T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was a critically acclaimed American  blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and  multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the  jump blues and  electric blues sound. [1]   [2]  In 2003,  Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at #47 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". [3]  On  Rolling Stone′s 2011 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" Walker had dropped to #67.

==Biography[ edit] == ===Early years<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;visibility:visible;">] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">T-Bone Walker, né Aaron Thibeaux Walker<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-allaboutjazz_4-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  was born in Linden, Texas, of African American and Cherokee descent. Walker's parents, Movelia Jimerson and Rance Walker, were both musicians. His stepfather, Marco Washington, taught him to play the guitar, ukulele, banjo, violin, mandolin, and piano.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-allaboutjazz_4-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Early in the 1900s, the teenage Walker learned his craft among the street-strolling string bands of Dallas. His mother and stepfather (a member of the Dallas String Band) were musicians, and family friend Blind Lemon Jefferson sometimes joined the family for dinner.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-russell_5-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]  Walker left school at age 10, and by 15,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RS_greatest_guitarists_3-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]  he was a professional performer on the blues circuit. Initially, he was Jefferson's protégé and would guide him around town for his gigs. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-allaboutjazz_4-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  In 1929, Walker made his recording debut with a single for Columbia Records, "Wichita Falls Blues"/"Trinity River Blues," billed as Oak Cliff T-Bone. Oak Cliff was the community he lived in at the time and T-Bone a corruption of his middle name. Pianist Douglas Fernell was his musical partner for the record.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AMG_1-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Walker married Vida Lee in 1935; the couple had three children. By age 25 Walker was working and the clubs in Los Angeles' Central Avenue, sometimes as the featured singer and guitarist with Les Hite's orchestra.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-russell_5-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5] ===Newfound style<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">By 1942, with his second album release, Walker's new-found musical maturity and ability had advanced to the point that Rolling Stone claimed that he "shocked everyone" with his newly developed distinctive sound upon the release of his first single "Mean Old World", on the Capitol Records label.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RS_greatest_guitarists_3-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[3]  Much of his output was recorded from 1946–1948 on Black & White Records, including his most famous song, 1947's "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AMG_1-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  Other notable songs he recorded during this period were "Bobby Sox Blues" (a #3R&B hit in 1946), and "West Side Baby" (#8 on the R&B singles charts in 1948).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[6]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Throughout his career Walker worked with top notch musicians, including trumpeter Teddy Buckner, pianist Lloyd Glenn, Billy Hadnott (bass), and tenor saxophonist Jack McVea.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Following his work with White and Black, he recorded from 1950-54 for Imperial Records (backed by Dave Bartholomew). Walker's only record in the next five years was T-Bone Blues, recorded over three widely separated sessions in 1955, 1956 and 1959, and finally released by Atlantic Records in 1960.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">By the early 1960s, Walker's career had slowed down, in spite of a hyped appearance at the American Folk Blues Festival in 1962 with Memphis Slim and prolific writer and musician Willie Dixon, among others.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AMG_1-4" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  However, several critically acclaimed albums followed, such as I Want a Little Girl (recorded for Delmark Records in 1968). Walker recorded in his last years, from 1968–1975, for Robin Hemingway's Jitney Jane Songs music publishing company, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording in 1971 for Good Feelin', while signed by Polydor Records, produced by Hemingway,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-allaboutjazz_4-3" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[4]  followed by another album produced by Hemingway; Walker's Fly Walker Airlines which was released in 1973.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[7]

T-Bone Walker at the American Folk Blues Festival in Hamburg, March 1972<p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Persistent stomach woes and a 1974 stroke slowed Walker's career down to a crawl.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AMG_1-5" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1]  He died of bronchial pneumonia following another stroke in March 1975, at the age of 64.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-AMG_1-6" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[1] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Blues_8-0" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8]  Walker was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[9] ==Legacy<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;visibility:visible;">] == <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Walker was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[10]  and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Blues_8-1" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[8] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[11]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">Chuck Berry named Walker and Louis Jordan as his main influences.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[12]  B.B. King cites hearing Walker's "Stormy Monday" record as his inspiration for getting an electric guitar.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[13]  Walker was admired by Jimi Hendrix who imitated Walker's trick of playing the guitar with his teeth.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-russell_5-2" style="line-height:1em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[5]  "Stormy Monday" was a favorite live number for The Allman Brothers Band. ==Discography<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">] == Publicity photo for T-Bone Walker in 1942*Stormy Monday Blues (1947) ===As sideman<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;direction:ltr;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;-webkit-transition:color100msease-out,margin100msease-out;visibility:visible;">] === <p style="line-height:19.1875px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;">With Jimmy Witherspoon
 * I Get So Weary (1961)
 * Great Blues Vocals and Guitar (1963)
 * The Legendary T-Bone Walker (1967)
 * Blue Rocks (1968)
 * I Want a Little Girl (1968)
 * The Truth (1968)
 * Feelin' the Blues (1969)
 * Funky Town (1969)
 * Good Feelin' (1969)
 * Everyday I Have the Blues (1970)
 * Dirty Mistreater (1973)
 * Fly Walker Airlines (1973)
 * Well Done (1973)


 * Evenin' Blues (Prestige, 1963)