Little Willie Foster
b. 5 April 1922, Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA. Foster came to Chicago in 1941, already playing guitar, piano and harmonica. Tutored on the latter instrument by Walter Horton, he played on Maxwell Street, and in a band with Homesick James, Floyd Jones and Moody Jones. Foster recorded two singles in the mid-50s, and Crying The Blues, one of the titles, sums up both his emotional singing and his wailing, swooping harmonica. Shortly thereafter, he was shot and semi-paralysed; he improved slowly, and remained able to play and sing, but only rarely in public. Floyd Jones stated that Foster fatally shot a man, and was placed in a mental hospital early in 1974, but since he was photographed in the Chicago streets in September of that year, this information must be treated with caution.