WALTER HORTON

Big Walter Horton (6 de abril de 1917 - 8 de diciembre de 1981) fue un armonicista y cantante de blues estadounidense. Innovador por su sonido con la armónica, utilizando fraseos suaves y un timbre muy particular, marcado por un profundo vibrato y ataque. Durante su carrera acompañó a numerosos músicos, usualmente en el área de Memphis y Chicago, tanto en vivo como en el estudio y viajó a Europa para participar en los ciclos del American Folk Blues Festival.

Murió en Chicago, Illinois en el año 1981 de un ataque cardíaco y al año siguiente, ingresó al Salón de la Fama del Blues por su contribución a la música. Leer más......

Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter Horton or Walter "Shakey" Horton, (April 6, 1918 – December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming and essentially shy man, Horton is remembered as one of the premier harmonica players in the history of blues. Willie Dixon once called Horton "the best harmonica player I ever heard."

Born Walter Horton in Horn Lake, Mississippi, he was playing a harmonica by the time he was five years old. In his early teens, he lived in Memphis, Tennessee and claimed that his earliest recordings were done there in the late 1920s with the Memphis Jug Band, although there is no documentation of it, and some blues researchers have stated that this story was most likely fabricated by Horton. (He also claimed to have taught some harmonica to Little Walter and the original Sonny Boy Williamson, although these claims are unsubstantiated, and in the case of the older Williamson, somewhat suspect).

As with many of his peers, he spent much of his career existing on a meager income and living with constant discrimination in a segregated United States of America. In the 1930s he played with various blues performers across the Mississippi delta region. It is generally accepted that his first recordings were made in Memphis backing guitarist Little Buddy Doyle on Doyle's recordings for the Okeh and Vocalion labels in 1939. These recordings were in the acoustic duo format popularized by Sleepy John Estes with his harmonicist Hammie Nixon, among others. On these recordings, Horton's style is not yet fully realized, but there are clear hints of what is to come. He eventually stopped playing the harp for a living due to poor health, and worked mainly outside of the music industry in the 1940s. By the early 1950s, he was playing music again, and was among the first to record for Sam Phillips at Sun Records in Memphis, who would later record Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. The early Big Walter recordings from Sun include performances from a young Phineas Newborn, Jr. on piano, who later gained fame as a jazz pianist. His instrumental track recorded around this time, "Easy", was based on Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind". Read more.....

Walter Horton - Little Boy Blue