Jimmy Rushing | |
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.jpg) Rushing in 1946 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | James Andrew Rushing (1901-08-26)August 26, 1901 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | June 8, 1972(1972-06-08) (aged 70) New York City, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1924–1972[1] |
| Formerly of | Jelly Roll Morton,Billy King,Walter Page's Blue Devils,Bennie Moten,Count Basie,Humphrey Lyttelton,Dave Brubeck,Buck Clayton |
James Andrew Rushing (August 26, 1901[2] – June 8, 1972)[3] was an American singer and pianist fromOklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., best known as the featured vocalist ofCount Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.[4]
Rushing was known as "Mr. Five by Five" and was the subject of an eponymous 1942 popular song that was a hit forHarry James and others; the lyrics describe Rushing's rotund build: "he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide".[4] He joinedWalter Page'sBlue Devils in 1927 and then joinedBennie Moten's band in 1929.[4] He stayed with the successor Count Basie band when Moten died in 1935.[4]
Rushing said that his first time singing in front of an audience was in 1924. He was playing piano at a club when the featured singer, Carlyn Williams, invited him to do a vocal. "I got out there and broke it up. I was a singer from then on," he said.[5]
Rushing was a powerful singer who had a range frombaritone totenor. He has sometimes been classified as ablues shouter. He could project his voice so that it soared over the horn and reed sections in a big-band setting. Basie claimed that Rushing "never had an equal" as a blues vocalist, though Rushing "really thought of himself as a ballad singer."[6][7]George Frazier, the author ofHarvard Blues, called Rushing's voice "a magnificent gargle".Dave Brubeck defined Rushing's status among blues singers as "the daddy of them all."[5] Late in his life, Rushing said of his singing style, "I don't know what kind of blues singer you'd call me. I just sing 'em."[5] Among his best-known recordings are "Going to Chicago", with Basie, and "Harvard Blues", with a saxophone solo byDon Byas.
Rushing was born into a family with musical talent and accomplishments. His father, Andrew Rushing, was a trumpeter, and his mother, Cora, and her brother were singers. He studied music theory withZelia N. Breaux atFrederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and was unusual among his musical contemporaries for having attended college atWilberforce University.[8][9]
Rushing's father encouraged him to play violin: "He had bought me a violin, and he had forbidden me to touch the piano." But when his father "left the house, he'd lock the piano and give my mother the key. We'd watch him go away, and then she'd give me the key."[10]
Rushing was inspired to pursue music and sing blues by his uncle Wesley Manning and George "Fathead" Thomas ofMcKinney's Cotton Pickers.[11]
Rushing toured the Midwest and California as an itinerant blues singer in the early 1920s before moving to Los Angeles, where he played piano and sang withJelly Roll Morton.[12] He also sang withBilly King before moving on toWalter Page's Blue Devils in 1927.[13] He and other members of the Blue Devils defected to theBennie Moten band in 1929.[12]
Moten died in 1935, and Rushing joined Count Basie for what would be a 13-year job.[14] Due to his tutelage under his mentor Moten, Rushing was a proponent of the Kansas City, Missouri,jump blues tradition exemplified by his performances of "Sent for You Yesterday" and "Boogie Woogie" for the Count Basie Orchestra. After leaving Basie, his recording career continued as a singer with other bands.[12]
When the Basie band broke up in 1950, he retired briefly but then formed his own group. He made a guest appearance withDuke Ellington for the 1959 albumJazz Party.[15] In 1960, he recorded an album with theDave Brubeck Quartet.[16]
He appeared in the 1957 television specialSound of Jazz, singing one of his signature songs, "I Left My Baby", backed by many of his former Basie band members. In 1958, he was among the musicians included in anEsquire magazine photo byArt Kane that was memorialized in the documentary filmA Great Day in Harlem.[17] He toured the UK withHumphrey Lyttelton and his band.[12] A BBC broadcast with Rushing accompanied by Lyttelton's big band was released in 2009. In 1960, he appeared in a videotaped blues jam at theNewport Jazz Festival with theMuddy Waters Blues Band, singing "Mean Mistreater".[18] In 1969, Rushing appeared inThe Learning Tree, the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American,Gordon Parks.[19]
Rushing died of leukemia[20] on June 8, 1972, atFlower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City, and was buried at theMaple Grove Cemetery inKew Gardens, Queens, New York.[3]
Until weeks before his death, he was singing on weekends at theHalf Note Club in Manhattan.[3]
Rushing was married twice. He had two sons, Robert and William, with his second wife, Cornelia (usually known as Connie), to whom he was married from the 1940s until his death. Connie Rushing is credited with two compositions on his 1968 solo albumLivin' the Blues.[21]
He lived inJamaica, Queens.[22]
Rushing was held in high critical esteem during his career and after his death.Whitney Balliett, jazz critic forThe New Yorker, wrote of Rushing that, "His supple, rich voice and his elegant accent have the curious effect of making the typical roughhouse blues lyric seem like a song byNoël Coward".[23] The criticNat Hentoff, who ranked Rushing as one of the "greatest blues singers," credited him as a seminal influence in the development of post–World War II popular black music. Hentoff wrote thatrhythm and blues "has its roots in the blues shouting of Jimmy Rushing...and in the equally stentorian delivery ofJoe Turner..."[24]Scott Yanow described Rushing as the "perfect big band singer" who "was famous for his ability to sing blues, but in reality he could sing almost anything."[25] In an essay about his fellow Oklahoman, the writerRalph Ellison wrote that it was "when Jimmy's voice began to soar with the spirit of the blues that the dancers – and the musicians – achieve that feeling of communion which was true meaning of the public jazz dance." Ellison said Rushing began as a singer of ballads, "bringing to them a sincerity and a feeling for dramatizing the lyrics in the musical phrase which charged the banal lines with the mysterious potentiality of meaning which haunts the blues." In contrast with Rushing's reputation, he "seldom comes across as a blues 'shouter,' but maintains the lyricism which has always been his way with the blues," wrote Ellison.[26] According toGary Giddins, Rushing "brought operatic fervor to the blues,"[27] and of his time with Count Basie notes that "just about every record they made together is a classic."[28]
He was a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the Critics' Poll ofMelody Maker and a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the International Critics' Poll inDown Beat.[29] His 1971 albumThe You and Me That Used to Be was named Jazz Album of the Year byDown Beat,[30] and he received the 1971Grammy nomination Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist.[31]
Rushing was one of eight jazz and blues legends honored in a set ofUnited States Postal Service stamps issued in 1994.[32]
He was a 2024 inductee to theBlues Foundation'sBlues Hall of Fame.[33]
With theCount Basie Orchestra
With others
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)1803 Mean Mistreater - Muddy Waters: vocal, guitar; Pat Hare: guitar; Otis Spann: piano; James Cotton: harmonica; Andrew Stephenson (bass); Francis Clay (drums); Mean Mistreater Jam add Sammy Price (vocal); Betty Jeannette (vocal); Jimmy Rushing (vocal); Lafayette Thomas (guitar); Butch Cage (fiddle); Willie B Thomas (acoustic guitar); Al Minns and Leon James: hip shaking
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