How does one start an article about a legend? Well, in the case of Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker, I think a film clip of him performing in London at Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1966, backed by such notables as Dizzy Gillespie and Coleman Hawkins, will do the trick ...
Of all the great twentieth-century blues guitarists, T-Bone Walker can easily be counted amongst the top five who have had the strongest influence on later generations of blues, rock, and jazz musicians. Not only did he write some of the most classic blues standards of all time (including "Call it Stormy Monday", which is still a popular cover tune today), but he was also part of that generation of blues artists who could easily bridge the gap between blues and jazz. Born in Linden, Texas on 28 May 1910 to two working musicians, his roots in the family trade were a blend of learning from his elders (including his mentor Blind Lemon Jefferson) and picking up what he could on the fly. From his early days as a boy, playing for change outside venues like Eddie's Drive-In, he honed his craft as a guitarist and singer. As a result, by the time he performed for the elite of London at Poplar Town Hall in 1966, his ability to improvise was legendary. As one of the innovators of electric blues guitar, his often complex style was an inspiration to the next generation of blues players, including B. B. King, Chuck Berry, and Albert King; and rock musicians such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Jeff Beck worshipped the ground he walked on.
Here is another clip of Walker, this time performing in 1962 on Horst Lippman's German television show Jazz Gehört & Gesehen (Jazz Heard & Seen) ...
Young musicians frequently make the mistake of only citing groups such as Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones when talking about the style of guitar playing that is at the center of their compositions. However, it was T-Bone Walker who, along with a close-knit group of musical artists during the early twentieth century, invented that style - a fact that is often overlooked by the masses in today's world. Not completely, though, thanks to artists like Jimmy Page and Keith Richards, who are always quick to mention these players and their influence over their own work. Richards' autobiography Life alone is an excellent example of this - at moments it reads more like a homage to his blues idols than anything else - but that is a subject for another entry!
When putting this entry together, I came across a relatively early interview with T-Bone Walker, in which he gives the reader a wonderfully candid, conversational, and at times amusing glimpse into the world of early blues and jazz music, including a short list of the musicians who influenced him. I have decided to include portions of the article here, with a few more YouTube videos featuring a handful of the artists Walker mentions. This adds some additional time for the reader here - but trust me, it's well worth it - some of the recordings alone are priceless! And for those interested, the full interview can be read here.
Excerpts from "T-Bone Blues: T-Bone Walker's Story In His Own Words"
(article compiled from stenographic notes by Jane Greenhough and published by Record Changer in October, 1947)
EVERYBODY in the South has a nickname or initial. I was called "T-Bow" but the people got it mixed up with "T-Bone." My name is Aaron Walker but "T-Bone" is catchy, people remember it. My auntie gave it to me when I was a kid. Mother's mother was a Cherokee Indian full blooded. There were sixteen girls and two boys in my mother's family, all dead but two.
I just naturally started to play music. My whole family played - my daddy played, my mother played. My daddy played bass, my cousin played banjo, guitar and mandolin. We played at root beer stands, like the drive-ins they have now, making $2.50 a night, and we had a cigar box for the kitty that we passed around, sometimes making fifty or sixty dollars a night. Of course we didn't get none of it, we kids. I and my first cousin were the only kids in the band. Before I came to California, Charlie Christian and I did the same thing in root beer stands. I'd play banjo a while, then dance a while. ...
I was born in a little town called Linden near Texarkana, then moved to Dallas. Ida Cox picked me up in Dallas where I was working at Eddie's Drive-In. ... since I was a kid she was one of my favorite blues singers. I went on the road with her on a tour of the South. Twelve girls in the chorus, two principals, two comedians. I used to play thirty-five or forty choruses of "Tiger Rag" with a table in my teeth and the banjo on the back of my neck. Never had a toothache in my life, and I used to carry tables in my teeth and tap dance at the same time. I started that in Forth Worth at the Jim Hotel. When I was with Ida Cox and we were broke we used to eat syrup and bread, without even any butter with it. We did "Coming Around the Mountain," and the old numbers, mostly comical, and the blues and tried to be funny. One of the comedians had a bazooka and played a tin Prince Albert can with his fingers. Then I had to go home and go to school. I didn't drink or smoke then, but I did play penny dice. I was just learning to shoot then. ...
I also worked in a medicine show, selling Big B Tonic, with Josephus Cook and Dr. Breeding - I used to get five dollars and he sent my mother ten. I used to make the medicine, too, made it in a tub with black draught. It was called BB - double B and they were willing to pay a dollar for it because it was two dollars at the drug store. He got rich on that - it cost thirty-five cents to mix. We had movies, a stage show, a trailer and a Model T Ford. We played at small towns where people didn't have no sense and we really sold it.
...
LeRoy Carr gave me the inspiration for singing the blues. He was a terrific blues singer and he played with a fellow named Scrappin Iron or Scrapper Blackwell, some thing like that. I play in almost the same style they do. ... I used to hear all the singers, but LeRoy Carr was my favorite and still is. If there was music, I was right there. LeRoy used to sing "When the Sun Goes down" and "Monte Carlo Blues" and "Night Time Is the Right Time." I still sing those numbers. ...
... I used to lead Blind Lemon Jefferson around playing and passing the cup, take him from one beer joint to another, I liked to hear him play. He could sing like nobody's business. He was a friend of my father's. People used to crowd around so you couldn't see him. Blind Lemon was from Galveston. He was dark yellow and weighed around 175 or 180, kind of reminds you of Art Tatum the way he looked. ...
I met Bessie Smith at Fort Worth at the Fat Stock Show in 1933-34 with Ma Rainey. Ma Rainey was a heavy set dark lady, mean as hell but she sang nice blues and she never cussed ME out. She had a show with the Haines Carnival at the Stock Show and I played for her. ... Bessie Smith is my favorite girl blues singer. Ma Rainey could sing the blues, but she couldn't sing the blues like Bessie. They had different styles. Bessie was the QUEEN for everybody better than Ethel Waters. She was REALLY great, she could sing ANYTHING. ...
... People will like the blues as long as they are in the world. Blind Lemon, Leroy Carr, sang the real blues - and Lonnie Johnson - old man now, still working. Wonderful blues singer, don't ever leave him out. Sharpest cat in the world, wore a silk shirt blowing in the wind in the winter, nice head of hair, and a twenty-dollar gold piece made into a stickpin. ...
I never took a music lesson in my life, but I can read and write music and play seven different instruments. I used to think I was a terrific piano player, played boogie woogie all the time. Once I played with a band for two years without knowing what a note was. From different kids in the band if I got a wrong chord they told me how it should be.
...
I left the South in 1934 and in 1935 I began playing an electric guitar. ... Well, I decided to make music my career since 1941. Before that, if I was playing, if I had money, OK. If I didn't, OK, I'd get me another kind of job.
...
... The first time I ever made a record I was only sixteen years old. It was for Columbia and I made "Wichita Falls Blues" and "Trinity River Blues" with banjo and guitar accompaniment, under the name of Oak-Cliff T-Bone. Oak-Cliff was where I lived then. Columbia had people out scouting for talent and they picked me up. Later I made "T-Bone Blues." Commodore bought the master and now Blue Note has it. I never made a penny out of that, but Les Hite and Louis Jordan made a million on it.
...
I like piano, bass, guitar for blues accompaniment, the winds in between. The old time blues beat ... one...two ... has been the blues beat for years ... since back in the days of - Zutty Singleton! I bet Zutty will laugh when he reads that ... I mean the old New Orleans days. The Ory band know how to play it. Somebody like Zutty or Kid Ory are just right. ... My favorite band today is Basie. I like his piano - we've been friends for twenty years, and I like Tatum's piano too. The Three Blazes is my favorite trio. Trumpet? POPS! It's GOT to be Pops all my life. Pops is my Daddy. EVERYBODY loves Louie. ...
You got to know what you're doing to play bebop. The young generation are different. They are made over it. Maybe they'll grow out of it. Charlie Parker and Dizzie I could sit all night and listen, but most of them don't know what they're doing. People are crazy about it in New York and Chicago. ...
The city I like best is Chicago, but the state of Texas is best. ... I belong to the Baptist church - Hardshell - I love church songs. I'd walk ten miles to hear Sister Rosetta Tharpe sing church songs, but not two blocks to hear her sing the blues. I'd walk TWENTY miles to hear her sing my favorite number, "When I Reach the End of My Journey." ...
... These days it isn't church like it's supposed to be. They charge a dollar ten to come to church to hear Sister Tharpe. ... I don't sing in church because I'm no hypocrite. I don't think a fellow ought to go out cussing and drinking and gambling all week long and then come and sing in church on Sunday.
T-Bone Walker died in 1975 at the age of 64. He was posthumously inducted into both the Blues Hall of Fame (1980) and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987). Oh - and Jimi Hendrix's trick of playing with his teeth - well apparently he got that idea from old T-Bone.
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