Eddie Mapp: Gone way too soon...

Eddie Mapp, who was born around 1910, could have had the brightest future as a harmonica player one can imagine - if he hadn't been stabbed to death at a tracically young age of 20 years only.

It is said that he'd been performing in the streets of his hometown Atlanta, Georgia since he was 12 years old. That's where he met guitar player Curley Weaver and together they'd been playing barn dances and festivities of any kind around the area. At times Barbecue Bob and his brother Charlie would join them too.
Mapp and Weaver, together with Robert Hicks, Slim Barton and James Moore, formed the Georgia Cotton Pickers and got to record quite a few tunes fortunately. Most of these can be found on "Georgia Blues 1928-1933".

Eddie Mapp & James Moore - Where you been so long?
Eddie Mapp & Slim Barton - Fourth Avenue Blues

The only solo piece Mapp got to record was "Riding the Blinds" (1929), a driving and highly complex piece following a fox chase-like rhythm, as nicely performed by Rob Mason here:

Since Mapp's technique and style of playing seems so incredibly advanced for a kid his age, there have always been rumors about him being older than his birth certificate stated.
Well, we'll never find out but what we do know is that he was a heck of a harmonica player - and that is for sure!