Biography
To many listeners the name Booker T. Sapps might suggest a sideline blackjack operation run by an organist steeped in rhythm and blues, or it might suggest nothing whatsoever. Among blues harmonica players, however, the name identifies an elusive musician captured on microphones and portable tape machines carried by wandering ethnomusicologists during the 1930s and 1940s, perhaps more reliably than local hunters ever managed with their rifles. When a harmonica specialist calls Sapps a classic straight blocker, the phrase refers solely to technique rather than any threat of violence. An early exponent of blues harmonica, Sapps left behind playing that may yet clarify how minute metal reeds can be coaxed into precise, wavering tunings. Within the sprawling puzzle that is American blues, he functions as the single piece discovered beneath the piano bench. In the mid-1930s, amid Florida’s wetlands, he was documented accompanying singer and guitarist Roger Matthews. Those field recordings were made for the Library of Congress by Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle. The Matthews-Sapps repertoire leaned heavily on folk ballads and kindred traditional pieces, including “Frankie and Albert,” “Fox and the Hounds,” and “I’m a Pilgrim.” Their approach recalls the accessible coffeehouse blues of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee yet sits even nearer the unvarnished regional source. One critic aptly termed the results “Blues as played outside the recording studio.” “The Fox and the Hounds” in particular spotlights the harmonica and could slot comfortably into an old-time country discography provided compilers ignored racial boundaries. Both country blues and old-time musicians shared a central role supplying music for local gatherings, and Sapps’s work belongs squarely to the customary song list of any mid-1930s dance band regardless of the players’ backgrounds. Such music furnished no livelihood; the Florida performers were all migrant workers at the time. These sessions appear to represent Sapps’s sole encounter with recording equipment, yet their reach has proved considerable. Bob Dylan, among other folk figures, has voiced admiration for Booker T. Sapps, the reference being strictly musical. Both artists favored the harmonica and deployed it in an authentic country-blues style; if an influence exists, Sapps’s sound can truly be said to remain “Blowin’ in the Wind.”