Big Walter Horton.

Born: 1917. Died: 1981.

Walter Horton, aka "Big Walter" or "Shakey Horton" was born just south of Memphis in
the small town of Horn Lake, Mississippi. He moved to Memphis with his mother early in
live and was reportedly playing harmonica in the streets there by the end of the 1920s.
Throughout the depression years of the 1930s Horton played Memphis street corners
and occasional jobs as sideman with the Memphis Jug Band.

Working with harmonica players such as Hammie Nixon, Walter developed a style and
expertise that would eventually leave him alone in a small group of harpists which
included Sonny Boy Williamson, James Cotton and Junior Wells. It is said that Walter
was shy. That, taken with the nickname "Shakey" paints a picture of one not so
comfortable in the spotlight.

Indeed it was only at the end of his career that he recorded any solo work. He did
however work regularly. In the late 40s to early 50s Horton split his time between
Memphis and Chicago. In Chicago he worked as a side man for friend Eddie Taylor
while in Memphis he did session work at Sun Records.
In 1953 he moved to Chicago permanently to join the Muddy Waters band (replacing the
recently drafted Junior Walker). Work came steadily for Horton in Chicago. He played
with every name band both on stage and in the studio. Notable was his work with
Howlin' Wolf and Johnny Shines.

He continued to move freely among bands through the 1960s. By the early 70s he was
able to supplement his club work with appearances at folk festivals and "blues revivals"
which he often joined as a part of Willie Dixon's cadre.

During the 1970s Horton did some solo recording. Most notably he recorded a collection
of harmonica duets with Carey Bell. Walter Horton continued to work off and on until his
death in 1981 at the age of 64.
==
Walter Horton.
Source: rousefamily dot com

Walter Horton, better known as Big Walter Horton or Walter “Shakey” Horton, (April 6,
1917 – 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 harmonica player, 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”.

During the early 1950s he first appeared on the Chicago blues scene, where he
frequently played with fellow Memphis and Delta musicians who had also moved north,
including guitarists Eddie Taylor and Johnny Shines.
When Junior Wells left the Muddy Waters band at the end of 1952, Horton replaced him
for long enough to play on one session with Waters in January 1953. Horton’s style had
by then fully matured, and he was playing in the heavily amplified style that became one
of the trademarks of the Chicago blues sound. He also made great use of techniques
such as tongue-blocking.

He made an outstanding single as a leader for States in 1954. Horton’s solo on Jimmy
Rogers’ 1956 Chess recording “Walking By Myself” is considered by many to be one of
the high points of his career, and of Chicago Blues of the 1950s. Also known as
“Mumbles”, and “Shakey” because of his head motion while playing the harmonica,
Horton was active on the Chicago blues scene during the 1960s as blues music gained
popularity with white audiences. From the early 1960s onward, he recorded and
appeared frequently as a sideman with Eddie Taylor, Johnny Shines, Johnny Young,
Sunnyland Slim, Willie Dixon and many others.

He toured extensively, usually as a backing musician, and in the 1970s he performed at

blues and folk music festivals in the U.S. and Europe, frequently with Willie Dixon’s
Chicago Blues All-Stars. He has also appeared as a guest on recordings by blues and
rock stars such as Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter. In October 1968, while touring
the United Kingdom, he recorded the album Southern Comfort with the former Savoy
Brown and future Mighty Baby guitarist Martin Stone.
In the late 1970s he toured the U.S. with Homesick James Williamson, Richard Molina,
Bradley Pierce Smith and Paul Nebenzahl, and appeared on National Public Radio
broadcasts. The quality of his musical output, often affected by his heavy drinking, was
somewhat inconsistent over the course of his career, unpredictably wavering between
brilliant and pedestrian, and much of his best work was done as a sideman.
Two of the best compilation albums of his own work are Mouth-Harp Maestro and Fine
Cuts. Also notable is the Big Walter Horton and Carey Bell album, released by Alligator
Records in 1972. He became a mainstay on the festival circuit, and often played at the
open-air market on Chicago’s Maxwell Street.

In 1977, he joined Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters on Winter’s album I’m Ready, and
during the same period recorded some material for Blind Pig Records. Horton appeared
in the Maxwell Street scene in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, accompanying John
Lee Hooker. His final recordings were made in 1980.

Horton died from heart failure in Chicago in 1981 at the age of 64 and was buried in
Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of
Fame in 1982.
==
Big Walter Horton
Source: msbluestrail dot org

Blues harmonica virtuoso Big Walter Horton was renowned for his innovative
contributions to the music of Memphis and Chicago. Horton was born in Horn Lake on
April 6, 1918, and began his career as a child working for tips on the streets of Memphis.
He performed and recorded with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Willie Dixon, Fleetwood
Mac, Johnny Winter, and many others. His technique and tone continue to be studied
and emulated by harmonica players around the world.

Horton was heralded as one of the most brilliant and creative musicians ever to play the
harmonica. Born on a plantation near this site, as a child he blew into tin cans to create
sounds. His birth date is usually cited as April 6, 1918, although some sources give the
year as 1917 or 1921. Nicknamed “Shakey” due to nystagmus, an affliction related to
eye movement that can result in involuntary head shaking and learning disabilities,
Horton quit school in the first grade.
He made his way doing odd jobs and playing harmonica with local veterans such as
Jack Kelly, Garfield Akers, and Little Buddy Doyle as well as young
friends Johnny Shines, Floyd Jones, and Honeyboy Edwards. They performed in Church
Park, Handy Park, hotel lobbies, and anywhere else they could earn tips, including
nearby areas of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.

Horton began recording for legendary Memphis producer Sam Phillips in 1951. The first
record on Phillips’s Sun label in 1952 was assigned to “Jackie Boy and Little Walter”
(Jack Kelly and Horton). While Sun never officially released the Kelly-Horton disc, other
Horton tracks from Phillips’s studio appeared on the Modern and RPM labels under the
name of “Mumbles.” On later recordings, Walter was usually billed as “Shakey Horton”
or “Big Walter.”

Horton joined the Muddy Waters band in Chicago in 1953. Chicago’s foremost blues
producer/songwriter, Willie Dixon, who called Horton “the greatest harmonica player in
the world,” began recording him for labels including States, Cobra, and Argo, and hired
him to play harmonica on sessions by Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Jimmy Rogers,
Sunnyland Slim, and others. Horton also toured and recorded with Willie Dixon’s
Chicago Blues All Stars, and played on the Fleetwood Mac album Blues Jam in
Chicago. Full albums of his work appeared on several labels, including Alligator, Chess,
and Blind Pig.
Horton toured internationally, but in Chicago most of his work was in small clubs. He
also resumed playing the streets for tips at Chicago’s Maxwell Street market. Horton’s
playing, sometimes powerful and dramatic, other times delicate and sensitive, left an
influence on harmonica masters Little Walter (Jacobs) and Sonny Boy Williamson
Number 2 (Rice Miller) and on the generations to follow.

His shy, gentle nature, often hidden beneath a gruff or glum exterior, endeared him to
many. The uplifting beauty of Horton’s music contrasted with the sorrows and tragedies
of his personal life. He died of heart failure on December 8, 1981. His death certificate
also cited acute alcoholism. Horton was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1982.
==

With Jimmy Rogers At The Blues Estafette NL 1981 Photo by Bert Lek.
Facebook conversation by the photo from Bert Lek:
Michael Frank: "He died partly as a consequence of internal injuries sustained after
being pushed down a flight of stairs a week earlier in his apt building, by one of his
grown stepchildren. He told Honeyboy about it, who told me that Walter did not seek
medical attention for his injuries."

Jimi Primetime Smith: "As a young man growing up in Chicago, I lived with him for a
while. I dated his stepdaughter Mary, and yes he would never get medical help for any of
his injuries. I remember us sharing a cab to work at the blues on Halstead, and he had
blood running down his face. I tried to get him to go to the hospital, but he just said I'm
alright blue. We got a job to do.."

Dave van Bladel: "Waauw."

Jimi Primetime Smith: "Yes Dave. His manager Jaulina got me the to try out one night
at blues. Because Homesick James and Walter were having problems. I was there
brooding over the fact the Jimmy Reed and my mom had a falling out and I didn't want
to play music anymore. but Jaulina talked me into trying out. And the rest is history.."

Steve Arvey: "Her name is Jillina Arrigo Pope. Not Jaulina.."

"Another thing..Walter would have hated this photo...Walter did not like haven his picture
taken..."
"Jimmy..Did you live at 39th and Indiana?"

Dave van Bladel: " The night Bert Lek took this picture on the Blues Estafette was after
a memorable day. Walter was pretty aggressive and took a large amount of alcohol. The
amount was too big and he had to be brought back to the hotel because he could no
longer stand..... That evening, he had his ruffle slept, was still aggressive but played
from the heart. He came on stage while the previous artists were still to take leave and
scolded them anything while they disappeared from the stage. Meanwhile he called all
photographers while shakin' his head: NO pictures, NO pictures! In his first number he
brought a train in, I can't remember how many coaches long.... and repeated regularly
NO pictures! NO pictures. A lot of the photographers get scared and leaved the front
rows. He played star from heaven that night and finished the show with a number of
somersaults. Don't know if it was the after effect of the alcohol or just an athletic tour de
force...... He played great that night and I will always remember him that way."

Bert van Oortmarssen: "Yes Dave, this is exactly how I remember this concert. I must
admit that I also stepped away from the front row but still managed to take three or four
pictures from him and Jimmy Rogers. Walter did sound great, but the band was not well
prepared. THe drummer had to be guided through "walking by myself" ...."

Jillina Arrigopope: "He didn't like being called Shakey/ didnt like photos or autographs
but He had a stamp and would stamp everything........"
==
These
pictures
were
taken on
The
Blues
Estafette
NL 1981
by Bert
Lek a
month
before
Walter’s
death.
Big Walter Horton Profile
(by Reverend Keith A. Gordon):
Born: April 6, 1917 in Horn Lake MS. Died: December 8, 1981 in Chicago IL

Photo by Brian Smith

A pioneering harmonica player and one of the prime architects of what we today
consider to be the classic Chicago blues sound, Big Walter "Shakey" Horton's
achievements are often overshadowed by the more flamboyant work of contemporaries
like Little Walter and James Cotton. A shy, unassuming musician, Horton was more
comfortable performing behind other bluesmen than in forming his own bands. Because
of his sparse catalog of recordings, Horton's contributions to the blues are unfairly
ignored, yet his signature three-note turnaround can be found in the grooves of dozens
of sides released throughout the 1950s.

Traveling Bluesman
Horton was born in Mississippi but moved to Memphis with his mother at a young age.
He began teaching himself the harmonica at the age of five, and would often play in
Handy Park, near the city's infamous Beale Street, for tips. While in his teens, Horton
played with the Memphis Jug Band (as "Shakey Walter"), possibly appearing on a
couple of the band's recordings, and learned more about his instrument from fellow band
member Will Shade and Memphis legend Hammie Nixon.
During the late-1920s and early-1930s, Horton hustled work wherever he could, playing
street corners for tips and hitting up parties, fish fries, and juke-joints for whatever pay
was available. He was known to have performed alongside such talents as Robert
Johnson, Homesick James, and Honeyboy Edwards, and even toured as part of Ma
Rainey's band during the 1930s.

Around 1939, Horton began toying around with amplifying his harmonica, and he
recorded with guitarist Little Buddy Doyle for Okeh, the two performing in the acoustic
duo format popular at the time. He would literally disappear from the blues scene during
much of the 1940s, however, working different odd jobs to pay the bills.

Goin' To Chicago
Horton reappeared in 1948, blowing his harp behind the young blues guitarist B.B. King.
He would later perform behind Eddie Taylor, and in 1951 Horton would record a number
of sides for producer Sam Phillips. The songs were subsequently licensed to
Modern/RPM Records and released under the name of "Mumbles," a nickname given
him by Phillips that Horton didn't much like. In 1953, Horton packed up and moved to
Chicago, where he soon was recruited by Muddy Waters for his band when Junior Wells
was drafted into the army.
Horton would stay with the Waters band for around, and recorded a number of sides
with the blues legend before being fired for one infraction or another. By this time,
however, Horton's searing harp technique had fully-matured, and he became an in-
demand Chess Records session player. Through the end of the 1950s, Horton would
appear on classic records by Jimmy Rogers ("Walking By Myself"), Otis Rush ("I Can't
Quit You Baby"), Johnny Shines ("Evening Sun"), and even with Waters again.

Horton's Solo Sides

Horton would record a number of solo sides throughout the 1950s, working with
producer/musician Willie Dixon on songs released by the Chess, Cobra, and Jewel
labels. Horton even traveled back to Memphis to record for Phillips' Sun Records,
waxing his signature song "Easy" with guitarist Jimmy DeBerry in 1953. Horton wouldn't
record a full-length debut album until 1964, however, The Soul of Blues Harmonica
produced by Dixon and featuring guitarist Buddy Guy, released by the Chess subsidiary
Argo Records.

During the 1960s, Horton continued to tour with a number of performers, including Big
Mama Thornton, Jimmy Rogers, Koko Taylor, and Robert Nighthawk, among many
others. His musical contributions to the notable Vanguard Records compilation album,
Chicago/The Blues/Today!, Vol. 3, when it was released in 1966 earned the blues
harpist a larger audience among white rock fans embracing the blues. Later in the
decade he would record with Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and blues-rock guitarist
Johnny Winter.

Big Walter's Disciples

Horton toured continuously during the late-1960s and 1970s, typically performing as a
sideman in the band of a better-known artist, and he appeared frequently at blues and
folk festivals in the United States and Europe, often touring as part of Willie Dixon's
Chicago Blues All-Stars band. His own recordings often suffered from inconsistency
caused by Horton's heavy drinking, and the majority of his best playing was usually
achieved as a session player adding his flourishes to the work of stronger personalities.

In the late-1960s, Horton began taking a number of young players under his wing, and
his success as a teacher can be heard in the music of harp wizards like Peter "Mudcat"
Ruth, Carey Bell, Charlie Musselwhite, and Billy Branch, all of whom forged careers of
variable success. Horton recorded the acclaimed Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell with
his student in 1973, and would appear again behind Muddy Waters on the blues
legend's Johnny Winter-produced 1977 "comeback" album, I'm Ready. A frequent
performer at the open-air market on Chicago's famed Maxwell Street, Horton can be
seen playing behind John Lee Hooker in the street scene of the 1980 movie The Blues
Brothers. Horton would die of heart failure a year later.
==

Big Walter Horton Profile

Big Walter Horton was a virtuoso blues harmonica player who, ironically, never achieved
the fame of the renowned harpists he taught and inspired--including James Cotton, Little
Walter Jacobs, and Rice Miller. Horton is remembered as a gentle man who never quite
escaped poverty and poor health he was born into. Bruce Iglauer, who produced the
1972 record Big Walter Horton with Carey Bell, called him one of "only four great
creative geniuses of modern blues harmonica," ranking him alongside Jacob, Miller, and
John Lee 'Sonny Boy' Williamson. Those three harp players were "recognized, honored
and extensively recorded with their own bands," Iglauer wrote, but Horton remained
relatively obscure at his death in 1981. "Perhaps ... this shy, withdrawn man (was) never
aggressive enough to hustle a contract with a major record label. Or perhaps ... his
harmonica is so subtle, so delicate, that it requires hard, concentrated listening to
appreciate."
Horton crafted "a unique, fluid style that fused blues feeling with an uplifting jazzlike
tone," wrote Chris Smith. "The beauty that he created through his music was in striking
contrast to the troubled life he lived. Walter Horton was a shy, sensitive man who had to
deal with poverty and illness most of his life. Often uncommunicative in conversation, he
'spoke' through his instrument, creating a world of lyric beauty, wit and energy." Writer
Charles Shaar Murray offered a similar assessment in The Blues on CD, "Despite the
greater fame and popularity of Little Walter, James Cotton, Junior Wells, and Paul
Butterfield, many connoisseurs regard Horton as the finest of all the great post-war harp
men."

Horton was born in Horn Lake, Mississippi, on April 6, 1918. He was given his first
harmonica at age five and soon was playing it on the street. "The decision to opt for a
career in music was essentially made for him, because he lacked both the physical
strength for menial work and the education for anything else," Murray wrote. In his early
teens, Horton moved to Arkansas and then to Memphis, where he played with the
Memphis Lug Band and performed in Handy Park alongside Johnny Shines, Floyd
Jones, Furry Lewis, and Eddie Taylor. "I met Walter, really, in 1930," Shines once said,
"and he would be sitting on the porch, blowing in tin cans, you know, and he'd get
sounds out of those things."
In the 1940s, Horton met and taught harp players Little Walter and James Cotton,
worked in Memphis as a cook and an iceman, and traveled briefly to Chicago--where
many Memphis bluesmen were settling--and played on Maxwell Street for tips. He also
became a critical part of the post-World War II blues scene in Memphis. In 1951, the
legendary Sam Phillips recorded Horton at his Sun studios, both as a sideman and
occasionally as a featured artist. Those recordings later were collected by Ace Records
on Mouth Harp Maestro. An early Horton instrumental song called "Easy" is still
considered a masterpiece of amplified harmonica playing.

In 1953, Big Walter moved to Chicago for good and replaced Junior Wells in Muddy
Waters' band. Over the years, he worked in clubs, recording studios and on the road as
both as a solo artist and a sideman for Waters, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Johnny Shines,
Johnny Young, JimmyRogers, Jimmy Reed, Tampa Red, and Big Mama Thornton.
Horton's erratic, mushmouth singing style garnered him the nicknames "Mumbles" and
"Shakey"--which he did not like. His harmonica virtuosity, however, kept him in demand.
During the 1960s, Horton's career prospered as white audiences discovered the blues.
He toured the United States and Europe, performed with Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues
All-Stars, and recorded his first album as a bandleader. The record, The Soul of the
Blues Harmonica, was issued by Argo Records in England in 1964 and later re-released
by Chess--but it was largely unsuccessful. In the late 1960s, Horton performed with
blues-influenced rock 'n rollers Johnny Winter and Fleetwood Mac.
The 1970s began with promise for Horton, but ended with deteriorating health and
professional stature. He recorded his second album as lead artist in 1972, along with his
protege, harpist Carey Bell, with whom he toured and played South Side Chicago bars.
That album and another, Can't Keep Lovin' You, have been called the best recordings
from Horton's later years. He also rejoined Muddy Waters on the blues legend's 1978
album I'm Ready. "His reunion with Muddy Waters was one of the very few bright spots
of the '70s, as far as the increasingly alcoholically- challenged Horton was concerned,"
Murray wrote.

Late in his life, Horton was back playing for tips and drinks on Maxwell Street--as he had
when he arrived in Chicago four decades before. In a street scene from the 1980 movie
The Blues Brothers, in fact, he is seen doing exactly that, playing his harp behind John
Lee Hooker on the song Boom Boom. "(Horton's) harmonica playing, both on his own
records and in his uncompromisingly lyrical solos on just about everyone else's, is
breathtaking," Peter Guralnick wrote in The Listener's Guide to the Blues.
"In a sense, he embodies the classic definition of a musician's musician, an artist
universally recognized by his peers who has had an enormous impact on musicians who
are much better known." Along with Little Walter Jacob, Guralnick wrote, Big Walter
Horton raised "blues harmonica playing to new heights and created a new role and a
new standard for this once lowly instrument." Horton died in Chicago on Dec. 8, 1981.
==

With Wild Child Butler and Koko Taylor. Photo by André Hobus.
==

See also:

http://www.filisko.com/.../11/Walter-Horton-Discography.pdf

==
With Jimmy DeBerry