This artist is almost as unknown as the concept of walking in Kansas City, maybe as a result of his surname itself. James Jim Daddy Walker was both born and buried there, doubling on guitar and bass in the '30s in the type of outfits that influenced many famous jazz instrumentalists such as guitarist Charlie Christian. Walker was hardly pacing as a violinist in his high-school orchestra, strolling into the rhythm sections of both George E. Lee and Jap Allen by the early '30s. His best-known partner in syncopated stepping for the balance of that decade was the friendly sounding Clarence Love. In the '40s, Walker put on the big shoes of Four Tons of Rhythm, a hardly plodding harbinger of RB. In turn he played both guitar and bass on a variety of other recording sessions during the '40s, much of that work going uncredited. Three weeks before Walker died, he taped with singer Walter Brown. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi