American jazz guitarist (June 27, 1942 - February 13, 2011) who worked primarily in the Washington DC and Baltimore area.
Namuth grew up in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and after graduating from high school attended music school. He then tried to establish himself in Los Angeles as a studio musician, creating experimental music in his spare time, playing all instruments on multitrack. Namuth worked with prominent jazz artists in the 1960s and early '70s, but preferred to stay close to home without recording. In 1964 he played with Billy Taylor, Slam Stewart and Jo Jones in the backing band for singer Ethel Ennis at her appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival; two weeks later he accompanied her (with Jimmy Jones, George Duvivier and Osie Johnson) on her album Eyes for You. According to research by Marc Myers, Namuth was involved in two more albums during this period, in addition to the album Left Bank '66 under his name (Walter Namuth's Quintet featuring Mickey Fields), released in 1966 on the label of the Left Bank Jazz Society in Baltimore as a musician on the soundtrack of the musical theater piece The Dawn (American Record Society, 1966), with Leslie J. Schnierer (harpsichord), Don Bailey (drums) with the St. Anthony CYO Teen Club. In 1968, Namuth was hired by Buddy Rich for his big band; he can be heard on the album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy: Live at Caesar's Place. Walt Namuth, the most rewarding of the soloists, provides refreshing support on the contemporary pop songs [such as Alfie and Ode to Billie Joe] that he has to face, said the Saturday Review in 1969. Later in 1968, Namuth appeared on Lou Rawls' album The Way It Was, and in 1972 he played again with Buddy Rich on his LP Stick It. This included a version of the song Bein' Green from Sesame Street (later sung by Kermit the Frog on The Muppet Show), in which Rich sang a part accompanied only by Walt Namuth on acoustic guitar. With Namuth's departure, Buddy Rich decided to stop playing guitar in his band. From the 1970s onwards, Namuth worked primarily as a music teacher and in 1977 published the two-volume textbook Guitar directions: The Chord Book with Namoy Publications. In his later years he also played on a track on Lou Pride's album Keep on Believing (2005). According to Marc Myers, Namuth is one of the many lost musicians, those undocumented jazz legends that every city has, and one of the thousands of artists who never bothered to record because they weren't asked, couldn't, or weren't willing to tour to promote their LPs, until an occasional tape turns up that commemorates them.