Jim Jackson (
cCirca means "in approximately" , referring to a date...
.1884 - 1937) was an
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and
hokumHokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos...
singer,
songsterThe term "songster" is most often used to denote a wandering musician, usually but not always African American, of the type which first appeared in the late 19th century in the southern United States...
and
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
, whose
recordingsSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
in the late 1920s were popular and influential on later
artistsA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
.
Jackson was born in
HernandoHernando is a city in central DeSoto County, Mississippi. The population was 6,812 at the 2000 census. The 2006 census estimate reflects a population of 10,580. Hernando is the county seat of DeSoto County, the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area. US Hwy 51 and the I-55...
,
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
and was raised on a farm, where he learned to play guitar. Around 1905 he started working as a singer, dancer, and musician in
medicine showMedicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
s, playing dances and parties often with other local
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
s such as
Gus CannonGus Cannon was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s.-Career:...
,
Frank StokesFrank Stokes was an American blues musician, songster, and blackface minstrel, who is considered by many musicologists to be the father of the Memphis blues guitar style.-Biography:...
and
Robert WilkinsRobert Timothy Wilkins was a seminal blues guitarist and vocalist, of African American and Cherokee descent.-Career:...
. He soon began travelling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, featuring
Ma RaineyGertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey , was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues...
and
Bessie SmithBessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues", Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent...
, and other
minstrel showThe minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s.
He also played clubs on
Beale StreetBeale Street is a street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
in
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
,
TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
.
Jim Jackson (
cCirca means "in approximately" , referring to a date...
.1884 - 1937) was an
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
bluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre created within the African-American communities in the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and
hokumHokum is a particular song type of American blues music - a humorous song which uses extended analogies or euphemistic terms to make sexual innuendos...
singer,
songsterThe term "songster" is most often used to denote a wandering musician, usually but not always African American, of the type which first appeared in the late 19th century in the southern United States...
and
guitaristA guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :...
, whose
recordingsSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
in the late 1920s were popular and influential on later
artistsA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
.
Career
Jackson was born in
HernandoHernando is a city in central DeSoto County, Mississippi. The population was 6,812 at the 2000 census. The 2006 census estimate reflects a population of 10,580. Hernando is the county seat of DeSoto County, the second-most-populous county in the Memphis metropolitan area. US Hwy 51 and the I-55...
,
MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
and was raised on a farm, where he learned to play guitar. Around 1905 he started working as a singer, dancer, and musician in
medicine showMedicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
s, playing dances and parties often with other local
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
s such as
Gus CannonGus Cannon was an American blues musician who helped to popularize jug bands in the 1920s and 1930s.-Career:...
,
Frank StokesFrank Stokes was an American blues musician, songster, and blackface minstrel, who is considered by many musicologists to be the father of the Memphis blues guitar style.-Biography:...
and
Robert WilkinsRobert Timothy Wilkins was a seminal blues guitarist and vocalist, of African American and Cherokee descent.-Career:...
. He soon began travelling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, featuring
Ma RaineyGertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett Rainey, better known as Ma Rainey , was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues...
and
Bessie SmithBessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues", Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent...
, and other
minstrel showThe minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s.
He also played clubs on
Beale StreetBeale Street is a street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
in
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4
th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River....
,
TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
. His popularity and proficiency secured him a residency at Memphis's prestigious
Peabody HotelThe Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is well known for the famous "Peabody Ducks" that live on the hotel rooftop, but which make daily treks to the hotel's lobby in a daily "March of Ducks" celebration.- History :...
in 1919. Like
LeadbellyHuddie William Ledbetter was an American folk musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the 12-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
, Jackson knew hundreds of songs including blues, ballads, vaudeville numbers, and traditional tunes, and became a popular attraction.
In 1927, talent scout
H. C. SpeirH. C. Speir was an American "talent broker" and record store owner from Jackson, Mississippi...
signed him to a
recording contractA recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with
Vocalion RecordsVocalion Records was a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The fledgling label first issued single-sided...
. On October 10 1927, he recorded "
Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues-Recordings and later influence:Jackson's first record, "Jim Jacksons's Kansas City Blues, Part 1 & 2" was one of the first, and biggest race hits...
", which became a best-seller, and in the
melodyA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
and
lyricsLyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
of which can be traced the outline of many later blues and
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States after World War II in the late 1940s, from a combination of the rhythms of the blues, from the African American culture, and from America's country music and gospel music scenes...
songs, including "
Rock Around The Clock"Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers in 1952...
" and "
Kansas City"Kansas City" is the title of a rhythm and blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. The song, a 12-bar blues, was first recorded by Little Willie Littlefield that same year, under the title, "KC Lovin' "...
". Following his
hitA hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
Jackson recorded a series of 'Kansas City' follow-ups and soundalikes.
He moved to Memphis in 1928, and made a series of further recordings, including the comic medicine show song "I Heard the Voice of a Pork Chop". He also appeared in
King VidorKing Wallis Vidor was an acclaimed American film director whose career spanned nearly seven decades.He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he survived the great Galveston Hurricane of 1900...
's all-black, 1929
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
,
Hallelujah!Hallelujah! is an 1929 MGM musical directed by King Vidor, starring Daniel L. Haynes and the then unknown Nina Mae McKinney.Filmed in Tennessee and Arkansas and narrating the troubled quest of a sharecropper, Zeke Johnson and his relationship with the seductive Chick , Hallelujah! was one of the...
.
Jackson ran the Red Rose Minstrels, a travelling
medicine showMedicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts. Their precise origins unknown, medicine shows were common in the 19th century United States...
which toured Mississippi,
ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
and
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
. As a talent scout for
Brunswick RecordsBrunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by Koch Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...
, he discovered Rufus "
Speckled RedSpeckled Red was born Rufus Perryman in Monroe, Louisiana. He was an American blues and boogie woogie piano player and singer most noted for his recordings of "The Dirty Dozens", legendary exchanges of insults and vulgar remarks that have long been a part of African-American folklore.The family...
" Perryman, gaining him his first recording session. Shortly afterwards, in February 1930, Jackson recorded his own last session. He later moved back to Hernando, and continued to perform until his death in 1937.
Janis JoplinJanis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger, from Port Arthur, Texas. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist...
later recorded a
versionIn popular music, a cover version, or simply cover, is a new rendition of a previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of "Kansas City Blues", inserting the lines
"Babe, I'm leavin', yeah I'm a-leavin' this mornin' / Goin' to Kansas City to bring Jim Jackson home".
Jackson was a major influence on the
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
bluesman
J. B. LenoirJ. B. Lenoir was an African-American blues guitarist and singer/songwriter active in the 1950s and 1960s.-Life and career:...
, and his "Kansas City Blues" was a regular fixture of
Robert NighthawkRobert Lee McCollum was an American blues musician who played and recorded under the pseudonyms Robert Lee McCoy and Robert Nighthawk....
's
concertA concert is a live performance, usually of music, before an audience. The music may be performed by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band. Informal names for a concert include "show" and "gig"...
set list.
The song "Wild About My Lovin'" was covered by
The Lovin' SpoonfulThe Lovin' Spoonful is an American pop rock band of the 1960s, named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. When asked about his band, leader John Sebastian said it sounded like a combination of "Mississippi John Hurt and Chuck Berry."...
and released on their first "best of" album in 1967.
External links