Page's mother, with whom he moved to Kansas City in 1910, exposed him to folksongs and spirituals, a critical foundation for developing his love of music.
"[3] In 1923, Page left the Moten band and began an engagement with Billy King's Road Show, touring the Theater Owners' Booking Association (TOBA) circuit across the United States.
[6] Throughout various times in its six-year lifespan (1925-1931) the band featured such noteworthy figures as Basie, Rushing, Buster Smith, Lester Young, and Hot Lips Page.
[3] Gunther Schuller gives a different account though, writing that "an encounter finally did take place in 1928, and on that occasion Page is reputed to have 'wiped out' the Moten band.
"[10] What is indisputable, however, is that Moten did seem to shy away from competition with the Blue Devils, opting to buy off individual members with higher salaries and absorb them into his own group rather than do battle directly.
"[3] Page attempted to keep his Blue Devils intact, but after the departure of such key members of his band, the difficulties mounted.
Unable to find suitable replacements, facing booking problems, and dealing with a musicians' union conflict, Page eventually ceded control of the band to James Simpson.
[3] Page stayed with the Count Basie Orchestra from 1935 to 1942, an integral part of what came to be called the "All-American Rhythm Section.
[16] Together with drummer Jo Jones, guitarist Freddie Green, and pianist Basie, the rhythm section pioneered the "Basie Sound", a style in which Page, as bass player, clearly established the beat, allowing his band mates to provide accompaniment more freely.
Until this point, the rhythm of a jazz band was traditionally felt in the pianist's left hand and the kick of the bass drum on all four beats.
The artists he worked with in the later portion of his career included former band mate and trumpeter Page, Jimmy McPartland, Eddie Condon, Ruby Braff, Roy Eldridge, Vic Dickenson, Buck Clayton, Rushing, and others, including many Basie alumni.
[2] An obituary in Jet magazine from January 9, 1958, under the “Died” column, reads: "Walter Page, 57, one of the greatest jazz bass players, who helped Count Basie lead an invasion of Kansas City jazz to New York in 1935; of kidney ailment and pneumonia; at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.
[16][20] In an interview published only a month before his death in The Jazz Review, Walter Page expressed how he never sought praise and that he just wanted to know that he was appreciated for his influence on music.
"[22] Page himself acknowledged the influence of Wellman Braud, who may have been the first bassist to actually record the "walking bass" technique on Washington Wobble.
[2][17] Page is also recognized as "one of the first bassists to play four beats to the bar", in contrast to the two-beat style of New Orleans jazz.
"[25] Page was also famous for his restraint, a lesson fellow bassist Gene Ramey recounts: "There's a whole lot [you] could do here... but what you must do is play a straight line, because that man out there's waiting for food from you.
"[24] Although he was not well known as a soloist, Walter Page recorded one of the earliest jazz solos on the double bass on "Pagin' the Devil" with the Kansas City Six.
"[3] Page had a complex understanding of the roles of all the instruments in his bands, due in no small part to the fact that he was a multi-instrumentalist himself.
[26] Drummer Jo Jones recalled an instance when "somebody was fooling around [in the band], Mr. Walter Page left his bass, went down quiet as a cat, got the baritone, played the sax parts, and went back to his place.
"[29] Indeed, Berliner notes that "During the swing period, Walter Page's largely stepwise walking bass accompaniment in Count Basie's band epitomized the changing emphasis on the four-beat approach to meter described by Foster.