UK Little Walter Chess Masters 2 LP NM CXMD4002
$
30
Favourite Auctions
To save auctions to your favourites, please login
If you don't have an account, please register
Description
Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him comparisons to such seminal artists as Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix. His virtuosity and musical innovations fundamentally altered many listeners' expectations of what was possible on blues harmonica. He was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, the first and, to date, only artist to be inducted specifically as a harmonica player.
Walter had fourteen top ten hits on the Billboard R&B charts between 1952 and 1958, including two number one hits (the second being "My Babe" in 1955), a level of commercial success never achieved by Muddy Waters or by his fellow Chess blues artists Howlin' Wolf. and Sonny Boy Williamson II.
A few months after returning from his second European tour, Little Walter was involved in a fight while taking a break from a performance at a nightclub on the South Side of Chicago. He apparently sustained only minor injuries in this altercation, but they aggravated the damage he had suffered in previous violent encounters, and he died in his sleep at the apartment of a girlfriend, at 209 East 54th Street in Chicago, early the following morning. The official cause of death on his death certificate was coronary thrombosis (a blood clot in the heart). Evidence of external injuries was so insignificant that the police reported that his death was due to "unknown or natural causes" and no external injuries were noted on the death certificate. His body was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery, in Evergreen Park, Illinois, on February 22, 1968.
His legacy has been enormous. He is widely credited by blues historians as the artist primarily responsible for establishing the standard vocabulary for modern blues and blues rockharmonica players.
price rating
