Monday Music: Junior Walker

One of Motown's hitmakers who did not get the same kind of spotlight his contemporaries did:

Junior Walker was bom Autry DeWalt, Jr., in Blytheville, Arkansas, on June 14, 1931, though Motown always stated that he was born in 1942. As a teenager living in South Bend, Indiana, Walker received his first saxophone from an uncle. Inspired by the jump blues, jazz, and rhythm and blues bands of the 1950s and the playing style of Earl Bostie, who straddled the line between jazz and R&B, Walker took to the instrument right away, apprenticing with his high school band and various Midwest groups. While in his mid-teens, Walker formed his first instrumental band, the Jumping Jacks, adopting the moniker "Junior Walker" after a childhood nickname. Before long, Walker achieved a prominent reputation by playing gigs at local jazz and R&B clubs. Hoping to broaden his name throughout the Midwest, he subsequently moved to St. Louis, Missouri, then in the late-1950s to Battle Creek, Michigan.

Upon relocating to Battle Creek, Walker assembled the All Stars: James Graves on drums, Willie Woods on guitar, and Vic Thomas on keyboards. According to Woods, the group earned their confident name when an enthusiastic fan jumped to his feet during a show and shouted, "These guys are all stars," as quoted by David Shepardson in the Detroit News. Walker, in particular, always won over a crowd. "Junior Walker played until he dropped—and then some," recalled John Collis in Rock: The Rough Guide, and Kim Weston, a member of several Motown revues in the 1960s, remembered Walker as "an extraordinary saxophonist," and a tireless performer. "We were at the Fox Theatre [in Detroit] and Junior was playing his horn with his eyes closed and fell into the pit," Weston told Shepardson. "Of course, everyone was stunned, but he stuck his horn back in his mouth and he came out of the pit almost without losing a beat." Go here for more.

On the site, you'll hear first off his biggest hit, "What Does It Take ..." and two rockers that show you what a real saxophone sounds like.

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