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New York Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Joe Louis Walker, Free-Ranging Blues Explorer, Is Dead at 75
Joe Louis Walker, a blues master and musical omnivore whose snarling guitar work, gritty vocals and introspective songwriting earned him the praise of Herbie Hancock, Mick Jagger and many others over a six-decade career, died on April 30 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 75. His wife, Robin Poritzky-Walker, said his death, in a hospital, was from a cardiac-related illness. Mr. Walker recorded more than 30 albums for a variety of labels, starting with 'Cold Is the Night' in 1986. He toured extensively and was a staple of blues festivals around the world. He won the Blues Music Award (formerly the W.C. Handy Award) multiple times and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his 2015 album, 'Everybody Wants a Piece.' He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013. Along the way he traded riffs with blues powerhouses like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. The keyboard innovator Herbie Hancock deemed him 'a singular force' with a 'remarkable gift for instantly electrifying a room.' Mick Jagger called him 'a magnificent guitar player and singer.' The jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea playfully anointed him 'the Chick Corea of blues.' Critics, too, felt Mr. Walker's power. 'His voice is weather-beaten but ready for more; his guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive,' Jon Pareles wrote in a 1989 review in The New York Times, 'often starting out with impetuous squiggles before moaning with bluesy despair.' Mr. Walker came of age musically during the flowering of psychedelic rock in San Francisco in the late 1960s, and he was also fluent in jazz, gospel, soul, funk and pop. On his album 'Great Guitars,' released in 1997, he collaborated with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Ike Turner and Taj Mahal. Mr. Walker considered himself more of a blues explorer than a purist. 'When I picked up a guitar, I did not say I was gonna be a blues artist, or a rock artist,' he said in a 2021 interview with NPR. 'The idiom,' he added, 'finds us.' In an interview with Living Blues magazine, Mr. Walker recalled that the jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, with whom he recorded several times, once told him: 'You know, Joe, if you're ahead of the curve, people ain't gonna like you, but if you join the pack, you're gonna be like everybody else. So just stay ahead of the curve and maybe they'll catch up to you.' Louis Joseph Walker Jr. was born in San Francisco on Dec. 25, 1949. His father was a longshoreman and construction worker; his mother, Mildred (Siles) Walker, was a nurse. When he was a child, an older sister started him calling him Joe Louis after the Black boxing champion, and the name stuck. His parents sent him to a predominantly white Roman Catholic elementary school, believing that it would give him the best education. While the experience was at times traumatic, he said, it taught him to deal with the racism he would encounter as an adult. He took up the guitar at age 8 and at 16 became a house guitarist at the Matrix, where Jefferson Airplane was the house band. 'At the Matrix, I was a young cat still learning his craft, but guys like Magic Sam and Albert King took a liking to me,' Mr. Walker said in a 2021 interview with The Chicago Tribune. 'They could see I was sincere and I would learn from them.' During those years, San Francisco was overflowing with rock luminaries. Sly Stone was a neighbor, and Mike Bloomfield, the guitarist who backed Bob Dylan in his much-dissected electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, was his roommate for several years. 'He was a few years older, but he was huge part of my development,' Mr. Walker told The Tribune. 'Everyone would come to pay homage to Michael. Bob Dylan would come to the house.' The city was overflowing with drugs, too, and Mr. Walker and Mr. Bloomfield were hardly immune to their lure. By the mid-1970s, Mr. Walker had reached his limit. 'A lot of my friends were dropping like flies,' he told The Tribune, 'and I made a point to change, or I would have been an obituary like everyone else.' (Mr. Bloomfield died of a heroin overdose in 1981). He kicked drugs and enrolled at San Francisco State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in music and English. He also abandoned the blues for a decade, joining an Oakland gospel group, the Spiritual Corinthians. After performing with that group at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Mr. Walker rekindled his love of the blues, formed a band called the Bosstalkers and signed to HighTone, an Oakland label. His debut effort, 'Cold Is the Night,' was produced by Bruce Bromberg and Dennis Walker, who had recently helped propel another blues guitarist, Robert Cray, to stardom. In 1988, the Times critic Peter Watrous described Mr. Walker as 'a fluttering blues guitarist' whose 'lines seem blown by the wind' and 'a singer with a Cadillac of a voice who can sound as if he's not faking passion.' Mr. Walker continued to show off his free-ranging musical sensibility on the 2020 album 'Blues Comin' On,' joined, among others, by the Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and the singers Dion DiMucci and Mitch Ryder, of 'Devil With the Blue Dress' fame. In addition to his wife, his survivors include a sister, Ernestine; a brother, Roy; and two grandsons. On the release of his soul-inflected album 'The Weight of the World' in 2023, Mr. Walker told Living Blues that he wished he had a dime for every interviewer who had ever asked him to define the blues. The album included a musical answer to that question: 'Hello, It's the Blues,' a song on which he said the blues was 'speaking in the first person.' 'It's in your heart, your soul, and your mind, you just don't know it,' he said. 'Because everybody's got the blues, from the president on down to the dogcatcher, you know?'
Black America Web
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Soul Brothers: 10 Black Male Singers We Lost This Decade
Christian Rose It never gets easy saying goodbye to the music icons of our culture. Some singers we lost prematurely, either right before they were about to show us their best talents or in the midst of their rise to the top of the charts. Others actually got the chance to live fruitful lives and reach an apex in their career that gives their posthumous legend status merit. Either way, the loss is felt immensely each time. 10 years ago to the day (May 14), we experienced just that when blues legend B.B. King tragically passed away from vascular dementia after suffering a handful of small strokes resulting from his type 2 diabetes. The only thing that makes it bittersweet is that he left us peacefully in his sleep. No matter how long it's been, the world will forever remember the name B.B. King. RELATED: RIP: Black Singers Who Died in the Last 10 Years There aren't many musicians who can make claim to what King was able to accomplish in his 89 years of life. He's released a whopping 48 studio albums that span from his debut LP in 1957 to the final one released during his lifetime in 2008, which went on to win the GRAMMY for 'Best Traditional Blues Album' back in 2009. Speaking of GRAMMY trophies, the guy has an impressive 15 wins under his belt that range from 'Best Male R&B Vocal Performance,' his first one back in 1970, to the six times he won in the aforementioned 'Best Traditional Blues Album' category. His accolades also include a Blues Hall of Fame induction in 1980, getting added to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement that same year, Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and, while he was still alive, a Living Legend Medal from The Library of Congress at the turn of the century just to name a very small few of his honorific achievements. Although 'the thrill is gone' when it comes to having King here in the physical, we will always remember the music he gave us and the inspiration as a Black male in music who defied the odds and became extraordinary. Reminiscing on the 10-year anniversary of a fallen icon had us thinking about a handful of other male soul singers who we lost over the last 10 years. From the ones who are still living in our hearts and on our airwaves to a few that may be a bit more unsung, we implore you to look these men up and their timeless music if you truly want to put yourself onto greatness. We miss each of them in a way that's unique to what each fella contributed to the culture, and we can only hope this continues their respective legacies. SEE ALSO Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Joe Louis Walker, Revered Electric Blues Musician, Dead at 75
Joe Louis Walker, the virtuoso guitarist and electric blues musician whose work captured the breadth of the genre, died late last month. He was 75. Walker's family confirmed the musician's death, adding that the cause was cardiac-related illness. He was surrounded by his wife of 16 years, Robin, and two daughters, Leena and Bernice. Revered by his peers as a 'musician's musician,' Walker enjoyed a lengthy career, during which he worked with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Mark Knopfler, and Steve Cropper, while earning praise from the likes of Herbie Hancock ('the Chick Corea of Blues') and Aretha Franklin (who called Walker 'The Bluesman'). He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, named a USA Fellow by United States Artists, received multiple W.C. Handy and Blue Music Awards, and a lifetime achievement prize from the Mississippi Valley Blues Society. More from Rolling Stone Jill Sobule, Singer of History-Making 1995 Single 'I Kissed a Girl,' Dies in House Fire at 66 Alarm Frontman Mike Peters Dead at 66 Stan Love, NBA Player and Brian Wilson's Caretaker, Dead at 76 Walker was born and raised in San Francisco, began playing the guitar as a kid, and by the late 1960s was gigging around the Bay Area as a teenager. He found himself dabbling as much in the blues as the burgeoning psychedelic rock scene, hanging out with Jimi Hendrix, playing with Mississippi Fred McDowell at the legendary rock club the Matrix, and befriending — and later rooming with — Michael Bloomfield. But Walker's efforts to build a career of his own faltered. He drank, did drugs, and eventually landed in jail in the early Seventies. 'I was a wild kid,' he told Rolling Stone in 1990. 'I was just into making money for a drink or getting high.' By the mid-Seventies, Walker was working odd jobs and soon started playing with the gospel group, the Spiritual Corinthians. But a performance with the group at the 1985 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival drew him back to the blues. In a 2023 interview with Premier Guitar, he recalled the revelation he had at the festival's gospel tent. 'I just said, 'You know what? I'm a restless soul with music.' Anybody listening to the 30-plus albums I've got, they'll hear me doing all kinds of stuff. It was just a sign of things to come for me.' Walker released his debut album, Cold Is the Night, in 1986, and over the next four decades, exhibited that adventurousness with albums that explored the vast world of the blues alongside strains of electric blues, jazz, soul, rock & roll, and R&B. In 2016, he was nominated for his first (and only) Grammy, Best Contemporary Blues Album, for Everybody Wants a Piece. Walker released what would be his last album of new material, Weight of the World, in 2023. Earlier this year, he returned to his debut album and re-recorded it as Cold Is the Night Reimagined. 'We reimagined it because of all the excitement we had making it,' Waker said in a clip explaining his decision to return to the album. Speaking with Rolling Stone in 1990, just as his career taking off — albeit belatedly — Walker said serenely, 'If I keep doing what I like to do and keep getting enjoyment out of it, then that to me is the main thing.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
CBC
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Blues Hall of Famer Mavis Staples, Grammy-winner Jason Isbell in lineup for 50th Winnipeg Folk Festival
The Winnipeg Folk Festival has released the lineup of artists taking over the stage in its 50th edition, featuring Grammy Award-winning talent, a hall of farmer and some nostalgic Canadian favourites. From homegrown to international performers, 68 artists are performing at Birds Hill Provincial Park this summer, bringing a wide range of music genres from gospel, funk and R&B to country, rock and several variations of folk. Among the big names on this year's list is music legend Mavis Staples — a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame — who will perform for her first time at the festival. Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are also making their debut on a Birds Hill park stage this year. Returning to the summer event is Grammy award-winning musician and activist Ani DiFranco, who made her first appearance there in 1992. Six-time Grammy winner, singer-songwriter Jason Isbell is also coming back for his first appearance since 2015, alongside the 400 Unit band. Quebec singer-songwriter Allison Russell, a Grammy-award winner, is also among the headliners, along with the Australian jazz band The Cat Empire. Among Manitoba's homegrown talent is nostalgic music icon and children's entertainer Fred Penner, Grammy-nominated Winnipeg band The Duhks, and pop singer-songwriter Begonia. The festival will also feature Indigenous artists, including Métis singer-songwriter Ruby Waters, who is returning to the festival since her first appearance in 2022, and Anishinaabe singer-songwriter Leonard Sumner, from Little Saskatchewan First Nation. Bringing their talent from outside of Canada are Los Bitchos, an English band pulling together Latin rhythms with Turkish psych rock, metal and disco, Ukraine's Maryna Krut, an artist of the plucked-string bandura instrument, and Ye Vagabonds, an Irish folk duo — all making their first appearances.
