“Little Walter was a very, very powerful influence on me.” - Eric Clapton
“His phrasing combined with his creativity and amplification really took harmonica playing to a whole new level that hadn’t been heard before.” - Charlie Musselwhite
“Little Walter Jacobs was one of the best singers of the Blues and a Blues harp player par excellence.” - Keith Richards
“Walter changed all the rules and raised the bar so high that nobody has yet surpassed him either in innovation or technical prowess. Walter’s original sides have become the holy grail all other harpers are still trying to aspire to.” - Mark Hummel
These quotes are only a faint suggestion of the respect Little Walter Jacobs engenders in the Blues World.
http://youtu.be/UzRgVFVlrXw
Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968) was born and raised in Louisiana. He learned harmonica as a child and left school at age 12 to work odd jobs and play for tips on the street of New Orleans, Memphis, Helena and St. Louis. His street education included playing guitar and harmonica with several of the great masters of the time including Sonny Boy Williamson II, Sunnyland Slim and Honeyboy Edwards.
After a 1945 move to Chicago, Jacobs found that his acoustic harmonica was drowned out by the newly amplified guitarists he played with. Other harp players had already started to amplify their harmonicas, but Little Walter created a unique sound by driving his amplification to the point of distortion. He created not only a brand new sound for harp, but becoming, according to author Madison Deniro, the first musician to exploit distortion as an essential component of his instrumental sound.
Over his career Little Walter usually led his own bands, but couldn’t pass up an invitation to play in the Muddy Waters Band for a time in the early 1950s. Little Walter’s bands included many of Chicago's and America’s best.
Even Robert Junior Lockwood and Ray Charles spent time in the group. Jacobs also did session recording with the full who’s who of the Blues.
A physicist once said of Einstein that “He is so important that we use his ideas without even remembering whose ideas they are.” Blues harp players would surely say the same thing about Little Walter. A group of the best current harmonica players including Sugar Ray Norcia, Charlie Musselwhite, Mark Hummel and other have just released Remembering Little Walter which is a very fine tribute with live performances of some of Little Walter’s better known pieces.
http://youtu.be/ZdGET4hXS5o
You can hear a sampler set from Remembering Little Walter on this week’s The Nine O’clock Blues.
Bonus: you can learn a little bit more about the statue of Little Walter in Germany at this link, don't worry it's the translated text from the original German.
