T-BONE WALKER

His Life

Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in northeast Texas in 1910 to Rance and Movelia Walker. Movelia chafed under her strict, church-going parents and left for Dallas with her baby a year later. From his mother (to whom he was always close), T-Bone inherited his wanderlust and love of music. While in grade school, he left one summer with Dr. Breeding's medicine show. His freshman year he ran away to join Ida Cox's troupe, touring the state until the authorities finally caughtup with him. As a boy he lead legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets of Dallas; T-Bone would take Jefferson's tin cup, shaking it in time with the music then passing it around. He could also be seen listening outside the window of a local church as the choir sang and the preacher called upon God, "my pulse ... racin'".

By the time of his tenth birthday, his mother had remarried to a man whose family had a string band. T-Bone's uncles would end their show by having him dance and pass the hat. Walker was always learning new steps and, like Louis Armstrong, was a consummate showman.

T-Bone's mother bought him his first instrument, a banjo, when he was twelve; however, he was determined to buy a guitar. He saved his money from playing church socials on weekends and bought his first guitar as a junior in high school. While in school, he joined a sixteen piece band, playing banjo instead of guitar so he could be heard in their arrangements When the band hit the road, Walker quit since his mother was alone once again. He was replaced by Charlie Christian, not the only way these two musical geniuses are linked.

Walker's big break came in 1929: he'd won an amateur show, first prize being a week with Cab Calloway's band. Calloway let Walker take a solo in Houston; T-Bone had an act ready where he played the banjo while doing the splits. This eventually lead, a year later, to a recording date with Columbia where he recorded Witchita Falls and Trinity River Blues under the name Oak Cliff T-Bone. (Walker and his mother lived in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas at the time.)

Walker then joined an all-white troupe which hit the road. When he ran into trouble in Oklahoma City, he was advised to lay low for a couple of days; however, he went to Kansas City. He fell in with the wrong crowd, and his drinking since an early age caught up with him as he suffered from ulcers and had to be hospitalized. It wasn't the last time his drinking and ulcers would land him in the hospital.

By 1934, he was fronting a quartet at the Gem Hotel in Fort Worth. There he met his future lifelong wife, Vida Lee. Money was tight, though, and he realized he'd have to leave to get ahead. He arrived in LA with only a dollar, but hooked up with bandleader Big Jim Wynn as a dancer, eventually becoming emcee, singer, and guitarist as well. The LA crowds went wild over T-Bone, to the point where Marili Morden booked him into high-dollar clubs on the strip in 1940. When T-Bone complained that his regular fans were being excluded, Morden persuaded management to allow the first integrated crowds in LA, which was a great success financially. Soon thereafter, Walker was invited to join Les Hite's band as the vocalist on their upcoming East Coast swing. Through constant practice backstage, he mastered the electric guitar, though he was still performing only as a singer, even on the band's Varsity recording. Upon returning to LA, T-Bone, backed by Milt Larkin's outfit, was offered a long-standing gig in Chicago. He was such a hit that he was brought back repeatedly over the next two years, leading to his recordings of early versions of his best known hits in 1945 on the Rhumboogie label.

Later that year, he returned to LA and signed a contract with Comet Records to record for their Black and White label. "I was lucky, because Ralph Bass, who was an exceptional A and R man, supervised our sessions," Walker later recalled. Bass had worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Wardell Gray, and Dexter Gordon and was a huge fan of Walker. Fifty titles were recorded from mid-46 till the end of 1947, featuring a stellar core of LA musicians. With classic hits like T-Bone Shuffle and Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just as Bad), T-Bone established his reputation as the father of electric blues, and his hits were played on Top Ten radio programs nationwide. During this time, T-Bone toured on a triple-header blues package with Lowell Fulson and a rotating cast of other blues artists (including Ray Charles, Wynonie Harris, Joe Turner, and so on). Fulson later recalled that arguments would break out over who should open and who should close. Fulson, in order to keep things from going awry, would volunteer to go first; this meant that T-Bone would close, because no one wanted to follow him. The hits came fast and furious for Walker and the gigs got bigger and more lucrative. Unfortunately, his health problems arose again. He was supposed to drink only goat's milk, but locals could always induce him into drinking and throwing dice. Walker's ulcers forced him to be hospitalized three times during this period, when he enjoyed the greatest commercial and artistic success. Eventually he had to let his band go while recovering from an operation that removed most of his stomach.

After his time at Black and White, T-Bone switched to Imperial Records. His songwriting, singing, and playing were undiminished, but tastes were changing rapidly. His blues were starting to sound old-fashioned in the face of jump blues, R&B, and even the Delta-based electric blues of Chess Records. Still, his Imperial sides sold well enough, and he always was a big draw live. By the mid 50s, he had moved to Atlantic, where he made several great records that didn't sell too well. Blues was very much out of fashion with record buyers by then, with the rise of rock and roll and soul. His music hadn't diminished in power or subtelty, but the records weren't selling as well and the road was proving less lucrative.

By the start of the sixties, though, a change was taking place. He got another break in 1960, singing with Count Basie. Walker loved Basie's band, and said he would have "paid my own salary just to hear those Basie cats blow"; however, Walker didn't feel comfortable singing in the shadows of the great singers Joe Williams and Jimmy Rushing (who would?), so he cut out.

By this time, Europe and white America (well, northern white America) was beginning to discover the blues as black Americans (well, northern black Americans) were leaving it behind. Because of this, two German promoters put together a touring package featuring Walker, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Jump Jackson, John Lee Hooker, Shakey Jake, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry. They played through much of western Europe to enthusiastic crowds. While in Hamburg, they recorded The Original American Folk Blues Festival, possibly the greatest blues record ever. In addition to singing and playing guitar, Walker played piano behind John Lee Hooker (no small accomplishment). T-Bone became a regular on the blues festival circuit, particularly in Europe. Still, by the late sixties, no one had asked Walker to record new material for a few years. He then recorded several times for the French label Black and Blue and became a regular at Paris' Les Trois Mailletz with Memphis Slim. T-Bone was always a big spender and found the nightlife of Paris too much to resist. So when Polydor wanted to record him, he no longer bothered with the business side and got new management. In 1972 he was back in Los Angeles and had found that he had won a Grammy for his Polydor album. This revitalized him, and he hit the road once more, his new management relieving him of responsibility of bookings, travel arrangements, and so on.

His wife Vi was concerned about his pace and encouraged him to take a break. T-Bone agreed, and during this time, he and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson were in a car accident. Walker was in the hospital for several months; his injuries also showed that he was still having troubles with his chest. Still, T-Bone was eager to get back to playing; in addition to his usual wanderlust, The Allman Brothers' version of Stormy Monday was being played nationwide, and Walker wanted to get to his publisher. But while he was recovering, the money had disappeared. On top of this, his band had dissolved and the bookings had all but disappeared. Still, he hit the road again. He seemed to be back to his old self, but he suffered a stroke on new Year's Eve of 1974 and had to be put into a nursing home. He passed away on March 15, 1975, and the blues just hasn't been the same since.

His Music

T-Bone Walker's music is a bridge in more ways than one. As the first electric bluesman, he was, of course, the person who connected the older accoustic blues to the new, electric sound. Also, his music links the earliest-recorded male blues singers with the blues of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughn. And since his records were such an influence on B.B. King and others in Mississippi, T-Bone helped bring about a blues influenced by both Delta and Texas traditions. Also, his big hits, Stormy Monday and T-Bone Shuffle, have become blues staples. If Sweet Home Chicago is blues' Louie Louie, then T-Bone Shuffle is the music's Wild Thing. (Okay, that's an insipid analogy, but that's never stopped some music critics.) Walker's influence, however, goes beyond the blues; his music links genres. T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson are the blues guitarists most respected and mentioned by jazz afficionados (with Robert Lockwood running a rather distant third). Many early rock and roll guitarists have also cited Walker as a big influence in their playing, Chuck Berry being the most obvious example.

In two other ways, though, Walker was a symoblic link. Like those before him, T-Bone did learn primarily from local bluesmen, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson. However, he was amongst the first bluesmen to be influenced by the phonograph as well as musicians he heard in the streets and bars. Walker was particularly influenced by records of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. Carr and Blackwell were based in Indianapolis, and the young Walker could have heard their music only from records and the radio. Though T-Bone's singing and playing were definitely within the Texas tradition, you can also hear the influence of Carr on his singing and Blackwell on his playing. And like Carr and Blackwell, and unlike most male blues singers who recorded before him, Walker was a city boy. Though born in rural Texas, T-Bone's mother took him to Dallas with her when he was still a baby, a time when black America was still primarily rural but rapidly becoming urban. His earliest public performing and playing were done in ensemble settings. This in itself was nothing new, since we know that Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, and Son House often performed with each other, and the Chatmon Brothers, also known as The Mississippi Sheiks, were a successful string band. However, Walker seems to be one of the first male bluesmen whose singing and playing were done with a band in mind rather than as an afterthought. Since Walker's early performances, musical and otherwise, were primarily in a group setting, this should not be surprising. However, what is surprising is how easily Walker could either take the spotlight or step back into a supporting role. This is best heard on the album The Original American Folk Blues Festival. This features T-Bone singing on a couple tracks and playing guitar on a few others; as usual, he was great. But what impressed me was his piano playing behind John Lee Hooker. For one thing, that Walker could be an effective piano player behind Hooker is as impressive as hell. But it is his ability to let Hooker take the lead while playing a supportive role which really made me take notice (albeit after dozens of listenings).

In short, T-Bone Walker was a big influence on many, if not all, who followed him. He was the first to record electric blues; but beyond that, he was a masterful singer and guitarist who wrote some classic blues, and changed the course of the music. He was definitely one of a kind, and there will never be another like him.