LITTLE WALTER-THE BEST OF-V.RARE ORIG.UK 1st PRESS-1M/1M-MONO PYE INT.LP-1964

	£		18
	$		23

LITTLE WALTER - THE BEST OF - VERY RARE ORIGINAL UK 1st PRESS - 1M/1M - MONO PYE INT.LP - 1964

Very Rare Original 1st Press Album by Little Walter

“The Best Of Little Walter”

MONO

Released on the Pye International Record Label

R&B Series

A Chess U.S.A. Recording

JEWEL MUSIC, N.C.B., B.I.E.M.

MADE IN ENGLAND

Recording first published 1964

NPL.28043

Matrix:

ILP 12043A-1M

ILP 12043B-1M

“Marion Walter Jacobs, age fourteen, stood on the corner blowing wildly into his harmonica.

It was the colourful Chicago neighbourhood know as the Maxwell Street Market.  Here, wares, second and third-hand, were displayed out along the sidewalks or high on the open pushcarts.  You could buy anything from used coffee grinders to slightly rusty fenders off a 1928 Cadillac to scratchy Victoria Spivey records.  Here, too, wandering street musicians, blind and sighted, offered their wares, spirituals, blues, stomps and pop tunes.

Sunday mornings were the choice sessions.  It was then the crowds were largest.  From all over the city and its environs they came: to gawk, to bargain, perchance to buy.  They remained to listen.

Young Jacobs ran his mouth and fingers across the harmonica like a magician performing sleight-of-hand.  Whether it was “Beer Barrel Polka”, a Louis Jordan jump number (he was hot then) or a period Hit Parader, the boy offered it with unfettered exuberance.  Passer-by were duly impressed.  “Ooowee! Listen to Little Walter!”  It was this “moniker” that stuck.  Certainly, Marion was no name for a wild mouth harpist.

Little Walter had been playing the harmonica ever since he was six.  Why did he take to this humble instrument?  His reply is that of the bold spirit to whom all of life is a challenge: “If a guy could pick up a peanut and make something out of it (note: an oblique reference to the agronomical deeds of George Washington Carver), I figure I could take the harp an’ make something out of it.

Artistes of the harmonica seldom refer to it in this four-syllable manner.  (Always it’s the “harp”).

He was born in Alexandria, Louisiana – halfway between Shreveport and Baton Rouge.  As a grocer’s delivery boy, he offered the customers waltzes’ as well as vegetables – the harp was always in his back pocket.  “Me an’ my harp” were a love affair from way back.

In 1938, his family was part of the Deep South migration to Chicago.  Our man was eight at the time.  In this big, sprawling, booming city he heard new sounds.  Here it was the great blues artistes congregated: the legendary Big Bill, whose life and art were a saga in themselves, Big Maceo Merriwether, Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie.  At first the boy was not attuned to the blues; thus, his playing of polkas and waltzes and pop hits.  Bit by bit, by a process of osmosis, the richness of the blues found its way into his harp.

You young teenager tried to crash various clubs on Chicago’s south and west sides.  Invariably he was booted out: “too young”.  But he was not to be denied, not for long.  The veteran blues men took to the moans and cries that shouted their way out of his instrument.  He was their man!  During many of the personal appearances, his harmonica was heard italicizing the vocals of Big Bill, Muddy Waters and many of their blues brethren.  (Muddy insists that Little Walter accompany him on his recordings.)

His singing came out of Mother Necessity.  He had no alternative.  “I needed breathing time.  If I blowed that harp without any rest, I’d never make it.  Not the way I blow.  So I began to sing in between my blowing, just to rest my lips an’ my harp.”  It was a happy dilemma for out of it came a rich and strong blues voice.

As much as any one man in recent years (Sonny Terry is the other), he’s responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of the blues harmonica.  Says he wistfully: “Not so long ago, a harp sold for a quarter.  Now it cost two dollar.  It’d be nice if that company’d remember who helped raise that price.”  (Just to keep the record straight, the rising cost of living was a factor as well as this artistes virtuosity and commercial success.)

Of the dozen recordings in this album, all are Little Walter originals with one exception.  “My Babe” was written for him.  It is a direct descendant of the spiritual, “This Train”.

This train don’t carry no gamblers, this train . . . Walter’s musical child goes:

My babe don’t stand no cheatin’, my babe . . .

Did he know this?  He laughs: “I didn’t know when it was given to me.  I never hard that spiritual.  You see, I’m not a regular church-going Christian, though I’m a good believer.  Maybe I should go more often then I’d’ve known where it came from.”

Nonetheless, “My Babe” is a fine blues as countless numbers of record buyers can well attest.  It’s one of Little Walter’s most popular numbers.

Of his three ever-moving instrumentals, “Juke”, “Sad Hours” and “Blue Lights”, the first is his big one.  There’s a merry contagiousness to its jump – a free pied piper quality.  As its name implies, “Juke” – you drop a dime into the machine and you can’t help dancing.  It is easy to conjure the vision of a frisky frilly and brisk young colt bouncing off the tavern stools and tripping a wild fantastic – especially after a beer or two.

In “Blues With A Feeling” his instrument has almost an organ effect.  There’s a meanness coming through in “Can’t Hold Out Much Longer” – somebody’s calling out – “how much can a guy take?”  Perhaps, the essence of Little Walter comes through most clearly in the slow blues, “Last Night”.  There is a moaning and a crying and a shouting here that makes it plain, this man’s harp is in his voice – much like Armstrong’s trumpet speaks for him and Teagarden’s trombone says his mind.

Little Walter and his harmonica are of one piece.”

STUDS TERKEL, AUTHOR OF “GIANTS OF JAZZ”.

The Track List is as follows:

SIDE ONE

                                                                                                       1.    MY BABE

                                                                                                       2.    SAD HOURS

                                                                                                       3.    YOU’RE SO FINE

                                                                                                       4.    LAST NIGHT

                                                                                                       5.    BLUES WITH A FEELING

                                                                                                       6.    CAN’T HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER

SIDE TWO

                                                                                                        1.    JUKE

                                                                                                        2.    MEAN OLD WORLD

                                                                                                        3.    OFF THE WALL

                                                                                                        4.    YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF

                                                                                                        5.    BLUE LIGHTS

                                                                                                        6.    TELL ME MAMMA

The LP is in Very Good Condition with just a few surface marks and surface scratches

It plays well

The Sleeve is in Very Good Condition with hardly any scuffing and only a tiny bit of laminate creasing.  On the back “32/- W” has been pencilled in the top left hand corner and there is a small label “The Disc Shop” stuck centre top.  It has been kept in a plastic sleeve

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