Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter (Horton) or Walter "Shakey" Horton (April 6, 1921 – December 8, 1981) was an American blues harmonica player. A quiet, unassuming, shy man, he 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." He was also known as "Boss of the Blues Harmonica" and Robert Palmer named him as "one of the three great harmonica soloists of modern blues", with the two others being cited as Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson II.Horton was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi. Horton claimed to be born in 1917, although some sources give the year as 1918 or 1921. His mother soon moved to Memphis where Walter taught himself how to play the harmonica at five years of age. He later learned more about his instrument by working with harp players Will Shade and Hammie Nixon.
Horton eventually stopped playing the harmonica for a living, because of poor health, and worked mainly outside the music industry in the 1940s, but by the end of the decade he had moved to Chicago and appeared on the blues scene, frequently playing with Memphis and Delta musicians who had also moved north, including the guitarists Eddie Taylor and Johnny Shines. Johnny Shines recalls that Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller), used to come to Walter for lessons. He also says that he used the name "Little Walter" before the Little Walter Jacobs did, but gave it up to Jacobs. Jacobs acknowledges that he "ran" with Big Walter in Memphis during the 1940s.
Horton later called himself "Big Walter" to distinguish himself. When Junior Wells left the Muddy Waters band at the end of 1952, Horton replaced him long enough to play on one session, in January 1953.
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John Lee Hooker and Big Walter Horton |
He was among the first to be recorded by Sam Phillips, at Sun Records in Memphis, who later recorded Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash. For his recordings for Sun, Horton was accompanied by the young pianist Phineas Newborn, Jr., who later was a well-known jazz pianist. Horton's instrumental track "Easy", recorded around this time, was based on Ivory Joe Hunter's "I Almost Lost My Mind".
Also known as Mumbles and Shakey (because of his head motion while playing the harmonica), Horton was active in the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s, as blues music gained popularity with white audiences. From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and frequently performed as a sideman with Taylor, Shines, Johnny Young, Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon and many others.
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He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk music festivals in the United States and Europe, frequently with Dixon's Chicago All-Stars. He also performed on recordings by blues and rock stars, such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter.
He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at blues and folk music festivals in the United States and Europe, frequently with Dixon's Chicago All-Stars. He also performed on recordings by blues and rock stars, such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter.In October 1968, while touring the U.K., he recorded the album Southern Comfort with the guitarist Martin Stone (previously with the band Savoy Brown and later a member of the band Mighty Baby). In the late 1970s he toured the United States with Homesick James Williamson, Guido Sinclair, Eddie Taylor, Richard Molina, Bradley Pierce Smith and Paul Nebenzahl, and he performed on National Public Radio
broadcasts. Two of the best compilation albums of his work are Mouth-Harp Maestro and Fine Cuts. Also notable is the album Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell, released by Alligator Records in 1972.
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Big Walter Horton & Little Pat Rushing in Chicago 1978 |
He worked at blues festivals and often performed at the Maxwell Street market in Chicago. In 1977, he played on the Muddy Waters album I'm Ready, produced by Johnny Winter. He also recorded for Blind Pig Records during this period. Horton accompanied John Lee Hooker in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. His final recordings were made in 1980.
After returning from a European tour, Horton died of heart failure due to acute alcoholism in Chicago in 1981, at the age of 60 and was buried in Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
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Walter at his last concert in Holland ‘81 |
After returning from a European tour, Horton died of heart failure due to acute alcoholism in Chicago in 1981, at the age of 60 and was buried in Restvale Cemetery, in Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
(Edited from Wikipedia & All Music Guide to The Blues)