Trace the arc of blues history from the country blues to
big-band swing to postwar electrified urban blues to R&B
to the dawn of soul music, and one name is everywhere: Aaron
Thibeaux Walker, popularly known as T-Bone Walker. Through
most of these eras, Walker was more than a mere participant
-- he was doing much of the reshaping of the landscape around
him before moving on to discover new worlds.
The Texas-born Walker was a protégé of Blind
Lemon Jefferson, whose uncommonly individual guitar stylings
and lyrical folk poetry left an indelible imprint on the
budding artist. Jefferson's raw, emotional approach informed
Walker's first recordings, "Trinity River Blues"
b/w "Wichita Falls Blues," made in 1929 for Columbia.
When that record didn't sell, Columbia elected to dispense
with a followup. By that time Walker had a full schedule
playing with a group of school friends in the Lawson-Brooks
big band, an affiliation that continued until 1936, when
he headed west to Los Angeles' thriving R&B scene; his
place in Lawson-Brooks was assumed by a promising young
guitarist named Charlie Christian.
Walker signed to the nascent Capitol label in 1942 and made
a statement with his early release "I Got a Break,
Baby." Nearly a minute passes at the outset with nothing
but soloing from Walker, everything from frisky single-line
runs to sustained bent notes, ostinato riffs morphing into
screaming three-note chords, rich, legato phrases, and speed-picked
single notes cartwheeling one over the other. Then Walker
the vocalist enters, casual but confident, swinging his
phrases with Joe Turner–like assurance. The whole
package was there, and from that foundation he would move
on to write his name large on virtually every succeeding
trend in black music up to his death in 1975.
Walker jumped to another new label, Black & White, in
1946, after the lifting of wartime restrictions on materials
used for recording. The 50-plus songs he recorded in a variety
of contexts over the next five years are now considered
among the most important body of blues work ever committed
to tape. In it are contained signposts to B.B. King's warm,
single-string lyricism, Albert Collins' blazing, hard-picked
attacks, Albert King's hearty but unusually tender voicings
-- the list goes on and on, encompassing about every important
guitarist who came after him in the '50s, '60s, and '70s.
Moreover, he had the vocal chops to work persuasively in
a number of styles. A mid-1949 session produced "Don't
Give Me the Runaround," a languorous jazz-pop fusion
in the style of the King Cole Trio, singing in a silky,
seductive voice that could easily be mistaken for the smoky
gray crooning of Cole himself; a swinging bit of Louis Jordan–style
small-band novelty, "I Know Your Wig Is Gone";
and Walker's self-penned Mount Rushmore of a blues song,
"Call It Stormy Monday (but Tuesday's Just as Bad)."
Walker was also a galvanic live performer; his club dates
across the country invariably drew packed houses, and many
of his '40s and '50s singles routinely peaked in the upper
reaches of the R&B chart.
The Capitol Blues Collection's fine three-CD package, The
Complete Capitol/Black & White Recordings, is, as its
title suggests, the complete picture of Walker's early artistic
breakthroughs, including "I Got a Break, Baby";
the first version of "Mean Old World" (which became
a staple of his live shows and something of a signature
song); two versions of "T-Bone Shuffle"; and the
original and alternate versions of "Call It Stormy
Monday (but Tuesday's Just as Bad)." An absence of
personnel or other detailed sessionography information is
puzzling given the scope of this project, but the music
alone makes it an essential buy. This information is in
abundance on The Complete Imperial Recordings, 1950–1954,
along with all 52 songs Walker recorded for the label (minus
six alternate versions excluded owing to space limitations),
including four tracks cut in New Orleans with Dave Bartholomew
and some of the same musicians who played on Bartholomew-produced
Fats Domino recordings.
In 1955, with the rock & roll era dawning, Walker signed
with Atlantic, and over the next four years cut 15 sides
with producers Jerry Wexler, Ahmet Ertegun, and Nesuhi Ertegun.
By the end of his Atlantic tenure, R&B, child of gospel
and blues, was mutating into soul, child of gospel, blues,
R&B, and pop, and bringing with it a broad-based young
audience that regarded Walker's generation as yesterday's
news, as these artists' declining sales figures indicated.
Yet the Atlantic recordings, issued in 1960 as T-Bone Blues,
were swept up in the folk and blues revival of that time,
and jump-started Walker's career, albeit on a smaller scale
than he had experienced in the previous two decades. Walker
did some solid work for Atlantic, recording in 1955 in Chicago
with Junior Wells and Jimmy Rogers and, toward the end of
his tenure with the label, in Los Angeles with the likes
of Barney Kessel, and, as the cuts on this disc attest,
always rising to the occasion. Working small clubs, colleges,
and festivals, he won a new following and gained recognition
as an important jazz instrumentalist.
Although 1967's I Want a Little Girl, for the Delmark label,
is interesting in showcasing Walker in a swinging mode that
finds him putting some air into his sound in opting for
a terse soloing approach remarkable for its understated
eloquence, 1973's effort for the Home Cookin' label (now
available on Col-lectables), Well-Done, is the gem of the
later years. Walker energizes the place with his smoky,
gritty vocals, and gets off some startling solos along the
way. Both albums boast an intimate, after-hours club feel
and offer periodic displays of vocal and instrumental prowess.
As final testaments of a great artist, these are worthy
additions to the catalogue.
Of the various single-disc compilations of Walker's music,
Koch International's The Very Best of T-Bone Walker offers
an excellent sampling of the Black & White and Imperial
recordings from 1949 through 1954, including "T-Bone
Shuffle," "They Call It Stormy Monday," "Midnight
Blues," and 13 other choice cuts. A slightly broader
overview -- 16 tracks -- is available on Rhino's well-considered
Blues Masters: The Very Best of T-Bone Walker. All the obvious
commercial highlights are here, including some not available
on the Koch title (because the Rhino disc covers more territory,
its tracks ranging from 1945 through 1957), such as "West
Side Baby," a Top 10 R&B hit from 1948. Fuel 2000/Varèse
Sarabande's Blue on Blues series release devotes six cuts
to T-Bone and six to another distinctive blues guitarist,
Lowell Fulson, but neither artist is represented by his
best work.
