Jim Jackson (musician)

Career

Jackson was born in Hernando, Mississippi, United States, 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 shows, playing dances and parties often with other local musicians such as Gus Cannon, Frank Stokes and Robert Wilkins. He soon began travelling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, featuring Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, and other minstrel shows.

He also played clubs on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee. His popularity and proficiency secured him a residency at Memphis's prestigious Peabody Hotel in 1919. Like Lead Belly, Jackson knew hundreds of songs including blues, ballads, vaudeville numbers, and traditional tunes, and became a popular attraction.

In 1927, talent scout H. C. Speir signed him to a recording contract with Vocalion Records. On October 10, 1927, he recorded "Jim Jackson's Kansas City Blues", which became a best-seller, and in the melody and lyrics of which can be traced the outline of many later blues and rock and roll songs, including "Rock Around The Clock" and "Kansas City". Following his hit Jackson recorded a series of 'Kansas City' follow-ups and soundalikes. It also led to other artists covering and reworking the song, including Charlie Patton, who changed it to "Gonna Move To Alabama". Jackson 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 Vidor's all-black 1929 film Hallelujah!, however it is unclear what role he played.

Jackson ran the Red Rose Minstrels, a travelling medicine show which toured Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. As a talent scout for Brunswick Records, he discovered Rufus "Speckled Red" 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 1933.

Janis Joplin later recorded a version 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 Chicago bluesman J. B. Lenoir, and his "Kansas City Blues" was a regular fixture of Robert Nighthawk's concert set list.

The song "Wild About My Lovin'" was covered by The Lovin' Spoonful and released on their 1965 deubt album, Do You Believe In Magic.

Recommended recording