James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden (June 26 1903 - December 30 1977), was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
vocalist and
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
.
Born in
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
,
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...
, Jimmy Oden sang and taught himself to play the
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
in childhood. In his
teensAdolescence Adolescence Adolescence (lat adolescere, (to grow) is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or...
, he left home to go to
St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
,
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
(c. 1917 ) where piano-based
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...
was prominent. He was able to develop his vocal talents and began performing with the gifted
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
,
Roosevelt SykesRoosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician also known as "The Honeydripper"....
. After more than ten years playing in and around St.
James Burke "St. Louis Jimmy" Oden (June 26 1903 - December 30 1977), was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
vocalist and
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
.
Born in
NashvilleNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
,
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...
, Jimmy Oden sang and taught himself to play the
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
in childhood. In his
teensAdolescence Adolescence Adolescence (lat adolescere, (to grow) is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development that occurs between childhood and adulthood. This transition involves biological (i.e. pubertal), social, and psychological changes, though the biological or...
, he left home to go to
St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
,
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
(c. 1917 ) where piano-based
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...
was prominent. He was able to develop his vocal talents and began performing with the gifted
pianistA pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers....
,
Roosevelt SykesRoosevelt Sykes was an American blues musician also known as "The Honeydripper"....
. After more than ten years playing in and around St. Louis, in 1933 he and Sykes decided to move on to
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...
.
In Chicago he was dubbed St. Louis Jimmy and there he would enjoy a solid performing and
recordingSound 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...
career for the next four decades. While Chicago became his home base, Oden traveled with a group of blues players to various places throughout the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He recorded a large number of
recordsA gramophone record, commonly known as phonograph record, vinyl record, or simply record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc...
, his best known coming in 1941 on the
Bluebird RecordsBluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter ARC Records in the "3 records for a dollar" market...
labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
called "
Goin' Down Slow"Goin' Down Slow" or "Going Down Slow" is a blues song written by St. Louis Jimmy Oden, originally released in 1941. Howlin' Wolf included the song on his 1962 Rocking Chair Album.The song alternates between sung and spoken passages...
." Oden wrote a number of
songA song is a metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad....
s, two of which, "Take the Bitter with the Sweet" and "Soon Forgotten," were recorded by his friend,
Muddy WatersMcKinley Morganfield , better known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician and is generally considered "the Father of Chicago blues". He is also the actual father of blues musicians Big Bill Morganfield and Larry "Mud Morganfield" Williams...
.
In 1948 on
Aristocrat RecordsAristocrat Records was started in April 1947 by Charles and Evelyn Aron, together with their partners Fred and Mildred Brount and Art Spiegel. By September Leonard Chess had invested in the young record company. Over time, Leonard bought the others out, and by 1948, only he and Evelyn Aron ran the...
Oden cut "Florida Hurricane", accompanied by the pianist
Sunnyland SlimAlbert "Sunnyland Slim" Luandrew was an American blues pianist, who was born in the Mississippi Delta and later moved to Chicago, to contribute to that city's post-war scene as a center for blues music...
and the guitarist Muddy Waters.
In 1949, Oden partnered with Joe Brown to form a small recording company called
J.O.B. RecordsJ.O.B. Records was a Chicago based record label, founded by businessman Joe Brown and bluesman St. Louis Jimmy Oden in 1949. It specialized in Southern Blues and city based R&B. The company sparingly recorded until 1972, and issued its last single in 1974....
. Oden appears to have ended his involvement within a year, but with other partners the company remained in business till 1974.
After a serious road accident in 1957 he devoted himself to writing and placed material with Muddy Waters,
Howlin' WolfChester Arthur Burnett , better known as Howlin' Wolf, was an influential American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player....
("What a Woman!") and
John Lee HookerJohn Lee Hooker was an African American singer-songwriter and blues guitarist, born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues...
. In 1960 he made an album with
Bluesville RecordsBluesville Records is a subsidiary of Prestige Records, launched in the 1960s with the primary purpose of documenting the work of the older classic bluesmen passed over by the changing audience...
, and sang on a
Candid RecordsCandid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in New York City in 1960. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff, worked as the label's A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day...
session with Robert Lockwood, Jr. and
Otis SpannOtis Spann was an American blues musician. Many aficionados considered him then, and now, as Chicago's leading postwar blues pianist.-Career:...
.
Oden died, at the age of 74, in 1977 and was interred in the
Restvale CemeteryBurr Oak Cemetery is a cemetery located in unincorporated Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Alsip, a suburb slightly southwest of Chicago. Many musicians from the Chicago blues era are buried here....
in
Alsip, IllinoisAlsip is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,725 at the 2000 census. It is a suburb of Chicago.Alsip was settled in the 1830s by German and Dutch farmers. The village is named after Frank Alsip, the owner of a brickyard that opened there in 1885...
, near Chicago.
External links
- Oden biography at Allmusic website
A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network...
- J.O.B. Records discography