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Winston Walls

Winston Walls - Hammond organ (1943 - 2008)

"There's a lot of cats who can play, but everybody's not special. I'm special-I'm a bad dude." Having somehow managed a 30 year career behind folks like the Pointer Sisters, Lou Donaldson and Sonny Stitt without a single recording of his own until his “Boss of the B3,” in 1993, Winston Walls was certainly one bad dude when it comes to Hammond players.

He was born in a car in Ironton, Ohio, in 1943, as his family was en route from Lexington, Ky., to their Charleston home. Music was a family affair. His father, Harry "Van" Walls served as house pianist for Atlantic Records during the 1950s and was recognized by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation with a Pioneer Award in 1997.

After studying drums with the late, great Charleston drummer Frank Thompson, Winston got a lucky break when Hammond great Bill Doggett's drummer didn't show for a gig at Charleston's Municipal Auditorium. Soon, he was picking up what he could from Doggett and switched to the electric Hammond organ, filling in for his mentor at weekly jam sessions.

Winston went on to travel with Dionne Warwick, Al Green, Charlie Pride, Ike and Tina Turner, Lou Donaldson and Sonny Stitt.

He and longtime cohort and fellow organist, the late Brother Jack McDuff, "discovered" guitarist George Benson when he was a teenager playing in Pittsburgh. After a highly spirited disagreement as to whose band Benson would join, Winston accompanied McDuff to Benson's house where they talked his parents into letting him go on the road with McDuff.

Winston would play anywhere and everywhere and I'd venture that nearly every Charleston musician from the '70s to the '90s has a few Winston gigs under his/her belt. It was as a simple duo or trio, with players like Frank Thompson, Marshall Petty, Bob Redd, Dugan Carter and Rabbit Jones, that he absolutely killed.

He was perhaps the finest, most intuitive musician I've ever had the joy of hearing. In his hands, musical labels -- whether "Rock Candy" (a McDuff tune), the blindingly fast "Caravan," a gospel tune, country standard or the "Electric Slide" -- were meaningless.

He was "old school" all the way. He came up during a time when entertaining a crowd was nearly as important as developing your chops. With one wisecrack he could put an entire room at ease - or, if he chose, make them wriggle uncomfortably.

He had a razor sharp wit and could read an audience like a stand-up comic - which, along with being a motorcycle trick rider, professional roller skater, and a wrestler (under the name of "The Claw"), was one of his many itinerant jobs over the years.

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Boss Of The B3

Schoolkids Records
1993

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