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From: scott d
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 12:31:57 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Walter Horton's chrom

At 07:15 PM 10/17/96 +0100, Pat Missin wrote:

>However, I was always led to believe (though there is a lot of dispute about
>the credits on Muddy's sessions) that it was Walter H on "Diamonds At Your
>Feet" and "Don't Go No Further". If it *was* Walter J then he was playing
>slightly differently from usual (he breaks the first commandment of blues
>chrom by using the button!).

The session that produced the two songs mentioned above also produced one
more number, "Just To Be With You", and I don't believe there can be any
question that THAT song definitely has Little Walter on harp. There are two
distinctive differences (to my ear) between LW and BW: LW often used little
rhythmic bursts of air that were almost but not quite articulated on the
harp in between the actual notes he played. In all of the BW playing I've
heard (and I've heard most of it that was recorded), he never did this.
Second, and more importantly as far as determining the difference between
the two, LW's distinguishing characteristic throughout the course of his
career was his phrasing; he played across the bar, counter to what everyone
else in the band was doing. This is the "jazz horn player's approach" that
everyone talks about in his playing. He found something that was
harmonically, melodically, and/or rhythmically different from what his
accompanists were playing, and he played this as a counterpoint to what
everyone else was playing. Consequently, his playing usually wasn't phrased
on the beat--the drummer was already playing that part--but weaving in and
out and over and around the beat. His genius was that he almost always
found something that worked, without following or duplicating anybody else's
melody or rhythm. Big Walter, on the other hand, almost ALWAYS phrased
everything right on the beat, and often played his phrases in unison with
the main melodic statement of the song. This I think must have come from
his early days of playing unaccompanied, and is what I think of as a
'southern trait'. There's very little of this in Little Walter's playing,
but it's in virtually ALL of Big Walter's. Also, BW's most common technical
device was his strong, highly percussive blow/draw "huh-TUH" attack of
individual notes, and this is something that you almost never heard in LW's
playing.

>Also, Muddy's Blue Sky album "I'm Ready"
>features both Walter Horton and Jerry Portnoy. I'd always assumed that the
>chrom was by Walter. On the first track the amplified chromatic certainly
>does sound (to my ears) like Walter, whilst the acoustic 10-hole sounds like
>Mr. P. At least it did the last time I listened to it.... maybe I'd better
>check!

I haven't listened to this in a while, and I always assumed the opposite, so
I pulled it out and listened to it. My ears confirmed my original
assumption, and then I found that my copy of the album has the personnel
credits listed on the inner sleeve. I checked them, and on this song the
harp players are listed as "Jerry Portnoy, electric harp" (this is the
chromatic); and "Walter Horton, acoustic harp" (a diatonic). So it does
appear that Big Walter never did do a session on chromatic harp.

>
>>The only known example of his
>>chromatic playing was a bootleg tape of him playing solo at a private party
>>while on tour in Germany in the mid '60s, portions of which were released on
>>a European label after BW's death.
>
>Yup - released as a vinyl LP on Document Records, with one side by Walter
>and the other by Rice Miller.
>
>> He seems to be trying to play in 1st
>>position, but plays so poorly it's hard to tell.
>>
>
>That's a matter of opinion - I find the whole album to be quite charming.
>But that's just my opnion!

Actually, BW's playing was musical enough that anything he did was kind of
interesting, and as far as I'm concerned EVERYTHING he recorded is worth
listening to. But I think you'll have to admit that he doesn't really seem
to know his way around the chromatic very well on this stuff. He seems to
be just noodling around, and plays things that are unpleasantly flat or
sharp often enough to make it clear that the chromatic wasn't really his
instrument.

Scott