 
Chester Rosson (June 1997) In his ground-breaking book on Texas musicians, Texas Rhythm, Texas Rhyme, Willoughby Williams says flat out: "T-Bone Walker was the most important and influential musician in the history of rhythm and blues, and perhaps in the history of all its derivative styles, including rock 'n' roll." He credits Walker with combining advanced technique on electric guitar with the standard blues combo of tenor sax, string bass and piano to produce the accepted format for R&B. Walker's electrifying performance style also provided a model for the high-energy rock 'n' roll stage style that emerged in the fifties and forever changed American pop music. Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born to play the blues. His mother, a guitarist herself, took him with her to Dallas, where young T-Bone was hired to lead Blind Lemon Jefferson through the streets to his gigs at the saloons and shady brothels of Oak Cliff. It was iterally at Jefferson's knee that Walker learned to play guitar. About the age of 15 he left home with Dr. Breeding's B Tonic Medicine Show as a dancer and guitarist, then toured the South with blues legend Ida Cox. As early as 1929 he cut his first record, "Wichita Falls Blues" (as Oak Cliff T-Bone), and in 1930 won a talent contest and went on tour with the flamboyant band leader Cab Calloway. As the Great Depression deepened in the thirties, Walker found work with the big bands of the era, including the Texas band of Milt Larkin. But in 1935 he moved to Los Angeles, and his career blossomed as he tap-danced and played his way to fame at Club Alabam and the Little Harlem. Around this time he met Charlie Christian, whose solos on the electric guitar had brought the instrument new respect in the jazz scene. By 1936 he too was playing electric guitar, and began the transformation from blues to rhythm and blues. In 1940 he recorded the classic "T-Bone Blues" with the Cotton Club Orchestra in New York City, toured U.S. Army bases, and played Joe Louis's Rhumboogie Club in Chicago, to which he would return year after year. But T-Bone's greatest success followed World War II, when he fronted his own band and began recording on the Black and White label. Many of his recordings reached the Hit Parade and have become classics, including "I'm Gonna Find My Baby" and "Call It Stormy Monday." During the fifties his successful career continued at a slower pace. He recorded several hits on the Imperial and Atlantic labels and toured extensively, despite health problems caused by chronic ulcers. Throughout the sixties he was appreciated by young white audiences at blues, jazz, and other festivals both in the U.S. and abroad, and as late as 1970 won a Grammy for his album Good Feelin. In 1974 Walker suffered a severe stroke which completely incapacitated him. He died March 16, 1975. |
||||
| ||||
read about this period
