Jimmy Rushing

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Jimmy Rushing

| image = Jimmy Rushing 1946 (Gottlieb 07551).jpg

| image_size =

| landscape =

| caption = Rushing in 1946

| background = solo_singer

| birth_name = James Andrew Rushing

| birth_date = {{birth date|1901|08|26}}

| birth_place = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|06|08|1901|08|26}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| genre = {{hlist|Jump blues|jazz}}

| occupation = {{hlist|Singer|pianist|musician}}

| instrument = {{hlist|Vocals|piano}}

| years_active = 1924–1972{{cite web|url=https://www.kunc.org/music/2014-01-25/mr-five-by-five-was-a-five-star-artist|title=Mr. Five By Five Was A Five Star Artist|author=Applegate, Mark|date=January 25, 2014|publisher=KUNC|access-date=December 18, 2020}}

| label =

| associated_acts = Count Basie, Bennie Moten, Walter Page, Dave Brubeck, Humphrey Lyttelton, Buck Clayton, Coleman Hawkins, Jelly Roll Morton, Billy King

}}

James Andrew Rushing (August 26, 1901{{cite web|title=U.S. Social Security Act: Application for Account Number|url=http://www.jimmyrushing.com/interviewimages/jrssn600x300.jpg|access-date=31 May 2017|date=4 June 1938|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521003632/http://www.jimmyrushing.com/interviewimages/jrssn600x300.jpg|archive-date=May 21, 2010|df=mdy-all}} – June 8, 1972) was an American singer and pianist from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.{{cite book

|first= Tony

|last= Russell

|year= 1997

|title= The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray

|publisher= Carlton Books

|location= Dubai

|page= 164

|isbn= 1-85868-255-X}}

Rushing was known as "Mr. Five by Five" and was the subject of an eponymous 1942 popular song that was a hit for Harry James and others; the lyrics describe Rushing's rotund build: "he's five feet tall and he's five feet wide". He joined Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1927 and then joined Bennie Moten's band in 1929. He stayed with the successor Count Basie band when Moten died in 1935.

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.{{cite book |last=Rushing |first=Jimmy |title=Livin' the Blues |year=1968 |publisher=Bluesway |url=http://www.koolkatjazz.com/catalog/jimmy-rushing-livin-blues-p-2168.html |access-date=December 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231193204/http://www.koolkatjazz.com/catalog/jimmy-rushing-livin-blues-p-2168.html |archive-date=December 31, 2013 |url-status=dead }}

Rushing was a powerful singer who had a range from baritone to tenor. He has sometimes been classified as a blues 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."Barlow, William (1989). "Looking Up at Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture, pp. 245–246. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. {{ISBN|0-87722-583-4}}.{{cite book |last=Basie |first=Count |title=Good Morning Blues |year=1985 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=0-394-54864-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/goodmorningblues00basi/page/182 182] |url=https://archive.org/details/goodmorningblues00basi/page/182 }} George Frazier, the author of Harvard Blues, called Rushing's voice "a magnificent gargle". Dave Brubeck defined Rushing's status among blues singers as "the daddy of them all." 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." Among his best-known recordings are "Going to Chicago", with Basie, and "Harvard Blues", with a saxophone solo by Don Byas.

Early life and education

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 with Zelia N. Breaux at Frederick A. Douglass High School in Oklahoma City and was unusual among his musical contemporaries for having attended college at Wilberforce University.{{cite book |last=Daniels |first=Douglas Henry |title=One O'Clock Jump: The Unforgettable History of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils |year=2007 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=978-0-8070-7137-3 |page=52 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nrne7CjVSvwC&q=wilburforce&pg=PA240}}{{cite web |url=http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/jimmyrushing |title=Jimmy Rushing |publisher=Verve Music Group |access-date=2014-05-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909041524/http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/jimmyrushing |archive-date=September 9, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}

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."{{cite web |author1=George Lang |title=Remembering Jimmy Rushing, the 'Five by Five' man with the enormous voice |url=https://newsok.com/article/3644561/remembering-jimmy-rushing-the-five-by-five-man-with-the-enormous-voice |website=newsok.com |publisher=The Oklahoman |access-date=18 April 2019 |date=January 29, 2012}}

Rushing was inspired to pursue music and sing blues by his uncle Wesley Manning and George "Fathead" Thomas of McKinney's Cotton Pickers.{{cite book|last1=Eagle|first1=Bob L. |last2=LeBlanc|first2=Eric S. |title=Blues: A Regional Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZNfAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA339|access-date=23 July 2018|date=1 May 2013|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34424-4|pages=339–}}

Career

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 with Jelly Roll Morton.{{cite book|title=The Guinness Who's Who of Blues|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-673-1|page=314}} He also sang with Billy King before moving on to Walter Page's Blue Devils in 1927.{{Cite web|last=Shabazz|first=Amilcar|date=2007-01-21|title=James Andrew "Jimmy"Rushing (1902-1972) •|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rushing-james-andrew-jimmy-1902-1972/|access-date=2021-05-25|language=en-US}} He and other members of the Blue Devils defected to the Bennie Moten band in 1929.

Moten died in 1935, and Rushing joined Count Basie for what would be a 13-year job.{{Cite web|title=James Andrew Rushing {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-popular-and-jazz-biographies/james-andrew-rushing|access-date=2021-05-25|website=Encyclopedia.com}} 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.

When the Basie band broke up in 1950, he retired briefly but then formed his own group. He made a guest appearance with Duke Ellington for the 1959 album Jazz Party.{{cite web |last1=Dance |first1=Stanley |title=Duke Ellington: Jazz Party |url=https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/duke-ellington-jazz-party/ |website=JazzTimes |access-date=24 July 2018 |date=1 November 1998}} In 1960, he recorded an album with the Dave Brubeck Quartet.{{cite web|author=Yanow, Scott |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/brubeck-rushing-mw0000600879 |title=Brubeck & Rushing |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2014-05-21}}

He appeared in the 1957 television special Sound 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 an Esquire magazine photo by Art Kane that was memorialized in the documentary film A Great Day in Harlem.{{cite book |last=Bach |first=Jean |title=A Great Day in Harlem |url=http://www.a-great-day-in-harlem.com/musicians.html |publisher=Flo-Bert and New York Foundation for the Arts |access-date=December 30, 2013 |format=Film |year=1994}} He toured the UK with Humphrey Lyttelton and his band. 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 the Newport Jazz Festival with the Muddy Waters Blues Band, singing "Mean Mistreater".Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/fLTCIqfsefc Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180716175936/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLTCIqfsefc&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLTCIqfsefc |title=Muddy Waters Newport Jazz Festival 1960 |author= |date=3 July 1960 |website=YouTube |publisher=UMG (on behalf of Madison Bay Records); LatinAutor - PeerMusic, LatinAutor, BMG Rights Management, CMRRA, ARESA, Abramus Digital, and 4 Music Rights Societies |access-date=5 December 2019 |quote=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 }}{{cbignore}} In 1969, Rushing appeared in The Learning Tree, the first major studio feature film directed by an African-American, Gordon Parks.{{Cite web|title=50 Years of Gordon Parks's "The Learning Tree"|url=https://www.warnerbros.com/news/articles/2019/08/06/50-years-gordon-parks-learning-tree|access-date=2021-05-25|website=Warnerbros.com|language=en-US|archive-date=May 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525125400/https://www.warnerbros.com/news/articles/2019/08/06/50-years-gordon-parks-learning-tree|url-status=dead}}

Death

Rushing died of leukemia{{Cite web|url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rushing-james-andrew-jimmy-1902-1972/|title=James Andrew "Jimmy" Rushing (1902-1972)|website=Blackpast.org|first=Amilcar|last=Shabazz|date=January 21, 2007|access-date=August 28, 2023}} on June 8, 1972, at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City, and was buried at the Maple Grove Cemetery in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York.{{cite web |author1=John S. Wilson |title=Jimmy Rushing, Blues Singer With intense Voice, Dies at 68 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/09/archives/jimray-rushing-blues-singer-with-intense-voice-dies-at-68.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=18 April 2019 |date=June 9, 1972}}

Until weeks before his death, he was singing on weekends at the Half Note Club in Manhattan.

Personal life

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 album Livin' the Blues.{{cite book|last1=Bogdanov|first1=Vladimir |last2=Woodstra|first2=Chris |last3=Erlewine| first3=Stephen Thomas |title=All Music Guide to the Blues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qYtz7kEHegEC&pg=PA486 |access-date=23 July 2018|year=2003|publisher=Backbeat Books|isbn=978-0-87930-736-3|page=486}}

He lived in Jamaica, Queens.{{cite news|author1=Nat Hentoff |title=Jazz's History Is Living in Queens . . . |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116899051955578156 |newspaper=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=25 July 2019 |date=January 17, 2007}}

Critical assessment

Rushing was held in high critical esteem during his career and after his death. Whitney Balliett, jazz critic for The 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 by Noël Coward".{{cite book |last=Balliett |first=Whitney |title=Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz, 1954–2000 |year=2000 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-20288-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/collectedworksjo00ball_0/page/21 21] |url=https://archive.org/details/collectedworksjo00ball_0/page/21 }} The critic Nat 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 that rhythm and blues "has its roots in the blues shouting of Jimmy Rushing...and in the equally stentorian delivery of Joe Turner..."{{cite book |last=Hentoff |first=Nat |title=Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz |url=https://archive.org/details/jazznewperspecti0000hent |url-access=registration |year=1959 |publisher=Rinehart |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/jazznewperspecti0000hent/page/100 100]}} 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."{{cite book |last=Yanow |first=Scott |title=Swing |year=2000 |publisher=Miller Freeman Books |location=San Francisco |isbn=0-87930-600-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/swing00yano/page/264 264] |url=https://archive.org/details/swing00yano/page/264 }} In an essay about his fellow Oklahoman, the writer Ralph 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.{{cite book |last=Ellison |first=Ralph |title=Living With Music |year=2001 |publisher=Modern Library |location=New York |isbn=0-679-64034-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/livingwithmusic00ralp/page/43 43–49] |url=https://archive.org/details/livingwithmusic00ralp/page/43 }} According to Gary Giddins, Rushing "brought operatic fervor to the blues,"{{cite book |last=Giddins |first=Gary |title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-507675-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/201 201] |url=https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/201 }} and of his time with Count Basie notes that "just about every record they made together is a classic."{{cite book |last=Giddins |first=Gary |title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century |year=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-507675-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/184 184] |url=https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/184 }}

He was a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the Critics' Poll of Melody Maker and a four-time winner of Best Male Singer in the International Critics' Poll in Down Beat.{{cite web |title=Jimmy Rushing |url=http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/jimmyrushing |publisher=Verve Music Group |access-date=December 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909041524/http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/jimmyrushing |archive-date=September 9, 2013 |df=mdy-all }} His 1971 album The You and Me That Used to Be was named Jazz Album of the Year by Down Beat,{{cite web |url=http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=stories&subsect=story_detail&sid=698 |title=1972 DownBeat Critics Poll |date=August 31, 1971 |access-date=December 31, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230235603/http://www.downbeat.com/default.asp?sect=stories&subsect=story_detail&sid=698 |archive-date=December 30, 2013 |df=mdy-all }} and he received the 1971 Grammy nomination Best Jazz Performance by a Soloist.{{cite web |title=GRAMMY Award Results for Jimmy Rushing |url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/jimmy-rushing |website=grammy.com |access-date=25 July 2019}}

Rushing was one of eight jazz and blues legends honored in a set of United States Postal Service stamps issued in 1994.{{cite web |title=American Music Series: Jazz Singers Issue |url=http://arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=1&cmd=1&tid=2043144 |publisher=Smithsonian National Postal Museum |access-date=December 31, 2013}}

He was a 2024 inductee to the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame.{{Cite web|url=https://www.memphisflyer.com/undefined|title=Blues Hall Of Fame Class Of 2024 Named|website=Memphisflyer.com|access-date=May 7, 2024}}

Discography

1954 - Goin' to Chicago (Vanguard, 1955)
1955 - Sings the Blues (Vanguard, 1955)
1955 - Listen to the Blues with Jimmy Rushing (Jazztone, 1956)
1956 - Cat Meets Chick (Philips, 1956) with Ada Moore, Buck Clayton
1956 - The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing Esq. (Columbia, 1957) with Buck Clayton
1957 - If This Ain't the Blues (Vanguard, 1958)
1958 - Little Jimmy Rushing and the Big Brass (Columbia, 1958)
1959- Rushing Lullabies (Columbia, 1959)
1960 - Bessie - Clara - Mamie & Trixie (The Songs They Made Famous) (Columbia, 1961)
1963 - Five Feet of Soul (Colpix, 1963)
1962-66 - Mr. Five By Flve "Live" (Montage)
1964 - Big Boy Blues (Grand Prix Series, 1964) with Al Hibbler
1965-70 - The Scene: Live in New York (HighNote, 2009) with Al Cohn, Zoot Sims
1967 - Gee Baby Ain't I Been Good to You (Master Jazz, 1971)
1967- Who Was It Sang That Song? (Master Jazz, 1967)
1967 - Every Day I Have the Blues (Bluesway, 1967) Oliver Nelson Arr.
1968 - Livin' the Blues (Bluesway, 1968)
1971 - The You and Me That Used to Be (RCA, 1971)

=As guest=

With the Count Basie Orchestra

1937-39 - The Original American Decca Recordings (3CD box set) (Decca GRP, 1992)
1936-41 -The Complete Count Basie, Volumes 1-10 (CBS, )
1937-44 - At Savoy Ballroom 1937–1944 (Jazz Line, 1972)
1944 - 1944 (Hindsight, 1986)
1957 - Count Basie at Newport (Verve, 1957)
1959 - The Newport Years Volume VI (Verve, 1973)

With others

1960 - Dave Brubeck, Brubeck and Rushing (Columbia, 1960)
1959 - Buck Clayton, Copenhagen Concert (SteepleChase, 1979)
1959 - Duke Ellington, Jazz Party (Columbia, 1959)
1959 - Benny Goodman, Benny in Brussels (Columbia, 1958)
1961 - Jimmy Witherspoon, Jimmy & Jimmy (Vogue, 1987) (Rusching in 4 titles with the Earl Hines quartet in 1967)
1967 - Earl Hines, Blues and Things (Master Jazz, 1968)
1959 - VV AA -The Sound Of Jazz (Columbia, 1959)

References

External links

[http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2010/09/jimmy-rushing-interview-at-half-note.html Jimmy Rushing interview at The Half Note, 1968 (audio)]
[http://stomp-off.blogspot.com/2010/08/jimmy-rushing-at-peps.html Jimmy Rushing at Pep's, 1959 (audio)]

Category:1901 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:Swing singers

Category:Jump blues musicians

Category:East Coast blues musicians

Category:American blues singers

Category:American jazz singers

Category:Jazz-blues musicians

Category:Musicians from Oklahoma City

Category:Singers from Oklahoma

Category:Deaths from leukemia in New York (state)

Category:20th-century American singers