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Little Walter (born Marion Walter Jacobs in Marksville, Louisiana; May 1, 1930; died on February 15, 1968 in Chicago, Illinois) was an American #blues singer, #harmonica player, and guitarist, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix for innovation and impact on succeeding generations. 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 in the \"sideman\" category, making him the first and only artist ever to be inducted specifically for his work as a harmonica player.
Tired of the generic electric guitar #blues of the mid-1940s, Little Walter introduced to #blues a new sound by simply combining the use of a guitar amp, mic, and a harmonica; a technique used among harmonica musicians to this day. He made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abram's tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of the Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the Maxwell Street market area in Chicago. Little Walter thus became the first musician to use electric distortion on purpose. Little Walter is widely regarded as the best harmonica player ever, and you can hear much of his talent accompanying Muddy Waters's repertoire from the 50's, as well as his own numerous and successful recordings of that time.
Jacobs made his first released recordings in 1947 for Bernard Abrams' tiny Ora-Nelle label, which operated out of the back room of Abrams' Maxwell Radio and Records store in the heart of the Maxwell Street market area in Chicago. These and several other early Little Walter recordings, like many #blues #harp recordings of the era, owed a strong stylistic debt to pioneering #blues #harmonica player Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson). Little Walter joined Muddy Waters' band in 1948, and by 1950, he was playing acoustic (unamplified) harmonica on Muddy's recordings for Chess Records.
Jacobs had put his career as a bandleader on hold when he joined Muddy's band, but stepped back out front once and for all when he recorded as a bandleader for Chess's subsidiary label Checker Records on 12 May 1952. The first completed take of the first song attempted at his debut session became his first hit, spending eight weeks in the number-one position on the Billboard R&B chart – the song was \"Juke\", and it is still the only harmonica instrumental ever to become a number-one hit on the Billboard R&B.
Little Walter scored 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 his former boss Waters, nor by his fellow Chess #blues artists Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson II. Following the pattern of \"Juke\", most of Little Walter's single releases in the 1950s featured a vocal performance on one side, and a harmonica instrumental on the other. Many of Walter's vocal numbers were originals which he or Chess A&R man Willie Dixon wrote or adapted and updated from earlier blues themes. In general, his sound was more modern and uptempo than the popular Chicago #blues of the day, with a jazzier conception and less rhythmically rigid approach than other contemporary blues #harmonica players.
By the late 1950s, Little Walter no longer employed a regular full-time band, instead hiring various players as needed from the large pool of local #blues musicians in Chicago.
Jacobs was frequently utilized on records as a harmonica accompanist behind others in the Chess stable of artists, including Jimmy Rogers, John Brim, Rocky Fuller, Memphis Minnie, The Coronets, Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, Bo Diddley, and Shel Silverstein, and on other record labels backing Otis Rush, Johnny Young, and Robert Nighthawk.
In 1967 Chess released a studio album featuring Little Walter with Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters titled Super #Blues.
