#67 Why Spread the Butter? Part 2 : Paul Butterfield and Little Walter

We start our discussion about what makes a blues harmonica and singer important in part 1 (#66). There we find it isn't necessarily about popularity, but rather, contributions to the direction of the music that matter most. John Lee Curtis a.k.a. Sonny Boy Williamson is the first of the significant figures in post war urban blues who stands in front of a band singing the blues and accompanying themselves with a ten hole harmonica. There are literally hundreds of artists who play this role over the past eight decades, but we should consider only a few as important.  After Curtis, the next one is Marion Jacobs a.k.a Little Walter. He takes the harmonica playing blues singer figure in directions even John Lee Curtis would not imagine. 

Similar to Curtis, Jacobs migrates to Chicago (Louisiana) in search of success as a blues musician in 1946. He is already an accomplished blues harmonica player, but his goal is to become a success as a blues singer who accompanies himself on the guitar, not the harmonica. You may recall from the previous blog (#66) that up until Curtis turns the ten hole harmonica into a lead instrument, it is not taken seriously as an instrument by many people, and consequently, it is heard mostly in a supporting role. Curtis' success alters this perception quite a bit in the 40s, but during the 50s, Jacobs will push the little instrument further into the limelight, and in the process change the way we hear the blues harmonica forever. 

His debut as a recording artist in '48 is in a supporting role for a recording by bluesman Floyd Jones. It is an unremarkable record, and only of interest to Jacobs completist.  However, within two years Jacobs is playing harmonica as a side man in the Muddy Waters Blues Band. This is where his fortunes change, and he begins his journey into the history books. .

One of the songs Jacobs performs with the Waters band is a 12 bar instrumental he calls Your Cat Will Play. The band uses the tune as a show opener and closer, but it captivates the imagination of the audience every night enough that it becomes a most requested song. This audience approval is encouraging enough to the young harmonica player that it pushes him away from his sideman position, and toward becoming a bandleader. He records Your Cat Will Play for the Chicago label Checker in 1952 where it becomes Juke. The rest is history.

Remember, Curtis is the first blues harmonica player to popularize the instrument as a lead instrument which forces him to develop new phrases for it. Jacobs takes that challenge to the next level with Juke. He isn't just playing lead phrases to compliment the song lyrics; he is using his harmonica as a new and important voice in blues. It is an extremely significant contribution to blues harmonica, and Chicago blues in the early 1950s. Juke will shoot up to number 1 on the R. & B. charts in '52, and stay there for 20 weeks. Its success catapults the 20 year old Jacobs, now known by his stage name Little Walter, into stardom.

Decades later and Juke is still the only harmonica instrumental to ever make it to the number 1 spot on any music chart, and  secures the tune as a blues standard for the next seventy years. It is difficult to find a single reputable blues harmonica player who does not cover Juke. Paul Butterfield never officially records the instrumental, but if you can find a copy of Murray Lerner’s documentary on the Newport Folk Festival 1963-65, Festival, there is a clip of Butterfield with his young blues band performing a very energetic version of the tune.

Let’s take a moment to review some basic blues harmonica techniques that we discuss in part 1, and then apply them to Jacobs harmonica style. He uses the same tongue blocking technique for producing sound on his harmonica that Curtis does. Also similar to Curtis, he also plays mostly in second position, which gives blues harmonica players easy access to the minor pentatonic scale with its all important blue notes (minor 3rds and 7ths). 

Jacobs is quite competent in any position on the harmonica, but uses second position most often. (Juke is in 2^nd position).

Just as John Lee Curtis benefits from the rapidly improving of amplification technology of his era, Jacobs also makes good use of advancing technology. By the 50s the amplification and recording technology is better than at any time in history, opening the doors to many possibilities for innovative artists like Jacobs. He is also using the same technique to amplify his harmonica that Curtis pioneers in the 30s and 40s by placing the harmonica on the face of the microphone and cupping his hands around the two. However, the difference is when Jacobs does it, the sound system is so powerful that it becomes overloaded and creates distortion. Most people might hear noise and lower the volume, but Jacobs hears something that sounds like a saxophone. It is a completely new sound for the blues harmonica, and he will use it to create a signature sound. This new sonic palette will change the way many players approach their instrument, and the way listeners hear the blues harmonica forever. 

The success of Juke  must ring a bell for Jacob’s record label because after its success, he starts recording more instrumental harmonica pieces, and in the process creates something no other harmonica player before him does. He uses distortion, sometimes a chromatic harmonica, and sound affects like delay, echo, and reverb to create the Little Walter sonic experience. The other unique thing he starts to do is improvise like a jazz musician. 

As a matter of fact, his new sound resembles a saxophone, and while he probably doesn't coin the term, it may well be the beginning of the Mississippi Saxophone label. Two of the most prominent sax players of the era, Louis Jordan and Charlie Parker must serve some inspiration for some of his new phrases. However, not everyone is impressed with the new harmonica sound though, as critic Paul Oliver observes Jacobs' Mississippi Saxophone as a capable but crude substitute (for a saxophone). If you would like to hear a good example of Jacobs improvising, listen to his '57 instrumental Teenage Beat. (see link below)

Another important contribution Jacobs makes to Chicago blues is his unprecedented commercial success. He records a whole new catalogue of exciting blues songs during his career. Remember, Curtis experiences sustained commercial success during his brief career too, but it is in the limited market of the south and northern industrial cities. Jacobs tops that achievement with 14 top ten songs between '52 and '58, all of which sound like a cross between John Lee Curtis and Louis Jordan. Many of these tunes are still part of most  blues band's repertoire even today. 

Earlier we discuss Jacobs first number 1 hit in '52, Juke, but his second hit in 1955 is worth a closer look too. His label is now Chess Records, and employs the brilliant blues arranger, session leader and songwriter, Willie Dixon to write for Jacobs. He writes the song My Babe specifically for young bluesman in about '53, but it takes the Jacobs a couple of years to agree to record the new song.

The melody of My Babe is based on the gospel standard made famous by Sister Rosetta Tharpe This Train (Is Bound for Glory). Blues has a long history in the Christian community as being The Devils Music, so when Jacobs releases My Babe, they must hear it as yet another sacrilege act by a young bluesman. 

Ray Charles does something similar in the same year when he transforms It Must Be Jesus into I Got a Woman, and his label releases it as single in January of '55. Chess releases My Babe in early February of  '55, and not only does it eclipse Charles’ tune on the charts, My Babe spends 19 weeks in the top ten R.&B. charts - including 5 weeks in the number one spot. No other bluesman before Jacob, or since, has ever experienced as much mainstream pop success as Marion Little Walter Jacobs does in the '50s.

Unfortunately, Jacobs' career as the most successful bluesman of his generation is waning by the end of the 50s. It isn’t just his music though, as most Chicago blues in general is faltering by the end of the decade.  There are at least a few possible reasons for this dynamic. Firstly, most of the bluesmen of the 40s and 50s are aging, and the younger audiences begin to view their music as the music of their parents. The younger generation of listeners are also gravitating to younger artists like Ray Charles, James Brown and Sam Cooke, Jacobs' music is starting to sound dated to them. Also, the rising Civil Rights Movement which hears blues as an ugly connection to a history of oppression which doesn't help the situation. 

Then there is Rock and Roll. This blues based music is the most exciting new music of the younger generation, but it is bad news for 1950s blues artists like Jacobs. Music is similar to all art, it needs constant growth to remain vital, or it faces stagnation and eventual death.

These factors must weigh heavily on the minds of Jacobs, and most of the other Chicago blues artists of the 50s. It must seem that post war Chicago blues might suffer the same fate as Dixieland and become a relic. However, there is hope for the future that none of them envisages. An unforeseen group of young fans are noticing Chicago blues in general, and Jacobs in particular. 

A collection of young white British rock artists will be the first to shine a light on Chicago blues and Jacobs in the early '60s. Then a tight collection of local Chicagoans will expose the music to an international audience.  Jacobs doesn't know it, but a young white blues harmonica player by the name of Paul Butterfield will eclipse his success and become the most important exponent of Chicago blues in history. As we will discuss in part 3, Butterfield doesn't seem to share much in common with Curtis or Jacobs, but will become the next most important bluesman who stands in front of his band singing blues and accompanying himself with a ten hole harmonica. He will take the harmonica and its music in directions never before imagined.  

Jacobs' career is all but over by the end of the 50s. His last hit is in '58, he does tour, even reaching an
international audience, but his unapparelled success is behind him. Making matters worse, he is a long suffering alcoholic with a very violent temper. He dies as a result of head injuries sustained in a south side street fight  at only 37 on February 15th 1968. 

Finally, as with all important artists, the ultimate jewel in their crown, is their artistic legacy. They must inspire younger artists to replicate and build on their music. Since his appearance on the charts with Juke in 1952 there are scores of blues harmonica players who point to Jacobs as an inspiration for taking up the instrument and Chicago blues. The list reads like a who’s who of the blues, rock and even country harmonica world for the past seventy years: James Cotton, Jr. Wells, Mick Jagger, Magic Dick, Charlie McCoy, Kim Wilson, Charlie Musselwhite, William Clarke, and of course Paul Butterfield. 

Some people consider Jacobs as the last of the great bluesman figures who stands in front of a band singing blues and accompanying themselves with a ten hole harmonica, but as we shall see in part 3, Paul Butterfield will assume this mantle, and take the little instrument and its music to its largest audience in history. Stay tuned.