Jazz-funk: “Mystique Blues”

The Crusaders: Wilton Felder (tenor sax), Wayne Henderson (trombone), Larry Carlton, Arthur Adams and David T. Walker (electric guitar), Joe Sample (keyboards), Chuck Rainey (electric bass) and Stix Hooper (drums, percussion). From the album Crusaders 1 (1972).

David T. Walker is an American jazz, soul and funk guitarist who has worked extensively as a studio musician since the early 1970s and has published fifteen albums on his own. Although he has never been an exceptional soloist, he has a great ability to keep time with the rhythm guitar, and has supported such important musicians as singers Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Sarah Vaughan and Etta James, the groups Four Tops, Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips and Mamas & Papas, and James Brown, Ray Charles, BB King, Jimmy Smith, Little Richard, Dean Martin, Smokey Robinson, Bobby Womack, Solomon Burke, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, Stanley Turrentine and Hampton Hawes among many others.

He has also collaborated in film soundtracks, television and radio advertising. Born in the city of Tusla, he began playing guitar at age sixteen and founded The Kinfolks with other instrumentalists while at David Starr Jordan High School in Los Angeles. He is self-taught, gained experience playing in blues clubs and when he finished his studies he toured many times the United States with The Kinfolks, which also signed with Motown Records and worked with the female vocal band Martha and the Vandellas. Walker’s first albums as a leader were The Sidewalk (1967) and Going Up! (1969) for the Revue label, and Plum Happy (1970) for Zea.

In 1969 he participated in The Jackson 5 debut Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5, in which young singer was the future “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, in 1970 in ABC and in 1971 in Maybe Tomorrow. Also in 1971 he appeared in Where I’m Coming From and in 1973 in Innervisions by the famous Stevie Wonder. In addition he switched to Ode Records and issued David T. Walker (1971) with an elegant and tasteful set of soul jazz tracks along with tenor saxophonist Curtis Amy, keyboardist Billy Preston, electric bassist Wilton Felder and drummer Paul Humphrey; Press On (1972) with excellent arrangements for wind and string sections, and top-quality music; and On Love (1976) with the friendly and romantic atmosphere its title announces.