Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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WALKER, T-Bone

(b Aaron Thibeaux Walker, 28 May 1910, Linden TX; d 16 March 1975, Los Angeles) Blues singer, songwriter, guitarist. He was teenage friends with Charlie Christian (they had the same teacher for a time, Chuck Richardson); while Christian was a profound influence on jazz guitar, Walker was more of a showman and was a similar influence in blues and R&B, on B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Lowell Fulson, Freddie King and many others, responsible for a generation taking up the electric guitar. He toured with medicine shows in the 1920s, won a Cab Calloway amateur contest in 1930, recorded with Les Hite in 1940, Freddie Slack's trio and big band '42-3, Jack McVea '46 etc. His own first records were on Rhumboogie, Swingmaster and Capitol '45-6. Hits in the black chart '47-9 included 'Bobby Sox Blues' and 'Call It Stormy Monday' on Black and White, 'West Side Baby' and 'T-Bone Shuffle' on Comet.

Though he did not have many chart hits, he was prolific, popular on juke boxes and became a legend in his own lifetime. Over 140 tracks including alternates were issued in a limited edition six-CD set, The Complete Recordings Of T-Bone Walker 1940-1954 on Mosaic in 1990, licensed from EMI companies; then there were smaller sets of the same stuff in a three-CD The Complete Capitol /Black And White Recordings on Capitol and two-CD The Complete Imperial Recordings 1950-1954 on EMI. He recorded for Atlantic '55-9, with Memphis Slim on Polydor '62 in Germany, with Jimmy Witherspoon '63 on Prestige, on Modern '64, Jet Stream label in Texas '66, on BluesWay '67-8, French Black and Blue '68 (and as a sideman with Eddie Vinson), BluesTime in NYC '69, Reprise '73. He toured with JATP '66 and played at the Monterey Jazz Festival '67, where he was filmed. He recorded several times for Polydor in Europe; Good Feelin' '68 made in Paris with Manu Dibango won a Grammy '70 (later a Verve CD). Other CDs: T-Bone Shuffle and Low Down Blues on Charly UK, I Want A Little Girl on Delmark, Rare And Well Done on Magnum, T-Bone Blues on Rhino. His biography Stormy Monday '87 was written by his friend Helen Oakley Dance.