Aaron "T-Bone" Walker

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Willie Collins

Jazz and blues streams have flowed side by side with occasional cross currents in the evolution of black music. The musical crosscurrents of Aaron "T-Bone" Walker bridge these two streams; he was equally at home in both jazz and blues. He performed with jazz musicians such as Johnny Hodges, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, and Count Basie, among others. Walker and Charlie Christian, in their teens, both contemporaneously developed the guitar in blues and jazz, respectively. Walker linked the older rural country blues--à la Blind Lemon Jefferson--and the so-called city classic blues singers such as Ida Cox and Bessie Smith of the 1920s, to the jazz-influenced urban blues of the 1940s; he also linked the older rural folk blues to the virtuoso blues. Walker has no antecedent or successor in blues--he was the father of electric blues and one of the first to record electric blues and to further define, refine, and provide the musical language employed by successive guitarists. His showmanship--playing the guitar behind his back or performing a sideway split while never missing a beat or note--influenced Elvis Presley's act. Walker clearly influenced scores of musicians such as Chuck Berry, Freddie & Albert King, Mike Bloomfield, and Johnny Winter. "In a very real sense the modern blues is largely his creation ... among blues artists he is nonpareil: no one has contributed as much, as long, or as variously to the blues as he has," noted the late Pete Welding in a Blue Note reissue of his work.

Aaron Thibeaux Walker (T-Bone is a probable mispronunciation of Thibeaux) was born on May 10, 1910 in rural Linden, Texas, but his mother moved to Dallas in 1912. His musical apprenticeship was varied and provided rich opportunities that prepared him for his role as showman and consummate artist. Walker was a self-taught singer, songwriter, banjoist, guitarist, pianist, and dancer. His mother, Movelia, was a musician, and her place served as a hangout for itinerant musicians. Her second husband, Marco Washington, was a multi-instrumentalist who led a string band and provided young Walker the opportunity to lead the band in street parades while dancing and collecting tips. At the age of eight, Walker escorted the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets of Dallas, and at the age of 14, he performed in Dr. Breeding's Big B Medicine show. He returned home only to leave again with city blues singer Ida Cox. While in school, Walker played banjo with the school's 16-piece band. In 1929, he won first prize in a talent show which provided the opportunity to travel for a week with Cab Calloway's band. But it was during his engagement with Count Bulaski's white band that Walker fortuitously met Chuck Richardson, a music teacher who tutored Walker and Charlie Christian. Walker began earnestly honing his guitar techniques, and at times, also jammed with Christian. Unfortunately, he could not escape the pitfalls of "street life" during his musical apprenticeship and began gambling and drinking; he would later become a womanizer. In his teens, he contracted stomach ulcers, which continually plagued him throughout his career.

Walker first recorded for Columbia Records in 1929 as Oak Cliff T-Bone. The two sides were entitled "Witchita Falls" and "Trinity River Blues." By 1934, Walker had met and married Vida Lee; they were together until his death. Walker and Vida Lee moved to Los Angeles, where Walker played several clubs as a singer, guitarist, dancer, and emcee. His enormous popularity quickly secured him a firm place in the Hollywood club scene. When he complained to the management that his black audience could not come to see him, the management integrated the club. His big break came with Les Hite's Band, with whom he recorded "T-Bone Blues" in 1939-1940 and appeared on both East and West coasts. Ironically, Walker was not playing guitar on this recording but only sang. From 1945 to 1960, he recorded for a number of labels and became one of the principal architects of the California Blues. Some of his songs that have become classics of the blues repertoire are "Call it Stormy Monday," "T-Bone Shuffle," "Bobby Sox Blues," "Long Skirt Baby Blues," and "Mean Old World."

Walker was a musician's musician; his musicality was impeccable. His phrasing, balance, melodic inventions, and improvisations carried the blues to a higher aesthetic level than had been attained before. He serenaded mostly women with his songs of unrequited love, and the lyrics often gave a clue to the paradox of his own existence, as evidenced in "Mean Old World": "I drink to keep from worrying and Mama I smile to keep from crying / That's to keep the public from knowing just what I have on my mind."

Because Walker's recordings were made prior to the coming of rock 'n' roll, he missed out on the blues revival that Joe Turner and other blues artists enjoyed. His records never crossed over into the popular market, and his audience was primarily African American. While the Allman Brothers recording of his song "Call It Stormy Monday" sold millions, his version was allowed to go out of print. From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, the balance of his career was played out in small West Coast clubs as one-nighters. Although he did tour Europe in the 1960s and was a sensation in Paris, there were few opportunities to record. Walker suffered a stroke in 1974, and on March 16, 1975, he died. More than 1,000 mourners came out to grieve the loss of this great musician.