LITTLE WALTER
''THE COMPLETE CHESS MASTERS 1950-1967, DISC FOUR''
MARCH 10 2009
360:33
1. Evans Shuffle /2:12
2. Juke (Single Version) /2:43
3. Juke (Alternate Take) /2:55
4. Can't Hold Out Much Longer /2:59
5. Can't Hold Out Much Longer (Alternate) /2:50
6. Blue Midnight (Alternate Take) /3:01
7. Blue Midnight /2:58
8. Boogie /2:59
9. Mean Old World /2:53
10. Sad Hours /3:10
11. Fast Boogie /2:46
12. Fast Boogie (Alternate 1) /3:12
13. Fast Boogie (Alternate 2) /2:55
14. Fast Boogie (Alternate 3) /2:58
15. Don't Need No Horse /3:13
16. Driftin' /3:08
17. Driftin' (Alternate) /3:06
18. Don't Have To Hunt No More /3:00
19. Crazy Legs /3:21
20. Tonight With A Fool /2:51
21. Off The Wall (Alternate Version) /2:54
22. Off The Wall /2:48
23. Tell Me Mama /2:43
24. Quarter To Twelve /3:11
25. That's It /3:10
DISC TWO
1. Blues With A Feeling (Alternate Take) /2:54
2. Blues With A Feeling /3:06
3. Last Boogie /2:30
4. Too Late /2:40
5. Fast Boogie /2:50
6. Lights Out /2:44
7. Fast Large One /2:49
8. You're So Fine /3:03
9. My Kind Of Baby /3:06
10. Come Back Baby /2:52
11. Rocker /3:05
12. I Love You So (Oh Baby) /2:31
13. Oh Baby /2:44
14. I Got To Find My Baby (Alternate Take) /3:05
15. I Got To Find My Baby /2:47
16. Big Leg Mama /2:46
17. Mercy Babe (My Babe) /3:17
18. Last Night /2:52
19. You Better Watch Yourself /3:03
20. Blue Light /3:12
21. Instrumental /2:53
22. Last Night /2:43
23. Mellow Down Easy /2:41
24. My Babe /2:40
25. My Babe (Overdubbed Version) /2:31
DISC THREE
1. Thunderbird /2:46
2. Roller Coaster /2:52
3. I Got To Go /2:40
4. Hate To See You Go /3:03
5. Little Girl /3:05
6. Crazy For My Baby /2:59
7. Can't Stop Lovin' You /2:47
8. One More Chance With You /2:53
9. Who /2:22
10. Boom, Boom Out Goes The Light /2:49
11. It Ain't Right /2:53
12. Flying Saucer /3:01
13. It's Too Late Brother /2:41
14. Teenage Beat /3:00
15. Take Me Back /3:04
16. Just A Feeling /2:52
17. Nobody But You /2:05
18. Temperature (Version 1) /1:57
19. Shake Dancer /2:43
20. Everybody Needs Somebody /2:52
21. Temperature (Alternate 1) /2:13
22. Temperature (Alternate 2) /2:14
23. Temperature (Take 30) /3:26
24. Temperature (Take 35-38) /4:53
25. Temperature (Version 2) /2:38
26. Ah'w Baby (Alternate) /2:50
DISC FOUR
1. Ah'w Baby /2:52
2. I've Had My Fun (Alternate) /2:12
3. I've Had My Fun (Alternate 2) /2:25
4. I've Had My Fun /2:00
5. The Toddle /2:36
6. Confessin' The Blues /3:02
7. Key To The Highway /2:44
8. Rock Bottom /2:29
9. Rock Bottom /2:17
10. Walkin' On /2:35
11. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) (Take 5) /2:41
12. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) (Alt.) /3:06
13. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) /2:47
14. One Of These Mornings (Instrumental) /3:11
15. Baby /1:58
16. My Baby Is Sweeter (Alternate) /2:49
17. My Baby Is Sweeter /2:27
18. Crazy Mixed Up World (Alternate) /1:59
19. Crazy Mixed Up World /1:59
20. Worried Life (Alternate) /2:16
21. Worried Life /2:38
22. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Take 1) /4:27
23. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Alternate 1) /2:13
24. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Alternate 2) /3:00
25. Everything's Gonna Be Alright /2:48
26. Mean Old Frisco (Alternate) /3:04
27. Mean Old Frisco /2:25
DISC FIVE
1. Back Track /2:48
2. One Of These Mornings /2:54
3. Blue And Lonesome (Alternate) /4:49
4. Blue And Lonesome /2:54
5. Me And Piney Brown /2:30
6. Break It Up /2:25
7. Going Down Slow /2:54
8. You're Sweet /2:58
9. I Don't Play /2:17
10. As Long As I Have You /2:37
11. You Don't Know /2:23
12. Just Your Fool /2:22
13. Up The Line /2:06
14. I'm A Business Man /2:53
15. Dead Presidents /2:51
16. Southern Feeling /2:57
17. Back In the Alley /3:06
18. I Feel So Bad (Take 1) /2:42
19. I Feel So Bad (Take 2) /4:13
20. Chicken Shack /2:45
21. Feel So Bad /2:56
22. Make It Alright /3:22
23. Juke /3:27
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
It is no exaggeration to call Little Walter the Jimi Hendrix of the electric harp: he redefined what the instrument was and what it could do, pushing the instrument so far into the future that his music still sounds modern decades after it was recorded. Little Walter wasn't the first musician to amplify the harmonica but he arguably was the first to make the harp sound electric, twisting twitching, vibrant runs out of his instrument; nearly stealing the show from Muddy Waters on his earliest Chess recordings; and so impressing Leonard Chess that he made Muddy keep Walter as his harpist even after Waters broke up his band. Chess also made Walter into his studio's house harpist and started to release Little Walter solo records with the instrumental "Juke" in 1952. "Juke" became a smash hit and turned Little Walter into a star, making him a steady presence on the '50s R&B charts. Like Chicago blues itself, Little Walter suffered a downturn of fortunes in the '60s, his career first eclipsed by the rise of rock & roll, but his decline was assisted in no small measure by the reckless alcoholic behavior that led to his early death in 1968. However, Hip-O Select's tremendous five-disc set The Complete Chess Masters proves that Little Walter remained capable of surprises until the end -- and that he's a major artist whose legacy only seems more formidable when it's heard as a whole, as it is here.
Technically speaking, the title The Complete Chess Masters may be a bit of a misnomer. Little Walter issued the majority of his sides on Chess' sister label Checker with his full LPs appearing on Chess proper, but this is splitting hairs: Walter cut all his solo sides for Chess, often in Chess studios, cutting most during a spell in the early and mid-'50s when he was the most successful artist on the label, leapfrogging over his boss Muddy Waters with "Juke," a song cut at the tail end of a Muddy-led session. Once "Juke" hit, the sessions started coming fast and furious, with Walter entering the studio four or five times a year during the mid-'50s, churning out singles that turned into hit after hit and not just on the strength of his electrified harp. Walter was a supple, nuanced singer, the roundness of his voice standing in sharp contrast to his lacerating harp, providing an inherent tension within his records; when he sang "Mellow Down Easy," it sounded as if it were possible to ease into his funky groove, but that harp pulled you right out. Such kinetic inadvertent drama fueled his prime '50s recordings and almost everything he cut was of shockingly high quality, extending beyond the hits "Blues with a Feeling" and "My Babe" and into B-sides and forgotten sides.
This makes The Complete Chess Masters consistently absorbing listening, hampered only slightly by a rather large preponderance of alternate takes that can sometimes slow the momentum of this set. Conversely, the appearance of Walter's legacy winds up being bolstered somewhat by Chess' over-recording of him at his peak and general avoidance of him in his decline. This five-disc set might be billed as stretching from 1950 to 1967 but that's misleading: all but 15 tracks here were recorded in the '50s, a fact that winds up camouflaging just how long Walter was in dire straits. His fall from Chess' biggest star to being given charity sessions reflects the impact of rock & roll on blues sales -- not only did they wipe out crossover blues hits, but Walter couldn't adapt to the times, his electric harp too closely tied to Chicago blues. So, he wound up with only a handful of sessions in the '60s, all presented on the final stretch, none less than entertaining, none a patch on Walter at his peak. These final recordings are necessary to fill out the picture, but what remains are those '50s sessions, which defined what electric blues was and what it could do, and produced music that is still invigorating and essential -- and best appreciated here, where the true depth of Little Walter's achievement is easy to behold.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bill Dahl
Who's the king of all post-war blues harpists, Chicago division or otherwise? Why, the virtuosic Little Walter, without a solitary doubt. The fiery harmonica wizard took the humble mouth organ in dazzling amplified directions that were unimaginable prior to his ascendancy. His daring instrumental innovations were so fresh, startling, and ahead of their time that they sometimes sported a jazz sensibility, soaring and swooping in front of snarling guitars and swinging rhythms perfectly suited to Walter's pioneering flights of fancy.
Marion Walter Jacobs was by most accounts an unruly but vastly talented youth who abandoned his rural Louisiana home for the bright lights of New Orleans at age 12. Walter gradually journeyed north from there, pausing in Helena (where he hung out with the wizened Sonny Boy Williamson), Memphis, and St. Louis before arriving in Chicago in 1946.
The thriving Maxwell Street strip offered a spot for the still-teenaged phenom to hawk his wares. He fell in with local royalty -- Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy -- and debuted on wax that same year for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo ("I Just Keep Loving Her") in the company of Jimmy Rogers and guitarist Othum Brown. Walter joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948; the resulting stylistic tremors of that coupling are still being felt today. Along with Rogers and Baby Face Leroy Foster, this super-confident young aggregation became informally known as the Headhunters. They would saunter into Southside clubs, mount the stage, and proceed to calmly "cut the heads" of whomever was booked there that evening.
By 1950, Walter was firmly entrenched as Waters' studio harpist at Chess as well (long after Walter had split the Muddy Waters band, Leonard Chess insisted on his participation on waxings -- why split up an unbeatable combination?). That's how Walter came to record his breakthrough 1952 R&B chart-topper "Juke" -- the romping instrumental was laid down at the tail-end of a Waters session. Suddenly, Walter was a star on his own, combining his stunning talents with those of the Aces (guitarists Louis and David Myers and drummer Fred Below) and advancing the concept of blues harmonica another few light years with every session he made for Checker Records.
From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits, including "Sad Hours," "Mean Old World," "Tell Me Mama," "Off the Wall," "Blues with a Feeling," "You're So Fine," a threatening "You Better Watch Yourself," the mournful "Last Night," and a rocking "My Babe" that was Willie Dixon's secularized treatment of the traditional gospel lament "This Train." Throughout his Checker tenure, Walter alternated spine-chilling instrumentals with gritty vocals (he's always been underrated in that department; he wasn't Muddy Waters or the Wolf, but who was?).
Walter utilized the chromatic harp in ways never before envisioned (check out his 1956 free-form instrumental "Teenage Beat," with Robert Jr. Lockwood and Luther Tucker manning the guitars, for proof positive). 1959's determined "Everything Gonna Be Alright" was Walter's last trip to the hit lists; Chicago blues had faded to a commercial non-entity by then unless your name was Jimmy Reed.
Tragically, the '60s saw the harp genius slide steadily into an alcohol-hastened state of unreliability, his once-handsome face becoming a road map of scars. In 1964, he toured Great Britain with the Rolling Stones, who clearly had their priorities in order, but his once-prodigious skills were faltering badly. That sad fact was never more obvious than on 1967's disastrous summit meeting of Waters, Bo Diddley, and Walter for Chess as the Super Blues Band; there was nothing super whatsoever about Walter's lame remakes of "My Babe" and "You Don't Love Me."
Walter's eternally vicious temper led to his violent undoing in 1968. He was involved in a street fight (apparently on the losing end, judging from the outcome) and died from the incident's after-effects at age 37. His influence remains inescapable to this day -- it's unlikely that a blues harpist exists on the face of this earth who doesn't worship Little Walter.
DoWnLoAd
''THE COMPLETE CHESS MASTERS 1950-1967, DISC FOUR''
MARCH 10 2009
360:33
1. Evans Shuffle /2:12
2. Juke (Single Version) /2:43
3. Juke (Alternate Take) /2:55
4. Can't Hold Out Much Longer /2:59
5. Can't Hold Out Much Longer (Alternate) /2:50
6. Blue Midnight (Alternate Take) /3:01
7. Blue Midnight /2:58
8. Boogie /2:59
9. Mean Old World /2:53
10. Sad Hours /3:10
11. Fast Boogie /2:46
12. Fast Boogie (Alternate 1) /3:12
13. Fast Boogie (Alternate 2) /2:55
14. Fast Boogie (Alternate 3) /2:58
15. Don't Need No Horse /3:13
16. Driftin' /3:08
17. Driftin' (Alternate) /3:06
18. Don't Have To Hunt No More /3:00
19. Crazy Legs /3:21
20. Tonight With A Fool /2:51
21. Off The Wall (Alternate Version) /2:54
22. Off The Wall /2:48
23. Tell Me Mama /2:43
24. Quarter To Twelve /3:11
25. That's It /3:10
DISC TWO
1. Blues With A Feeling (Alternate Take) /2:54
2. Blues With A Feeling /3:06
3. Last Boogie /2:30
4. Too Late /2:40
5. Fast Boogie /2:50
6. Lights Out /2:44
7. Fast Large One /2:49
8. You're So Fine /3:03
9. My Kind Of Baby /3:06
10. Come Back Baby /2:52
11. Rocker /3:05
12. I Love You So (Oh Baby) /2:31
13. Oh Baby /2:44
14. I Got To Find My Baby (Alternate Take) /3:05
15. I Got To Find My Baby /2:47
16. Big Leg Mama /2:46
17. Mercy Babe (My Babe) /3:17
18. Last Night /2:52
19. You Better Watch Yourself /3:03
20. Blue Light /3:12
21. Instrumental /2:53
22. Last Night /2:43
23. Mellow Down Easy /2:41
24. My Babe /2:40
25. My Babe (Overdubbed Version) /2:31
DISC THREE
1. Thunderbird /2:46
2. Roller Coaster /2:52
3. I Got To Go /2:40
4. Hate To See You Go /3:03
5. Little Girl /3:05
6. Crazy For My Baby /2:59
7. Can't Stop Lovin' You /2:47
8. One More Chance With You /2:53
9. Who /2:22
10. Boom, Boom Out Goes The Light /2:49
11. It Ain't Right /2:53
12. Flying Saucer /3:01
13. It's Too Late Brother /2:41
14. Teenage Beat /3:00
15. Take Me Back /3:04
16. Just A Feeling /2:52
17. Nobody But You /2:05
18. Temperature (Version 1) /1:57
19. Shake Dancer /2:43
20. Everybody Needs Somebody /2:52
21. Temperature (Alternate 1) /2:13
22. Temperature (Alternate 2) /2:14
23. Temperature (Take 30) /3:26
24. Temperature (Take 35-38) /4:53
25. Temperature (Version 2) /2:38
26. Ah'w Baby (Alternate) /2:50
DISC FOUR
1. Ah'w Baby /2:52
2. I've Had My Fun (Alternate) /2:12
3. I've Had My Fun (Alternate 2) /2:25
4. I've Had My Fun /2:00
5. The Toddle /2:36
6. Confessin' The Blues /3:02
7. Key To The Highway /2:44
8. Rock Bottom /2:29
9. Rock Bottom /2:17
10. Walkin' On /2:35
11. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) (Take 5) /2:41
12. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) (Alt.) /3:06
13. You Gonna Be Sorry (Someday Baby) /2:47
14. One Of These Mornings (Instrumental) /3:11
15. Baby /1:58
16. My Baby Is Sweeter (Alternate) /2:49
17. My Baby Is Sweeter /2:27
18. Crazy Mixed Up World (Alternate) /1:59
19. Crazy Mixed Up World /1:59
20. Worried Life (Alternate) /2:16
21. Worried Life /2:38
22. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Take 1) /4:27
23. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Alternate 1) /2:13
24. Everything's Gonna Be Alright (Alternate 2) /3:00
25. Everything's Gonna Be Alright /2:48
26. Mean Old Frisco (Alternate) /3:04
27. Mean Old Frisco /2:25
DISC FIVE
1. Back Track /2:48
2. One Of These Mornings /2:54
3. Blue And Lonesome (Alternate) /4:49
4. Blue And Lonesome /2:54
5. Me And Piney Brown /2:30
6. Break It Up /2:25
7. Going Down Slow /2:54
8. You're Sweet /2:58
9. I Don't Play /2:17
10. As Long As I Have You /2:37
11. You Don't Know /2:23
12. Just Your Fool /2:22
13. Up The Line /2:06
14. I'm A Business Man /2:53
15. Dead Presidents /2:51
16. Southern Feeling /2:57
17. Back In the Alley /3:06
18. I Feel So Bad (Take 1) /2:42
19. I Feel So Bad (Take 2) /4:13
20. Chicken Shack /2:45
21. Feel So Bad /2:56
22. Make It Alright /3:22
23. Juke /3:27
REVIEW
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
It is no exaggeration to call Little Walter the Jimi Hendrix of the electric harp: he redefined what the instrument was and what it could do, pushing the instrument so far into the future that his music still sounds modern decades after it was recorded. Little Walter wasn't the first musician to amplify the harmonica but he arguably was the first to make the harp sound electric, twisting twitching, vibrant runs out of his instrument; nearly stealing the show from Muddy Waters on his earliest Chess recordings; and so impressing Leonard Chess that he made Muddy keep Walter as his harpist even after Waters broke up his band. Chess also made Walter into his studio's house harpist and started to release Little Walter solo records with the instrumental "Juke" in 1952. "Juke" became a smash hit and turned Little Walter into a star, making him a steady presence on the '50s R&B charts. Like Chicago blues itself, Little Walter suffered a downturn of fortunes in the '60s, his career first eclipsed by the rise of rock & roll, but his decline was assisted in no small measure by the reckless alcoholic behavior that led to his early death in 1968. However, Hip-O Select's tremendous five-disc set The Complete Chess Masters proves that Little Walter remained capable of surprises until the end -- and that he's a major artist whose legacy only seems more formidable when it's heard as a whole, as it is here.
Technically speaking, the title The Complete Chess Masters may be a bit of a misnomer. Little Walter issued the majority of his sides on Chess' sister label Checker with his full LPs appearing on Chess proper, but this is splitting hairs: Walter cut all his solo sides for Chess, often in Chess studios, cutting most during a spell in the early and mid-'50s when he was the most successful artist on the label, leapfrogging over his boss Muddy Waters with "Juke," a song cut at the tail end of a Muddy-led session. Once "Juke" hit, the sessions started coming fast and furious, with Walter entering the studio four or five times a year during the mid-'50s, churning out singles that turned into hit after hit and not just on the strength of his electrified harp. Walter was a supple, nuanced singer, the roundness of his voice standing in sharp contrast to his lacerating harp, providing an inherent tension within his records; when he sang "Mellow Down Easy," it sounded as if it were possible to ease into his funky groove, but that harp pulled you right out. Such kinetic inadvertent drama fueled his prime '50s recordings and almost everything he cut was of shockingly high quality, extending beyond the hits "Blues with a Feeling" and "My Babe" and into B-sides and forgotten sides.
This makes The Complete Chess Masters consistently absorbing listening, hampered only slightly by a rather large preponderance of alternate takes that can sometimes slow the momentum of this set. Conversely, the appearance of Walter's legacy winds up being bolstered somewhat by Chess' over-recording of him at his peak and general avoidance of him in his decline. This five-disc set might be billed as stretching from 1950 to 1967 but that's misleading: all but 15 tracks here were recorded in the '50s, a fact that winds up camouflaging just how long Walter was in dire straits. His fall from Chess' biggest star to being given charity sessions reflects the impact of rock & roll on blues sales -- not only did they wipe out crossover blues hits, but Walter couldn't adapt to the times, his electric harp too closely tied to Chicago blues. So, he wound up with only a handful of sessions in the '60s, all presented on the final stretch, none less than entertaining, none a patch on Walter at his peak. These final recordings are necessary to fill out the picture, but what remains are those '50s sessions, which defined what electric blues was and what it could do, and produced music that is still invigorating and essential -- and best appreciated here, where the true depth of Little Walter's achievement is easy to behold.
BIOGRAPHY
by Bill Dahl
Who's the king of all post-war blues harpists, Chicago division or otherwise? Why, the virtuosic Little Walter, without a solitary doubt. The fiery harmonica wizard took the humble mouth organ in dazzling amplified directions that were unimaginable prior to his ascendancy. His daring instrumental innovations were so fresh, startling, and ahead of their time that they sometimes sported a jazz sensibility, soaring and swooping in front of snarling guitars and swinging rhythms perfectly suited to Walter's pioneering flights of fancy.
Marion Walter Jacobs was by most accounts an unruly but vastly talented youth who abandoned his rural Louisiana home for the bright lights of New Orleans at age 12. Walter gradually journeyed north from there, pausing in Helena (where he hung out with the wizened Sonny Boy Williamson), Memphis, and St. Louis before arriving in Chicago in 1946.
The thriving Maxwell Street strip offered a spot for the still-teenaged phenom to hawk his wares. He fell in with local royalty -- Tampa Red and Big Bill Broonzy -- and debuted on wax that same year for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo ("I Just Keep Loving Her") in the company of Jimmy Rogers and guitarist Othum Brown. Walter joined forces with Muddy Waters in 1948; the resulting stylistic tremors of that coupling are still being felt today. Along with Rogers and Baby Face Leroy Foster, this super-confident young aggregation became informally known as the Headhunters. They would saunter into Southside clubs, mount the stage, and proceed to calmly "cut the heads" of whomever was booked there that evening.
By 1950, Walter was firmly entrenched as Waters' studio harpist at Chess as well (long after Walter had split the Muddy Waters band, Leonard Chess insisted on his participation on waxings -- why split up an unbeatable combination?). That's how Walter came to record his breakthrough 1952 R&B chart-topper "Juke" -- the romping instrumental was laid down at the tail-end of a Waters session. Suddenly, Walter was a star on his own, combining his stunning talents with those of the Aces (guitarists Louis and David Myers and drummer Fred Below) and advancing the concept of blues harmonica another few light years with every session he made for Checker Records.
From 1952 to 1958, Walter notched 14 Top Ten R&B hits, including "Sad Hours," "Mean Old World," "Tell Me Mama," "Off the Wall," "Blues with a Feeling," "You're So Fine," a threatening "You Better Watch Yourself," the mournful "Last Night," and a rocking "My Babe" that was Willie Dixon's secularized treatment of the traditional gospel lament "This Train." Throughout his Checker tenure, Walter alternated spine-chilling instrumentals with gritty vocals (he's always been underrated in that department; he wasn't Muddy Waters or the Wolf, but who was?).
Walter utilized the chromatic harp in ways never before envisioned (check out his 1956 free-form instrumental "Teenage Beat," with Robert Jr. Lockwood and Luther Tucker manning the guitars, for proof positive). 1959's determined "Everything Gonna Be Alright" was Walter's last trip to the hit lists; Chicago blues had faded to a commercial non-entity by then unless your name was Jimmy Reed.
Tragically, the '60s saw the harp genius slide steadily into an alcohol-hastened state of unreliability, his once-handsome face becoming a road map of scars. In 1964, he toured Great Britain with the Rolling Stones, who clearly had their priorities in order, but his once-prodigious skills were faltering badly. That sad fact was never more obvious than on 1967's disastrous summit meeting of Waters, Bo Diddley, and Walter for Chess as the Super Blues Band; there was nothing super whatsoever about Walter's lame remakes of "My Babe" and "You Don't Love Me."
Walter's eternally vicious temper led to his violent undoing in 1968. He was involved in a street fight (apparently on the losing end, judging from the outcome) and died from the incident's after-effects at age 37. His influence remains inescapable to this day -- it's unlikely that a blues harpist exists on the face of this earth who doesn't worship Little Walter.
DoWnLoAd
