Jimmy Rogers

For similarly named people, see James Rogers (disambiguation).
Jimmy Rogers

Rogers in concert
Background information
Birth name Jay Arthur Lane
Born (1924-06-03)June 3, 1924
Ruleville, Mississippi, United States
Died December 19, 1997(1997-12-19) (aged 73)
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres Chicago blues[1]
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Vocals
Guitar
Harmonica
Years active 1946–1997
Labels Chess Records
Associated acts Muddy Waters, Little Walter

Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924 – December 19, 1997)[2] was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player,[1] best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters's band in the early 1950s.[3] He also had solo hits on the R&B chart with "That's All Right" in 1950 and "Walking by Myself" in 1954.

He withdrew from the music industry at the end of the 1950s but returned to recording and touring in the 1970s.

Career

Rogers was born Jay Arthur Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi,[4] on June 3, 1924 and was raised in Atlanta and Memphis.[5] He adopted his stepfather's surname.[3] He learned to play the harmonica with his childhood friend Snooky Pryor and as a teenager took up the guitar. He played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois, with Robert Lockwood, Jr., among others. Rogers moved to Chicago in the mid-1940s.[6] By 1946, Rogers had recorded as a harmonica player and singer for the Harlem record label, run by J. Mayo Williams. Rogers's name did not appear on the record, which was mislabeled as the work of Memphis Slim and His Houserockers.

In 1947, Rogers, Muddy Waters and Little Walter began playing together, constituting Waters's first band in Chicago (sometimes referred to as the Headcutters or the Headhunters, because of their practice of stealing jobs from other local bands). The band members recorded and released music credited to each of them as solo artists. The band defined the sound of the nascent Chicago blues style (more specifically South Side Chicago blues). Rogers recorded several sides of his own with small labels in Chicago, but none were released at the time. He began to enjoy success as a solo artist with Chess Records in 1950, with the hit song "That's All Right", but he stayed in Waters's band until 1954.[3] In the mid-1950s he had several successful releases on the Chess label, most featuring either Little Walter or Big Walter Horton on harmonica, notably "Walking by Myself".[7] In the late 1950s, as interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from the music industry.[3]

In the early 1960s Rogers briefly worked as a member of Howling Wolf's band, before quitting the music business altogether for almost a decade. He worked as a taxicab driver and owned a clothing store, which burned down in the 1968 Chicago riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He gradually began performing in public again, and in 1971, when fashions made him somewhat popular in Europe, he began occasionally touring and recording, including a 1977 session with Waters. By 1982, Rogers was again a full-time solo artist.

In 1995 Rogers was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[8]

He continued touring and recording albums until his death from colon cancer in Chicago in 1997.[2] He was survived by his son, Jimmy D. Lane, a guitarist and a record producer and recording engineer for Blue Heaven Studios and APO Records.

Selected discography

References

  1. 1 2 Du Noyer, Paul (2003). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music. Fulham, London: Flame Tree Publishing. p. 181. ISBN 1-904041-96-5.
  2. 1 2 Doc Rock. "The Dead Rock Stars Club 1996 - 1997". Thedeadrockstarsclub.com. Retrieved 2015-08-30.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 161. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
  4. ↑ Eagle, Bob; LeBlanc, Eric S. (2013). Blues - A Regional Experience. Santa Barbara: Praeger Publishers. p. 196. ISBN 978-0313344237.
  5. ↑ Harris, S. (1979). Blues Who's Who. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 442.
  6. ↑ Gordon, Robert (2002). Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters. Boston: Little, Brown. p. 74. ISBN 0-316-32849-9.
  7. ↑ Bill Dahl. "Good Rockin' Charles". AllMusic. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Blues Foundation :: Inductees". Blues.org. Retrieved October 27, 2008.
  9. ↑ Archived November 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ "The Complete Chess Recordings: Jimmy Rogers: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-08-30.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.