Product Description

Few would dispute that this collection is the Holy Grail ofblues harmonica. Like the other entries in Chess Records' HIS BEST series, the Little Walter compilation is beautifullyselected, sequenced, remastered, and packaged. At 20 tracks, HIS BEST gives a satisfying, economical summary of Walter's genius, and defends his title as the king of blues harp men. As a member of Muddy Waters's band, and on his own, Walter was one of the architects of the original Chicago sound. His propulsive chording, high-leaning notes, inventive use ofamplification (he used a close-up hand-held microphone and effects like distortion and echo), and endless stream of ideas expanded the possibilities of the harmonica.
With the help of such Chicago heavy-hitters as pianist Otis Spann, bassist Willie Dixon, and drummer Fred Below, Walter's own group displayed ferocious chemistry and instrumental prowess. Naturally, Walter's vocals and exceptional harp are at the fore here. Whether on signature tunes ("Juke"), slow burners ("Mean Old World"), or classic rockers ("Boom, Boom Out Goes the Light"), this is old-school electric blues at its absolute finest. In addition to its status as a textbook for harmonica players, HIS BEST is a ground-floor necessity for any blues library.

Track Listing

1. Juke
2. Can't Hold Out Much Longer
3. Mean Old World
4. Sad Hours
5. Tell Me Mama
6. Off The Wall
7. Blues With A Feeling
8. You're So Fine
9. Too Late
10. Last Night
11. Mellow Down Easy
12. My Babe
13. Rollercoaster
14. Hate To See You Go
15. It Ain't Right
16. Boom Boom Out Goes The Light
17. Confessin' The Blues
18. Key To The Highway
19. Everything's Gonna Be Alright
20. Just Your Fool

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47861 in Music
• Released on: 2002-12-01
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
Marion "Little Walter" Jacobs is perhaps the most influential harmonica player on contemporary blues, and his collection is a great place to start. He was trained by Muddy Waters, but brought a more swinging feel to blues. Muddy and his band accompany Little Walter on many hits, as do Robert "Jr." Lockwood, the Aces, and other Chicago greats. In the 1950s, Little Walter's popularity eclipsed even Waters', his style a little more relaxed and pop-oriented. Walter's versions of many songs are the standards: "Blues with a Feeling," "You're So Fine," "Juke." Great stuff. --Robert Gordon

Customer Reviews

Genius
This CD is the best place to start when looking to buy a Little Walter CD as it features 20 of the very best tracks that he recorded during his golden period with Chess in the 1950's when he chalked up hit after hit on the US r&b charts and the 20 tracks here are proof that Little Walter was (and still is) the finest blues harmonica player the world has ever seen.

From his first big hit `Juke' in 1952, the CD includes most of his big r&b hits including `Sad Hours', `Off The Wall', `My Babe' etc and some of the musicians that backed Walter here include legendary guitarist Jimmy Rogers, the excellent Otis Spann on piano, the great man Muddy Waters who plays slide guitar on one of Walter's most famous hits: `Key To The Highway' which is included here and the great songwriter and bass player Willie Dixon who plays bass on most of Little Walter's songs.

Although it's impossible to include all of Little Walter's big hits and other famous songs on a 20 track album, I'm curious as to why `Oh Baby', `You Better Watch Yourself' and the incredible `Blue Light' haven't been included as these are 3 essentials, maybe Chess will release a volume 2 in this series as I've noticed they've done that with the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Chuck Berry in the same series.

Best Available
Yes this is currently the best selection of Little Walter's tunes available right now. If you enjoy blues then buy this album.

****½
This is the best available single-disc overview of Little Walter Jacobs' career.

The highly renowned blues harmonica player was not a singer of the caliber of Muddy Waters, or a songwriter to rival Sonny Boy Williamson (II), but his recording career spanned some 20 years, and there are more than enough gems in his catalogue to fill this disc to the point of overflowing.

"His Best" has the best sound currently available, and excellent liner notes, and while the double-disc "The Essential Little Walter" is more thorough, this is all that most listeners will need. A couple of great songs are missing, most notably Walter's gritty rendition of Willie Dixon's "Dead Presidents", but that's a minor quibble...almost all of Walter's best is here.

1997's "His Best" takes the place of MCA/Chess' original 12-track LP "The Best Of Little Walter", a landmark blues album which had remained in print for over three decades. Here is his first hit single, the instrumental hit "Juke", as well as Walter's versions of Big Bill Broonzy's "Key To The Highway", Dixon's "My Babe", and T-Bone Walker's "Mean Old World" (shamelessly credited to Jacobs himself). And virtually all of Walter's best self-penned songs are here..."Blues With A Feeling", "Boom Boom, Out Goes The Light", "Tell Me Mama", and numerous often masterful instrumentals.

This is certainly the place to start, the finest single-disc Little Walter-compilation on the market.