From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Sep 16, 2002  1:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Little Willie Littlefield
 
LITTLE WILLIE LITTLEFIELD

Born 16 September 1931, El Campo, Wharton County, Texas

Vocalist / pianist.
Before he was 21 years old, Texas-born pianist Little Willie Littlefield had
etched an all-time classic into the blues lexicon. Only trouble was, his
original 1952 waxing of "Kansas City" (then titled "K.C. Loving") didn't
sell sufficiently to show up on the charts (thus leaving the door open for
Wilbert Harrison to invade the airwaves with the ubiquitous Jerry Leiber /
Mike Stoller composition seven years later).
Influenced by Albert Ammons, Charles Brown, and Amos Milburn, Little Willie
was already a veteran of the R&B recording scene by the time he waxed "K.C.
Loving," having made his debut 78 in 1948 for Houston-based Eddie's Records
while still in his teens. After a few sides for Eddie's and Freedom, he moved
over to the Bihari brothers' Los Angeles-headquartered Modern logo in 1949.
There he immediately hit paydirt with two major R&B hits, "It's Midnight" (# 3)
and "Farewell" (# 5). His third and final chart entry was "I've Been Lost" (#
10)
in 1951. His triplet piano style was to influence the young Fats Domino.
Littlefield proved a sensation upon moving to L.A. during his Modern tenure,
playing at area clubs and touring with a band that included saxist Maxwell
Davis. At Littlefield's first L.A. session for King's Federal subsidiary in
1952, he cut "K.C. Loving" (with Davis on sax), but neither it nor several
fine Federal follow-ups returned the boogie piano specialist to the charts.

Other than a few 1957-58 singles for Oakland's's Rhythm logo, little was
heard from Little Willie Littlefield until the late '70s, when he began to
mount a comeback at various festivals and on the European circuit. While
overseas, he met a Dutch woman, married her, and settled in the Netherlands
(Leusden, to be exact), where he has been living since 1981. I've seen him
perform on several occasions. Live he is even better than on record. In fact
his gigs were amongst the most memorable I have seen.

During the period 1980-1997 he recorded 10 albums for several European
record companies, toured all over Europe and also in Canada, the USA and
Australia. Being on the road for more than 50 years, Willie stopped touring
in 2000. This, however, does not mean that he leads an idle life; on the
contrary, he still practices his music with a never ending energy and his
technique is superb as ever. The only restriction is that he now only accepts
concerts which accord with his interest and which are, for practical reasons,
not too far away from his home town.

Official website: http://www.littlewillielittlefield.com/
Recommended listening:
Going Back to Kaycee (Ace 503). Federal recordings.
Kat on the Keys : The Legendary Modern Recordings (Ace 736).