Johnny "Big Moose" Walker

Born John Mayon Walker on 27 June 1927 in Stoneville, Mississippi, the partly Native American musician died in Chicago, Illinois, on 27 November 1999. Although he mastered several instruments during his teenage years, piano remained his chief instrument. Beginning in 1947 he traveled with blues ensembles on piano and organ, accompanying a range of Mississippi performers through the 1940s and early 1950s such as Ike Turner, Sonny Boy ‘Rice Miller’ Williamson, Lowell Fulson and Choker Campbell. His closest and most sustained ties were to Elmore James and Earl Hooker; on their sessions his piano work proved especially effective, while his organ contributions were less distinguished. Military duty with the US Army occupied him from 1952 to 1955. In 1955 he cut his own sides for Ike Turner, though they remained unreleased until the late 1960s. Additional recordings made that year for the Ultra label appeared under the pseudonym ‘Moose John’. Settling in Chicago toward the end of the decade, he spent the next thirty years as a busy session player for Elmore James (credited as ‘Bushy Head’), Otis Rush, Muddy Waters (on bass), Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Dawkins and Son Seals. Several solo albums issued in the US and Europe preceded the strokes that concluded his career.