with a chromatic in his publicity shots, Walter played diatonic about 90% of the time. Hopefully though, somebody will come out with a “Little Walter Licks Book For Chromatic Harp” - I'd be the first to buy it! But even the chromatically-impaired can hear that when Walter played chrom he usually used a C, playing it most often in third position (resulting in D-minor.) He used the slide button sparingly, if at all. In preparing this book I listened (or relistened) to virtually all of both Walters’ recorded legacies - a very interesting and enlightening exercise since I hadn’t heard some of the material in years. In my flawed memory I had thought Jacobs used chromatic and third-position diatonic much more often than he actually did....the reality is that, like most of his contemporaries, Little Walter played cross harp the overwhelming majority of the time. What made him unlike most of his contemporaries is that he played it so eloquently. For diatonic, Jacobs used the Hohner Marine Band. Of course, most of the 10- hole diatonics in widespread use today (like the Golden Melody, Lee Oskar, Special 20, Huang, Meisterklasse, Herring, Blues Harp, etc.,) were not yet available during his time; one can only speculate as to whether or not he might've switched, given more choices. And how might Little Walter have utilized the many other options and advancements that players have today, like minor-keyed harps, custom tunings, discrete combs, whole-tone chromatics, custom comb materials, partially valved diatonics and the like? Would he have gotten into overblows? Would he have “Little Walter was crazy. He was like a flea: he was hoppin” - David “Honeyboy” Edwards 37spurned, or been intrigued by all the electronic innovations of the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s? Because he’s been gone more than 30 years it’s hard to remember that had he lived, Little Walter Jacobs would be in his early 70’s today, younger than B.B. King or Chuck Berry, Fats Domino or James Brown. Positions As you are doubtless aware, a “position” simply refers to the key you're playing your harp in - or where to find your “root” note. Most of the licks in this book are played in second position, i.e. “cross harp,” which is what both Walters used most of the time. (A more thorough explanation of cross harp is included elsewhere in the “Remedial Blues Harp” section.) In addition to cross, though, Little Walter sometimes played in third and on rarer occasions in first position. In a 1967 interview in Living Blues he also talked about fourth position, but evidently he did not record in fourth. ‘Third Position Also known as “minor dorian,” this is where a C harp plays in D-minor. The principle involved is to use the #1 draw as your root note. (Technically, the available scale in this position isn’t strictly minor; the third and seventh are minor, but the sixth is major.) But don’t let all this tech-speak scare you off....third position can come in handy. In simple terms, you play a harp tuned only one tone (two half-steps) below the guitar key. Third position has it’s pluses and minuses. Although it’s possible to play in the major key in third, most players find it more useful for minor keyed stuff. And while it works for single note runs, third is not the best position for backing chords or rhythm accompaniment - too much dissonance. Although this book concentrates on cross harp playing, no discussion of Little Walter's style would be complete without at least mentioning third position, so below is a chart showing which harp plays in which key in third: “Little Walter once got into a shooting match with a winehead and ended up missing and shooting himself in the leg.” - Jerome ArnoldTHIRD POSITION CHART HARP KEY THIRD POSITION KEY G Am Ab Bbm A Bm Bb Cm B C#m c Dm Db Ebm D Em Eb Fm E F#m F Gm F# Gém Style Little Walter’s early influences included both Sonnyboys, and he also undoubtedly listened closely to Chicago rival Snooky Pryor. Jimmy Rogers has stated that there was an ongoing cat-and-mouse game between Big Walter and Little Walter (quoting from John Collis’ “The Story of Chess Records:”) “Horton would show (Little) Walter something new and would have his advice arrogantly rejected - only for (Little) Walter to practice it and add it to his harmonica language.” Jacobs was also known to have been influenced by alto saxophonist Louis Jordan; and if you'll forgive the generélization, Little Walter did tend to approach his instrument like many horn players do - that is, playing across the song, often avoiding limitations of rhythm and melody by weaving in and out in counterpoint to the other musicians. Playing in second position (cross harp,) Little Walter was inhaling most of the time. He is quoted in later years as saying that playing accompaniment to Muddy Waters was physically more demanding than leading his (Walter's) own band - when leading, Walter could sing the wind out and then inhale it back through the harp. “Little Walter had the best sound of any harmonica player... Big Walter Horton, he was the best harmonica player there ever was, but Little Walter had the best sound - a sound and a style like no one else before or since.” - David “Honeyboy” Edwards aaHis style included many clipped starts and stops, which he achieved by bouncing the tongue off either the roof of the mouth, the back of the upper teeth or the face of the harp. To illustrate how this works, try saying to yourself the words: “Dit, dit, dit, dit.” Now say them while inhaling. That's the core of the technique in a nutshell, but Walter often expanded on this by inhaling in more of a “ba-dip, ba- dip, ba-dip” fashion, and exhaling with various articulations (like “ta,” “ka,” “da,” etc.) Little Walter often started blow notes in the lower range of the harp with a tongue slap, an effect which gives punch to the note. And he obviously used the tongue-block method to great benefit for simultaneous rhythm and melody, octave splits and many chords. One of the simple tongue-blocks we hear him play most often is a simultaneous inhale of holes 2 and 5 (with the tongue blocking out holes 3 and 4.) This results in a minor-seventh interval when played cross, a jazzy and hip configuration. (For more on tongue-block vs. pucker, see both the section on Big Walter’s style and the short section called “Tongue Block.”) Much of the trademark Little Walter sound has to do with his approach to the microphone. By cupping his hands completely around both mic and harp, Walter was among the first to actually utilize the microphone as more than simply a device to raise volume - it was now an integral part of the instrument itself. A much lengthier discussion of both his and Big Walter’s mics and equipment will follow in the “Amplification” chapter, but for now it’s sufficient to say that every harp player who plugs into an amp blows in the shadow of Little Walter. Little Walter, Photo Brian Smith 40Big Walter’s Style Diatonic vs. chromatic An out-and-out genius at diatonic harp, Big Walter never officially recorded on achromatic. The only known recordings of him playing chrom are bootleg tapes - one made at the Ash Grove and another at a birthday party in Germany while he was on tour there in the late ‘60s. Although some of the latter was actually released on a European label after Walter’s death, by most accounts it’s hardly worth seeking out. Fact is, Big Walter was neither a fan nor a proficient player of the chromatic harp. He is known to have said the chromatic would “fry your brain.” Positions Like Little Walter and others, Horton was a natural master of second position (cross harp,) but Big Walter also recorded quite often in first position. (First position being the same as “straight harp.” If necessary, see explanation in “Remedial Blues Harp” section.) Some of his licks in first position will be tabbed out in the Big Walter Licks section that follows. He rarely recorded in third position, and (to my knowledge) never in fourth or above. Style It is almost impossible for any listener (this listener included) to determine with absolute certainty whether a player is hitting a specific single note via a pucker or via a tongue-block, The only clues might be the notes which directly precede and/or follow the note in question (i.e., the context of the note within a given phrase,) or in some cases the articulation or audible tongue-slap of a note. Big Walter was an exceptional tongue-blocker when he wanted to be, and my ears tell me that he tongue-blocked much (if not most) of the time. Case in point: in September of 1952, Walter Horton did his fourth recording session at Sam Phillips’ Sun studios in Memphis. In those pre-Sun Records days, Phillips would record the talent and then lease the masters to established labels like Modern, RPM and Chess. At this particular session Horton did two sides: “West Winds Are Blowing” (2 takes) and “Little Walter’s Boogie” (4 takes,) which “T like to play loud.” - Big Walter 41were then leased to Chess. The coupling was assigned a Chess release number (CH- 1529,) but was subsequently canceled before it’s release. One can only speculate that perhaps the Chess brothers, who were then having great success with another harmonica-playing artist by the same name, felt that “Little Walter’s Boogie” was too awkward a title to be released by someone else. Although they could have chosen to retitle it, they did not do so and this masterpiece languished in the vaults until the mid ‘70s when Charly Records finally released it in Europe. In any event, “Little Walter's Boogie” (take 4) by Big Walter is a virtual non- stop showpiece of magnificent tongue-block style Chicago blues harp. At times (especially in the first couple of verses) you could almost mistake it for two harpists playing simultaneously. Highly recommended listening. Another thought regarding tongue-block vs. pucker (and this applies to both Walters:) with the exception of “splits” and/or simultaneous rhythm and melody playing, a player can use any embouchure and still play the riffs of a player using a different embouchure, if one has the skills to adapt and compensate (please continue reading the next short discussion of “Tongue Block.”) Noted harpists Kim Wilson and Rod Piazza, for example, approach phrases differently; while both of these gifted players use both tongue block and pucker, Rod employs the pucker for a lot of single note playing while Kim uses more frequent tongue-blocking for single notes, especially the higher notes (and including bends). On the other hand, Norton Buffalo uses an entirely different embouchure altogether, actually rolling his tongue into a U-shape; and overblow pioneer Howard Levy is a strict puckerer, Bottom line? Ideally it would be best to know as many techniques as possible, but each player should use whatever works for them. Big Walter Horton used many different techniques with regard to attack. His inhaled chords sometimes began with a short exhaled burst or a quick tongue pull- off, resulting in a sudden and sharp onset, and his lip and tongue articulation was dramatic and varied - one can almost hear him speaking little words as he plays. He was also a master of all the shadings made possible by amplification. Melodically and rhythmically it would be accurate to say that Walter Horton went out onto fewer limbs than did his counterpart Walter Jacobs. Perhaps this was due to Horton’s years and years of playing unaccompanied, but for whatever reason, he was more likely to play with a tune than to play across it like Little Walter. While certainly not as reliant upon high blow-bends as-someone like, say, 4DJimmy Reed, Big Walter did utilize this area of the harp more often than many other Chicago-style players. One of his most famous songs “Hard Hearted Woman” employs high blow-bends (in first position) as it’s central hook - we'll analyze that one in the “Licks” section. Big Walter also used a lot of ‘tricks’ in performance: playing through his nose, playing into a glass, holding the microphone up to his throat, etc. Players are certainly encouraged to try out new and different things, but while showmanship can be a viable part of any harp player’s performance, personally I draw the line at blowing my schnozz into my harp so these particular aspects are not covered in this volume. As to his legendary bell-like tone: well....if anyone knew precisely how he did it, then Big Walter wouldn't be the only who ever sounded like that! Much of his tone was generated by his uncanny throat vibrato and breath control. Like Little Walter and others, Walter Horton cupped both the harp and mic with his hands, but even when playing acoustically Horton’s “cup” was very pronounced. Of course he had the advantage of having very large hands, and his cup goes at least part of the way toward explaining his tone. (If you simply form a cup all the way around your mouth - without a harp - and then speak, you can clearly hear the resultant change in the tone of your speaking voice.) Still, many players have big hands and pronounced cups, but they sure don’t sound like Big Walter! It’s easy to understand why so many of today’s best harpists consider Big Walter Horton to be the absolute, utter, consummate King of Tone. ee Ud Cty (MEM 18) GRIEF WILL KILL YOU TCO cs Cent and Guitar -C, Doyle- Ua itansu)) Od 43Tongue-Block Gefore reading this, please go back and read the section regurding tongueblock and pucker in the discussion of Big Walter's style.) As stated elsewhere, both Walters employed the tongue-block (or TB) technique in their playing. There are those who would say that mastery of the TB is essential if one wants to truly understand and “correctly” play Chicago-style amplified blues harp. However, except with regards to “splits,” there are other ways to achieve the same effects, and this might be as good a time as any to take a look at a few of them. The TB technique is most often employed by mouthing three holes at once, then using the tongue to “block” out two of them, thus leaving one hole to be played. Most often it is the two holes on the left that are blocked out. In the example below, holes 2, 8 and 4 are mouthed, while the tongue is blocking holes 2 and 3, leaving hole 4 to be played. So why learn the TB when it's probably easier to simply pucker and play hole 4? The answer lies in the subtle sounds that can be achieved by tongue blocking that the puckerer cannot get; at least not unless he employs a “fake tongue block.” For example, what we often hear from both Walters is a kind of “tongue-slap.” This is when a player begins his attack by blowing all three of the holes, but a split- second after starting, he'll slap his tongue down onto the face of the harp and block out the two holes on the left. The result is that a larger amount of air pressure is then forced through the one hole the player wants to sound. It's a subtle technique, but one that both Walters often used.In addition, both men also used a “tongue pull-off,” in which the player begins drawing while the tongue is actually blocking all the holes, then suddenly pulls the tongue away. The result is an attack of more velocity. And sometimes the draw pull-off is quickly followed by a blow tongue-slap. Of course, both players also used the tongue for “splits,” which happen when a player wants to hit, say, holes 2 and 5 but not 3 and 4. Splits are the one and only TB technique (aside from actual two-part counterpoint) that cannot be “faked” by a pucker-style player. Otherwise, there are ways to imitate the TB without actually using it. For example, one can do a “fake TB” by alternating quickly back and forth between a single note and a three-note chord. Try playing a 2-draw pucker style with an inhaled "doo" or "too" consonant attack. Then, after the note sounds, put a bit more of the harmonica in your mouth (or open your mouth a little bigger) and draw holes 1, 2 and 8 with a "cha"consonant attack. This takes chops and skill to accomplish, but then, so does the TB! ‘The ‘tongue-slap’ can also be “faked” by accurately sliding quickly from a 3- note chord to the one (top) note and then increasing the pressure. There are some players who can use both TB and fake-TB so well that it is quite impossible to tell the difference by listening (Dave Barrett and Mark Hummel both come to mind.) Bottom line? As stated elsewhere, (with the exception of splits) in my opinion a player can use any embouchure and still play the riffs of a player using a different embouchure, providing one has the skills to adapt and compensate. Ideally it would be best to learn both TB and puckering, but ultimately the decision is your’s and either way has both pluses and minuses. A quick word on tongue injuries: many of today’s most prominent TBers use plastic combed harps (Special 20, Golden Melody, Lee Oskar etc.) This is probably because the wood comb harps tend to swell, making the posts protrude; an uncomfortable (and possibly injurious) prospect for the TBer. Still, there are other harpers that swear by the wood combed models (Marine Band, Blues Harp etc.) and both Walters played Marine Bands. Another thing to remember: a professional player is likely to have several harps in several different keys, and is therefore less likely to use any one harp for more than 5 or 10 minutes at a time before resting it and moving on to another harp. 45These rest periods will let a wood comb harp dry out, thus slowing down the swelling process. If you are a beginning harp blower, maybe you have only one harp; and you may be playing that one harp for lengthy periods of time. In such cases (if you are using a wood combed harp) your instrument will swell up faster, and therefore become more uncomfortable and less airtight; hence more difficult to play. Little Walter, rhoto Brian SmithAmplification and Both Walters’ Equipment Before getting started on a discussion of amplification and equipment, I need to acknowledge and thank Scott Dirks of Chicago, Illinois. Some of the information that follows (particularly with regard to Little Walter) is due to his years of diligent research and generosity of spirit. Thank you, Scott, I owe you a Guinness! [ Little Walter Acoustic Years Little Walter's earliest recordings (pre-1951) were all acoustic, at least as far as the harmonica was concerned. Listening (or relistening) to his work on tunes like Muddy’s “Louisiana Blues” or “Evans Shuffle” is a true education in the art of acoustic playing - he utilized many of the techniques associated with the “country blues” style, such as hard smacks, cupping, throat-vibrato, tongue-blocks and tremolo. His playing during those years was quite stunning, if somewhat different than the swooping saxophone-like quality we've come to expect from his later recordings. Even if electric instruments had never been invented or come into vogue, Little Walter had already made his mark as a preeminent acoustic harp man. Although Walter had been plugging in at gigs for a few years, the first recorded evidence of him playing in the “new” amplified manner was on Muddy Waters’ recording session of July 11, 1951, which produced the songs “Country Boy,” “She Moves Me,” “My Fault,” and “Still A Fool,” (the latter featuring Walter on guitar.) Little Walter's Equipment As concerned as many of today’s players are about the specifics of Little Walter's set-up, that’s how seemingly unconcerned Walter was at the time. Guitarist Jimmie Lee Robinson, who played with Little Walter from 1956 to 1959, told Scott Dirks that in all those years Walter never came to a Chicago club date “Little Walter was another Robert Johnson...it’s hard to find them kinds of peoples.” - Muddy Waters 47told Scott Dirks that in all those years Walter never came to a Chicago club date with a mic or an amp - he simply played through the house P.A. The Myers brothers and drummer Sam Lay have confirmed this by adding that Jacobs would play through “whatever was available” or “whatever was working.” Of course it must be pointed out that house P.A. systems in the ‘50s were significantly different than they are today - even movie theaters typically used 5-watt McIntosh amps to power (efficient) speakers. The vocal mics may have been crystal bullets, the systems themselves would’ve been tube-driven, and the cabinets probably consisted of a couple of 8” or 10” speakers. In other words an ideal set-up for harp, if terrible for vocal. In the recording studio (post-1951) and at later gigs, Walter did use an amp. But other than one he called an “International,” he didn’t seem to have much of a preference for any one particular brand or model - he used several different amps. More on that a little later. Careful listening to Little Walter's recorded output reveals at least some differences in tonal quality at every session. The extent to which these differences are the result of his own equipment (as opposed to the studio's) can never fully be known, but it’s logical to assume that different mics and amps surely made a contribution to those differences. So, while many of today’s players seem to be on a holy quest to duplicate Little Walter's sound by duplicating his equipment, Walter apparently used whatever was available and he always sounded terrific. That’s because most of his tone was self-generated, and there’s a lesson here. As Steve Baker writes in The Harp Handbook, “A great electric setup does not necessarily guarantee you a great sound in itself - the acoustic tone of the player is the most important single factor. I would recommend anyone who's into electric harp to practice at developing a good acoustic sound too, rather than hoping that the volume and distortion will cover up any failings. All the good electric players have a good acoustic tone on which they build.” Little Walter’s Microphones Little Walter used several different mics during his career. Although one book has stated that the main one he used on his classic ‘50s recordings was a Shure 545-SD “Unidyne III,” the fact is that the Shure Corporation didn’t introduce that 48model until the early ‘60s; and by most accounts Walter did not acquire one until late-1964. It is known from photographs that he sometimes used a similar looking Shure called a 777 “Slim-X” (see figure 3 in the photo that follows.) This was a small, blunt-end vocal mic with a crystal element, introduced in 1952. At some point in the ‘60s Jacobs also played through a cheap Japanese crystal mic called a Monarch MC-24, a knock-off copy of the “Slim-X.” At times Little Walter used an Astatic JT-30 “Spokesman” (figure 1,) as well as an early variant of the JT-30 that he called a “biscuit” (figure 2.) The JT-30s have been around for over 50 years and are still among the most commonly used harp mics today. They come either with a crystal cartridge (JT-30) or ceramic cartridge (JT-30C.) These days there are a few companies marketing customized 4JT-30s with volume controls and other options, but having never played one I don't feel qualified to comment on them. The “biscuits” (figure 2) usually have no identifying names nor model numbers, but were surely made by Astatic - the original elements inside have Astatic markings and a few biscuits have surfaced with “Astatic Corp., Toronto, Canada” written on them. These Canadian versions are sometimes marked “Y-80,” and a few unnamed (presumably American) versions have popped up with the sole designation “30” stamped on them (plus a few more stamped “60”,) but most have no designations at all. I've shown these to a couple of different Astatic employees and although they agreed the mics were made by Astatic, no one wanted to state for the record what they were called or when they were made. During a 1967 interview that later ran in Living Blues, when asked about his mics, Little Walter produced one of these and showed it to the interviewer. “I call them ‘biscuit’ mikes,” he said. “It’s not too heavy, it won't be flyin’ out of your hand when you tryin’ to blow.” As microphones go, these are odd ducks, They look a little like a brown JT-30 with part of the back missing (or some might say, a bit like a hockey puck with a small tail fin,) and when found in their original state they usually come attached to a short, removable wooden stake which serves as a primitive stand. They're great sounding harp mics and very comfortable to play, but hard to find these days - and when you do find them they almost always need a cartridge replacement. (The original cartridges were weird magnetic-looking things that resemble what you might find inside the mouthpiece of an old telephone.) Incidentally, I've tested biscuits back to back - ones with crystal replacement 49elements vs. ones with ceramic replacements - and surprisingly found much less tonal difference than I would have expected. They all sound outstanding. The crystal versions are usually slightly nastier if more middy.....the ceramic ones are only a shade cleaner and usually have more output. (Admittedly however, these cartridges can vary dramatically. Other folks I've talked to have conducted the same experiment with the opposite results, i.e. the crystal ones were louder.) The real test would be to compare these to a few with their original elements intact, but the biscuits I've found always seem to need new cartridges. Little Walter’s Amplifiers ‘There is no set answer to this riddle, either - Little Walter played through several different amps during his career. It has been stated (in print and elsewhere) that he used a National, a Premier, a Masco, a Gibson, a Danelectro Commander, a Fender Bassman, a Magnatone, an “eight-speaker Sears Roebuck,” a “Macon,” an “International,” a “Bell And Howell film projector amp,” a “portable P.A. amp,” and several others, a few of which do not even exist! And no doubt he did use some of these. It must be remembered that at the time, the level of technology was such that there was very little real difference from one decent quality amp to the next. The most likely answers are National, Masco, Premier, Gibson and maybe Danelectro and/or Sears Silvertone. But Little Walter probably could've coaxed great sound out of a bullhorn or a megaphone. To illustrate his apparent lack of concern over the maker(s) of his amps, the following is a short exchange from the 1967 interview with Little Walter and with musician Louis Myers. The interviewer is Bill Lindemann. Interviewer: “Walter, did you use a special amplifier to help you get your sound?’ Jacobs: “I had an amplifier built. I had four speakers on each side. Amplifier up and one down... Myers: “I ain't never seen but one of them amplifiers... a two part cabinet. It was a damn good amplifier. The best I ever heard a harp on.” Interviewer: “Do you remember what brand that amplifier was?” Jacobs: “I think it was a ‘International’.” Myers: “A ‘National.’ National, that’s what it was...”Jacobs: “That's just what I figured it was!” Interviewer: “Do they still make them?” Jacobs: “I ain’t seen none.” Myers: “I think they do, Walter. Just a changed style. Different colors.” Jacobs: “They probably do.” Interviewer: “Where did you pick that up, originally?” Jacobs: “Where did I buy that amplifier? (pause) I remember I bought it in ‘54 or ‘55.....” Gater:) “Say, you remember that amplifier I threw in the river in Georgia....?” Elsewhere in the interview, Walter described this amp as having two speaker cabinets (one detachable,) with four small speakers in each side. To my knowledge National never made an amp fitting this description, although Danelectro made a similar model in the late ‘50s. In a subsequent conversation between Scott Dirks and Dave Myers, Myers suggested that this amp may have been custom-built for Walter, by person or persons unknown. Little Walter’s Effects Mainly echo and/or reverb. The recordings Little Walter made as a leader are somewhat more heavily effects-laden than his work accompanying Muddy Waters and others, but there is echo/reverb present to some degree on almost every session after 1951. At the earliest sessions, this would have necessarily originated from the studio - there were no outboard units or amps with built-in reverb yet available. A lot of research has been conducted (by Scott Dirks and others) into Chess Records’ early recording techniques, and as a result we now have a clearer picture of how these recordings were produced. In response to a recent request for info, Scott filled me in with the following details: “Contrary to popular belief, most of the classic Chess blues sides weren't recorded at Chess Studios, which didn’t come into being until around 1955. Universal Studios was the premiere recording studio in Chicago for years, and to his credit, Leonard Chess used Universal exclusively until his own studio was up and running. “Universal owner/chief engineer Bill Putnam built his own tape delay machine using a reel-to-reel....(and they basically) used three different methods to 51get delay and/or reverb: (1) An empty tiled room with a speaker at one end and a mic at the other (the classic ‘echo chamber,’) (2) a massive plate reverb unit, and (3) the slave reel-to-reel that was used solely for tape delay.” At least one harmonica book has stated that Little Walter used an Echoplex, an outboard unit made up of an endless tape-loop cartridge. That book goes so far as to say that the Echoplex can be clearly heard on “Juke,” “Mean Old World,” “Sad Hours,” ete. Problem with that analysis is that the Echoplex wasn’t yet invented or available (nor were it’s predecessors the EccoFonic or EchoSonic) in 1952 when those songs were recorded. The effect we're hearing on them is no doubt the aforementioned reel-to-reel device built by Putnam. Nevertheless, the Echoplex is a handy unit for today’s harp player. If you're in the market for one, keep in mind there are two versions: the earlier tube variety and the later solid-state model. Some folks claim there's little difference; to my ears, though, the more fragile tube model is richer sounding. The “echo” aspect may not be that much different, but when used with a high-gain instrument (like harp through a mic,) the tube unit breaks up into a warmer distortion. Unfortunately in today’s market, the vintage tube model commands more than twice the price of the solid- state version. Occasionally Jacobs used other effects. On the recently issued session from January of ‘53 that included an alternate of “Fast Boogie,” “Drifting Blues,” and “Don't Need No Horse” you can hear added tremolo/vibrato on the harp. And it’s also audible on later sessions (‘58~’59) that produced “The Toddle,” and the Le Roi du Blues bootleg version of “Goin’ Down Slow.” At those points in his career he must have been using an amp that had this built-in feature. When asked about effects in the previously mentioned Living Blues interview, Walter denied using anything at all in the studio, saying he was “doin’ it with my hand.” But Louis Myers then contradicted him, saying that the studio had used “viberation.” Little Walter “Oh, Baby” “Rocker” CHECKER 793 Coane eae 52Acoustic Years ‘The first question about Big Walter Horton's acoustic years revolves around the legendary Memphis Jug Band sessions: did he or didn’t he? For years it has been rumored that nine-or-ten-year-old Horton made his recording debut with them, and Big Walter always insisted this was true. At least two books claim that he played on the Jug Band’s 1927 recording of “Kansas City Blues,” but a look at Godrich and Dixon’s Blues And Gospel Records 1902-1942 suggests it's two other 1927 songs that may or may not feature him: “Sunshine Blues” and “Sometimes I Think I Love You.” Both of these list a harmonica player by the name of “Shakey Walter.” Could this be Horton? He did play with them on occasion, but to my ear the harp player on these tracks sounds more like Will Shade. Also the session took place in Chicago, and it seems unlikely that Walter might have traveled all the way there from Memphis to record at the age of nine or ten; but then we'll probably never know for sure. (For your perusal, as a bonus track on the accompanying CD I’ve included the 1927 recordinig of “Sunshine Blues.” Listeners are encouraged to make up their own minds.) In any case Big Walter was almost certainly recording by 1939, on sessions by the mysterious guitar-playing dwarf Little Buddy Doyle for Okeh and Vocalion Records (the first of which is also included on the accompanying CD.) While early editions of Godrich and Dixon list Hammie Nixon as the harp man on these sessions, Horton was working with Doyle at the time and the newest edition of G & D has been revised to confirm Walter’s presence, In a later interview, Horton said they were “just a couple of kids at the time.” A listen to these recordings reveals little of the Big Walter to come.....aurally there is little question that it is Horton, but the harp playing on them is very pedestrian. Nearly every song is the same pace, features the same licks and is in the same key (A.) ‘Twelve years were to transpire before Horton would record again, in 1951 at Sam Phillips’ legendary Sun Studios in Memphis. Evidently he'd been playing a lot because by this time his acoustic style was at least as impressive as that of Walter Jacobs, and likewise featured a wide array of techniques; in particular a masterful display of tongue-blocking. "The chromatic will fry your brain.” - Big Walter 53Big Walter’s Equipment Big Walter Horton (like Little Walter) appeared to have little specific preference about equipment, as long as it worked, and he seemed to be able to wring his massive tone out of whatever was available. There are many reports of various mics and amps used by him, all of which will be addressed in their respective areas to follow. For my money, the ultimate amplified harmonica tone ever committed to wax would be Big Walter’s 1953 recordings with Johnny Shines for J.0.B. Records, especially “Evening Sun” and “Brutal Hearted Woman.” Although I've been inquiring about this session for decades, no one seems to be able to supply any information about the recording techniques or the equipment used. Of course it’s only my opinion, but I consider this 78 to be the absolute pinnacle of possible blues harp tone - by all means, try to dig up this recording! Big Walter's Microphones Like Jacobs, Walter Horton used several different mics during his career. One ‘can only guess what he was using on those incredible sessions of 1953 and 1954, but when I saw him in the ‘60s and ‘70s he was alternating between a Shure vocal mic, a pale green Calrad DS-2 (figure 5,) a Shure 520 “Green Bullet” (figure 4,) and an Astatic JT-30 (figure 1 - see earlier discussion.) ‘The Green Bullet (figure 4) remains a very popular microphone among harp players, and is still made today (albeit somewhat differently.) It’s slightly bigger and much heavier than the JT-30, and louder as well, but a bit more prone to feedback. Be advised that the currently-made 520 is actually a dual impedance mic known as the 520-D, and is a dynamic (i. moving-coil) type. These are much sturdier, cleaner and louder than crystal mics. Besides Horton, quite a few other fine players have used the Shure 520 at times, including Charlie Musselwhite, William Clarke and many others. Big Walter sometimes simply blew through a vocal mic. Harp ace Peter “Madeat” Ruth, who took a few lessons from Horton in ‘67 and ‘68, recalled one of them thusly: “The microphone Walter was using at that time was a Shure PEST, a plastic body, high impedance dynamic mic with an on/off switch...” ‘There are several performance photos of him playing through various other vocal mics, but so little of the mic protrudes from his hands that it’s impossible to “Little Walter was a very good player, but Big Walter was a helluva player.” - Willie Dixon 54determine exactly what they are. And there are other photos of him playing through huge dispatch-type mics that appear to be bullet-shaped heads molded onto short stands (possibly an Astatic 200-S or a Turner?) Horton evidently disregarded the attached stand and it’s additional weight. The Calrad DS-2 (figure 5) that Big Walter used is a large, pale green, bullet, shaped model. Oddly enough there are a few other mics that appear to be identical to this model (like the Armaco M-131 and the Argonne AR-54,) and although I have no concrete documentation or proof, I've heard it rumored that these all might have been made by Shure. ‘The accompanying photo also shows several other microphones useful for harmonica. Although Big Walter probably only used numbers 1, 4 and 5 (in addition to his vocal mics,) and Little Walter probably only used the first few (and the Monarch knockoff of the Slim-X,) they are all nonetheless viable options for today’s amplified harp player. Big Walter’s Amplifiers ‘There has surprisingly been much less research into Walter Horton's amps than there has been with regard to Little Walter, which is a shame considering that Horton is generally remembered as having had such incredible tone. In his earliest days he may have used any of the amps mentioned earlier (and associated with Jacobs.) In the ‘60s I recall seeing him several times with a blackface Fender Princeton Reverb, and other times with a blackface Fender Princeton (no reverb.) Whether those choices were based upon tonal preference or simple portability remains unclear, but they are great sounding amps for harp (especially in the hands of a master like Big Walter.) The only possible drawback to these amps is their low wattage (12 watts,) but a low wattage amp can always be independently miked and run through the P.A. if necessary. In the ‘70s Horton was sometimes spotted using a tweed 4 x10 Fender Bassman, but the amp apparently didn’t belong to him. Other reports have him using a blackface Twin Reverb, a silverface Princeton Reverb and on occasion a blackface Super Reverb. Big Walter’s Effects The first recordings of Big Walter on which we hear effects are, in fact, his 55first electric recordings: sessions from September 15, 1952, recorded at Sun Studios. These first electric sessions (and a subsequent unissued session from December of that year) are not heavily laden with effects, but there is slightly audible reverb and/or echo present. Initially, Sam Phillips only had a single-track, mono-input board, but by late ‘52 he was using a few methods for reverb and/or delay, including plate reverb, and (much like Bill Putnam's set-up at Universal) the linking of two Ampex tape decks together to provide a slap-back effect which he most often used on the drum kit. The 1952 Horton waxings have much less overall effects than some of his recordings of the following year. Up in Chicago in ‘53, Big Walter cut the aforementioned classic sides with Johnny Shines for J.0.B. Records, but there are no details at all on the technical aspects of that session. ‘53 was also the year he recorded the great instrumental “Easy,” (back again at Sun,) which featured steadily mounting echo throughout. In Escott and Hawkins’ book Sun Records-The Brief History, Big Walter recalled, “We cut that thing in three or four takes but my box started screechin’ and we had to cut it. I played real loud on that one. I like to play loud.” One wonders if the other takes have survived - not only would it be instructive to hear the differences in the harp, but perhaps there is a take in which guitarist Jimmy DeBerry plays the correct figures! The jury is still out as to whether either Big or Little Walter ever used a Fender outboard reverb unit once they became available in the early ‘60s. It has been suggested that they did, but there are no confirming photos or first-hand reports. While there is audible reverb on both of their harps during recordings from the mid~60s, it may well have been supplied either from plate reverb in the studio or from built-in reverb tanks in their amps. In any case, these outboard units are wonderful additions to the modern harp player's arsenal.....if you can find one at a reasonable price. InSum Though many folks are trying to do it, an attempt to duplicate either Little Walter’s or Big Walter's sound by acquiring the same equipment is probably both impossible and disingenuous. Besides, there really is no set “Little Walter tone” or “Big Walter tone,” since each man’s overall sound was slightly different at virtually every recording session. And finally, even if you were theoretically successful in achieving that goal, the net result would be that you then have the tone of someone else, however phenomenal. Las Vegas is full of fake Elvises. Some of them are great. Does anyone remember their names?1. Astatic JT-30 “Spokesman.” Probably the 2. Astatic “biscuit” - possibly a model 30, 60 most commonly used harp mic today, this or Y-80. Little Walter often played one of model has been around for over 50 years. these. This particular one was very kindly Both Walters played these at times. given to me by David Barrett. 4, Shure 520 “Green Bullet.” Almost as popular today as the JT-30. Great bass ‘was introduced in 1952. response. Used at times by Big Walter, as well as many other fine players. 3. Shure 777 “Slim-X.” Another crystal mic sometimes used by Little Walter, this model 57ee WATERS 6, Turner 22-X. This crystal mic is a little unwieldy, but sounds terrific for harp. Gncidentally, also marketed as a Stromberg- Carlson 7C8) 5. Calrad DS-2. Big Walter often played one of these. (Incidentally, the Calrad DS-2, Argonne AR-54 and Armaco M-131 all seem to a 7. Electro-Voice 630. Not often used for 8. Turner VT-73. Similar in appearance to harp, but I don’t know why not... perhaps a the BX only without the Flash Gordon fin, this bit heavy, but comfortable enough, and is a very comfortable and cool. sounding crystal sounds amazing! (Incidentally, EV also mic. marketed these as both a Stromberg-Carlson MD87CS, and a Pierce 85.)9. Shure 9822-B, “Brown Bullet.” Superb sounding mic, smaller and lighter than the “Green Bullet.” Not as loud, though. (Courtesy of David Sears) 10. Astatic T-3 “Pioneer.” Although not (to my Knowledge) played by either Walter, this is a fine mic for amplified work. Crystal element (usually an MC- 41) 11, (Unidentified) Small erystal mics like these can often be found at garage sales, flea markets, etc. They may look like pieces of junk, but they often sound great for harp! 59 12. Shure SM-54. Since the majority of my gigging is, ‘acoustic’ with Kenny Sultan, this is my own day-to- day vocal/harp mic. Basically it’s nothing more than a high-impedence SM-57. Although most folks would not want to ‘cup’ it and play it like a bullet, mics like these are great for live acoustic work...More On Mics A few additional thoughts on microphones: although there are sources for stock and rebuilt vintage mics, with luck and a bit of scrounging it’s possible to pick these things up for a fraction of what you'd pay at “Ye Olde Mic Shoppe.” Where should you look? The usual spots: garage sales, swap meets, junk stores, thrift shops, reasonably priced antique stores, yard sales, old electronics shops, on-line auctions, music stores that have been around for awhile, C.B. radio supply houses, ete., etc. Even if a mic is untestable or not working, it can still be a good idea to snag it (if the price is right) because they're so easily repairable. ‘Most of the best mics for harp are designs that have been around since the ‘40s and ‘50s, Many of them were originally intended for use either as dispatch mics or for ham radio, and even at the time were considered less than “state-of-the-art.” As the technology improved, these mics became less and less popular for vocal and other usages, and as a result they now sometimes wind up in a store’s junk pile. ‘There is really very little that can go wrong with this type of mic. Outside of a bad cord connection, the only real problem can be a blown cartridge - and replacement cartridges are inexpensive and readily available. Even if you're not handy with a soldering iron and have to pay somebody to do the work, in. a worst- case scenario you can usually revive just about any old bullet mic for $30-50 (including the cartridge, a length of cord, a quarter-inch jack and the labor.) And if you don't mind doing it yourself, you'll save even more, Assuming the price is right, my recommendation would be to pick up just about any old bullet-shaped mic, working or not, and restore it. Even if you decided not to use it, you could probably sell it for an amount at least equal to your investment. (Or, you could always donate it to me!) In addition to the mics in the photos, Shure made several other models that work great for harp, like the C341 “Blue Bullet” and the 707A “Silver Bullet;” Astatic made other crystal bullets like the JT-31; Turner put out others including the BX (crystal,) and the BD and 22D (both dynamic;) Electro-Voice made several that work very nicely for harp; the Elgin Watch Company had a line of mics called the “American” series that you might try, including a silver bullet called the D-T-5; Lafayette made some useful ones; I recently saw a player using a crystal Aiwa “DM- 603” the CAD HM50-VC might be a good choice; RCA made some bullets that look suspiciously similar to Shures; Kent used to make some absolutely incredible looking bakelite bullets (although I cannot vouch for their sound, as I've never heard one;) and the list literally goes on and on... Be warned about crystal cartridges, however: they can break down whether the mic is heavily used or not. At the heart of these things is a crystal of Rochelle Salt, Humidity, heat, motion, age and other factors can combine to make the crystal nonfunctional even when a mic is found as “new old-stock” in it’s original box. They also vary dramatically with regard to gain - if you were to test ten new crystal mics back-to-back there would be wide discrepancies in volume. But if the crystal sound is what you want, replacement cartridges are easy to find and reasonably priced. In the case of Astatic mics (JT-30s, “biscuits,” T-3s, Blues Blasters and the like,) new cartridges are still made and are readily available. The crystal cartridge is model number “MC-151” and the ceramic one is designated “MC-127.” Shop around for these - the costs can vary. At the time of this writing they can be bought for anywhere from $17-25. Shure replacement cartridges are also around (though not as easily found) and both the Shures and Astatics will fit into some other mics too, like some Turners. And it’s a good idea to keep your eyes open for cheap, working older mics that you probably wouldn’t want to use for harp (like the Astatic 200-8, which is permanently molded to a stand.) simply to rifle their cartridges for re-use. ‘The process of acquiring and rebuilding vintage mics can be both fun and highly functional... and you may wind up with a sound that you never thought possible. My advice would be to experiment as much as you can, while remembering that no mic will save you if your own acoustic sound is flawed. As Pete Sheridan writes in his book The Quest For Tone In Amplified Blues Harp, “Have your chops together before you turn the juice on. Don't expect the equipment to be a magic tone generator. You are the tone generator.” “See, my name was originally Little Walter. But after he cut the tune ‘Juke,’ there couldn't be no two Little Walters, so I gave him my name and took Big Walter for myself.” - Big Walter 61On A Personal Note... wait doesn’t really surprise me much that most of my harp heroes simply played through whatever was available and working; up until the mid ‘60s, there were very few differences between most makes of equipment. It seemed like every time I saw Junior Wells in the ‘60s he was using a different rig; and the same could be said about James Cotton and George Smith. There were a lot fewer choices then, audience’s ears were somewhat less discerning and there were no real ‘tech heads” yet. Looking back, I can remember seeing many bands that had no P.A. system at all... the singer simply sang through a guitar amp! My own 1960's band, the “Yerba Buena Blues Band,” probably set the world’s record for lack of equipment. Yes, the drummer did own his own drum kit, and the bass player had his own bass (and a smalll Sears Silvertone amp to power it.) These facts are in themselves astonishing, since both these players (now sadly deceased,) seemed to have had, shall we say, a penchant for chemical experimentation, and could've thus been expected to be the last guys in the band to actually own anything at all. But they did. And they could play. Our guitarists were also quite skilled, if extraordinarily underequipped. One owned a guitar but no amp; the other owned neither an electric guitar nor an amp. To top it off, I, the ‘vocalist,’ owned neither a P.A. nor an amp nor a microphone. In fact, I didn’t even realize I was supposed to use a P.A. - I figured I could just sing through a mic into an amp. IfI had an amp. If I had a mic. (The only mic the band owned was a relic that we'd liberated from the local high school’s Audio Visual Dept., a fact which was boldly declared in huge red letters on the mic’s side. I trust that the statute of limitations has run out.) And this was a band that actually got hired! To play real, live, paying engagements! In retrospect this amazes me. I can recall spending the entire day of a gig running all over town trying to borrow guitars, amps and mics; and we did this every time. I knew nothing about sound, so I just cranked up these amps as loud as they could go without feeding back. (We thought playing loud was the coolest thing we could've possibly done, short of blowing up a building.) Naturally we must've sounded completely different every time we played... but fortunately for the world, very few of our recordings survive to bear witness. 62Courtesy Big Nickel Pub. ; E & Hare Mod Vm a3 Ae Ese LU, Little Walter Courtesy MCA/Chess GAZE INTO YoU CRYSTAL BALL— YOU WILL FIND $ DOLLARS OF PROFITS WHEN YoU BUY "JUKE" LITTLE WALTER Little Walter Big Walter on harp WQQeae aa NOnUES 63The Licks In front: All of these licks are played on the accompanying CD in the same order as in the text and all (except for two, in which cases you are warned well in advance) are played on a Bb diatonic. The only exceptions are lick #37 (played second position on a C Koch Chromatic, slide button in, resulting in G#/Ab,) and “Sloppy Joe” (which comes after the last Big Walter lick,) played second position on an Ab diatonic, resulting in Eb. Most of the licks are played in second position (crossharp) which results in the key of F; but a couple (#61 and #68) are in first position, which is Bb. So...... in order to play along with 99% of the CD, you'll need a 10-hole diatonic in Bb. When playing diatonic, both Walters used Hohner Marine Bands - the best harp available during their time(s). I tend to prefer Hohner Special 20s myself, but for the purposes of this book any standard (Richter tuned) 10-hole diatonic will do the trick. A few more words on the tablature: obviously much of both Walter’s diatonic style(s) revolve around the bent note, primarily the draw bends on the lower six holes. As we mentioned in the section on tablature, a downward pointed arrow designates a draw. For the purposes of this tab, a bent note is designated by a bent arrow, as in: 4 (which means draw and bend hole 4.) Most of the time this bent arrow means that you start the note pre-bent, then. release it up to it's normal pitch; but sometimes it will mean to start the note at it’s normal pitch, then bend it down. You'll have to rely on your ear for those distinctions. In a few cases, only the bent (or flatted) part of the note is to be played. In such a case it will be notated with a “straight/bent” arrow, as in: 4 LAnd that “straight/bent arrow” (above) can indicate by it’s angle the amount or depth of the bend. For example, in the song “Don't Get Around Much Anymore” (lick # 69,) there is a four note run (line #6) where hole # 3 draw is used for four different notes, like this: 3 / / 2 Ifyou see a notation looking thusly: 3 it means that the player is t to blow on holes 3 and 6, but nothing else. This is a “tongue split” ( in this case, an octave split) and is made possible by blocking out holes 4 and 5 with the tongue. Try aiming the tip of the tongue at the bottom half of the little post that separates holes 4 and 5, That’s usually alll it takes to block out 4 and 5. Unless you have an unusually huge (or puny) tongue, once you monkey around with this you'll find yourself blowing through 3 and 6 only. A squiggly arrow, like this: 3 means that the note is played both bent and unbent. Usually the note will be started pre-bent, then released up to it’s normal pitch, then bent down again; but occasionally it's the opposite. Again, you'll have to rely on your ear for such distinctions. “— Finally, should you see a little arc over some notes it means those notes are to be slurred together and played very quickly. 65As to the CD: the obvious thing would have been to use both Little and Big Walters’ own playing, but licensing nightmares ruled that out. For the same reason (ie. licensing,) there are no songs here - only licks. Except in a couple of areas, I'm playing the licks acoustically even if they were originally played electrically - my feeling being that they're easier to hear and understand that way. There are two short sections though, - one for each Walter - that’re played electrically because they are made up of licks that rely upon amplification to make them work. Some of these licks themselves can be relatively easy, but the timing involved with them might be tricky - both Walters were masters at unusual phrasing. To illustrate phrasing, occasionally I've played some guitar on the CD to give the lick a timing structure. Any supporting guitar will always be isolated on the left channel, so that by using your “balance” knob you can isolate whichever instrument you choose. O.K. Are you ready? Then fire up your CD machine, roll up your sleeves, pop open your beverage of choice, pull out your Bb diatonic and let’s dig in: Big Walter picture record, Big Walter on harp courtesy Bill Donoghue The ultimate in tone? 66Some Little Walter Licks STOP! If for some reason you've jumped directly to this page without going through the page called “The Licks" first, then please go back and read that short explanation....those paragraphs include some explanatory notes and instructions (regarding the tablature) that you'll need here. A Few Intro Licks Because so many blues songs start up just before the “turnaround,” most of the following intro licks could double for fills immediately preceding and during the turnaround. Welll start with a few slower ones, then gradually speed up. This is the intro to Muddy’s “Long Distance Call.” Note that the whole lick is draw notes except for the last note. Try experimenting with a bit of throat vibrato on this. i/ | if li From Muddy’s “She Moves Me.” Lick # 2: 2 it] hi u (repeat three times) This one could be thought of as the harp equivalent of the slide guitar break Elmore James played on “Dust My Broom.” Lick # 11: 1 2 2 3 2 1 2 2 3 1 Mili itil,TRILL S TRILLS TRILLSThis one’s kind of deceptive. If you listen only to the longer, more obvious notes, you'll miss the point - it’s the short notes leading into the long notes that makes this lick interesting. Lick # 14: a os, m a a |] | | | j [/ (repeat) This one’s very simple and involves two-note chords. Lick #15: L/ 2 2 [di | 2 Li <—v id ae aw af cS ce ome a oe ul cS S —_, gS & 3 Oo. t : Si6 8 GC a ; effi cS ae Lt i” Hep SS e—> an 3 > fail o— = an< By ue = -— aoe B woe vali ° mo<— 3 Beas CG ie] ° a= 2 ot ai cS = ate awe E a> HL eS ss bo rede ec et 7 ~~ | 2 - ep cS eg aoa _ a <28f oo a a i= i ® c= me Zou 2 : an ffi To eS EEESNaw es Nae pun Saw ~~ —nv Sp. <_) (repeat all above) 3 3 dd uk 4 d Naw un Raw ~~ 83—u an << <—+ <—s+ ws “Big Walter was fantastic, beyond chilling” - Paul deLay 85Lick # 40; Here's a faster intro. Lick# 41: (repeat) Go — at mo <— an at atAnd now back to a slower one. Lick # 42: PE PR po Big Walter started songs with this phrase a lot. It's also a bit reminiscent of a phrase Junior Wells used at the start of his States Records version of “Hoodoo Man Blues.” Lick 43: 1 4 | aw. —raw 4 £2 £3 1 £2 FR 2 1 4 55 55 44 55 55 5 4 ee 4 £2 £3 fh o 55 fei pt 55 55 44 ce Licks That Rely Primarily Upon Amplification In general, Big Walter used a lot less effects and less heavy amplification than his counterpart Little Walter. However, there are some cases where his playing was melodically sparse and reliant upon that wondrously fat, distorted tone. LELTELLPLLTD GUT (repeat) <—u —>u <—a —>s <—v —a ws 90This almost sounds like Horton was trying a variation on Little Walter's “Juke.” Lick # 52: 2 3 V4 a oN won ony a mt +<— CS a —> a— a— ” — a— ac — —<—> >Another of Horton's best remembered outings was “Easy,” a 1953 effort for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records in Memphis. (For more info, check the earlier section ‘Big Walter's Effects.’) This theme is really based on Ivory Joe Hunter’s “When I Lost My Baby, I Almost Lost My Mind.” It's made up primarily of ‘trills,’ which is to say that you wobble the harp back and forth smoothly between two neighboring holes. Again, there’s guitar in the left track. Lick # 55: be hd Pll Gbgl a7 pay ip dp ftp titt 2] Ul A A CH) WP ai CEC DETTE 1 AFFA Few Endings Another lick involving tongue splits. Lick # 56: 7423 bifeeaiv dd ei Here's a longer ending that starts all the way back at the V chord. Lick # 57: j j j a 668 666 CES. 2 5 | ny xn nr yn | aw aw aw 4 4 5 5 toy Naw Un us So <_ <—nv <4 Ke <-+ ~~. ‘ J TRILLS 234442412 bhi lab) todaA ten note Horton ending. Lick # 59: 2 3 304 44 vd +t Fou V/ This ending is made up entirely of chords. Lick #60: Ma 5 jf] 1 didn't know whether to put this under ‘intros’ or endings; Big Walter recorded the song ‘Hard Hearted Woman” several times, but the best version was the earliest one, for States Records in 1954. The intro and the ending are exactly the same, and they form a hook that is the basis for the song. It’s played in first position. Lick # 61: n > —> A Few Fast And/or Tricky Licks Both Big Walter and Little Walter were influenced by Aleck “Rice” Miller, AKA Sonnyboy Williamson (II.) In concert, Horton often played the following repetitive figure reminiscent of Sonnyboy. Lick # 62: — 4 443 22 iit G43 G43 vit Ws t Wl ‘| VW 43 4 443 22 to VW ‘| — 44 44434 f445 4 34 4434 4434 432 tis thw thy ty tay teed a — >on —_ — >a — <— Lick # 64 isn't really a ‘lick’ as much as it is an illustration of attack. When Horton played backup behind an instrument, he would often chop out chords. The thing that made his approach unique was the clipped starts and stops to his chords, as well as the almost ‘kissing’ sound that often preceded them. The ‘kissing’ sound is actually just that: you take the lips just slightly away from the harp and pop-kiss the air, then put the harp back into the mouth quickly enough so that the trailing wind sounds through the harp. The chords are chopped by starting the attack with the tongue planted on that area that includes the back of the upper front teeth and the roof of the mouth; then pulling the tongue forcefully away. ....almost like the sound you make when you ‘tsk tsk’ somebody for a bit of improper behavior. Once again, there's guitar in the left track. Lick # 64: *kiss* 1 61 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3.3 3 3 3 3 (hopdovd (all draw) 97Another of Big Walter’s trademarks was his use of hole #1 at the end of a lick. Whereas many other players would end this lick on the tonic (hole #2 draw,) Walter quite often kept going, adding four more notes by playing (respectively) 2 draw-bend; one draw; one draw-bend; one blow. Thus the entire phrase is all inhaled except for the last note; which enables the player to slur it all together seamlessly. As In.... Lick # 65: 11 3 2 l/ ny] 43232 A/a] a rk 1 it 2 \ Both Horton and Jacobs were masters of the tongue-block technique. Not so, your humble instructor. While I frequently utilize tongue block for chord splits, I got hooked early on puckering to achieve the single note. However, even lowly puckerers like me can approximate the sounds that Horton achieved by employing a fake tongue block. This is done by quickly shifting from a one-hole pucker to either a tongue-split chord or a three-hole chord (for the backbeat,) and then back to a one- hole pucker again, In this example we'll switch between single notes and tongue splits..... Lick # 66: pa45 22 2 1) e453 2 LIT RT LP —>u <—un ) <— Vv <—a 7 — x <_ > <_ <_ ood <—nv “3 <—nv | << <— — ¢ were en er un Here's one of Big Walter's tour-de-force efforts: his arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” This tune lends itself quite easily to the diatonic harp. The very first burst of notes is simply an inhaled slide up the face of the harp, ending on hole #7 (it is not essential that this “slide” begin on hole 2.... anywhere in the neighborhood is OK.) To differentiate between the body of the song and the bridge, I've assigned the body a designation of “lick # 69,” and the bridge a designation of “lick #70.”) Lick # 69: _-SLIDE IDE 456 734567 7 bebid| “~,

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