JAMES " SUGAR BOY " CRAWFORD

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, Jr. (October 12, 1934  – September 15, 2012) was an American, New Orleans based, R&B musician. He was the author of "Jock-A-Mo" (1954), a hit that was later recreated as "Iko Iko", by The Dixie Cups and recorded by many artists including Dr. John, Belle Stars, The Grateful Dead, Cyndi Lauper, and as "Geto Boys" by Glass Candy.

Starting out on trombone, Crawford formed a band which local DJ Doctor Daddy-O named "The Chapaka Shawee" (Creole for "We Aren't Raccoons"), the title of an instrumental that they played. Signed on by Chess Records president Leonard Chess, the group was renamed 'Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters'.

Although his song "Jock-A-Mo" became a standard at the New Orleans Mardi Gras, Crawford himself disappeared from public view, and in a 2002 interview for Offbeat, told how his career came to an abrupt halt in 1963, after a severe beating at the hands of state troopers incapacitated him for two years, forcing him to leave the music industry. In 1969, he decided to limit his singing to in church only. In 2012 Crawford made a guest appearance singing gospel on an episode of the HBO series Treme. He died one month before the episode aired.

Crawford appeared on his grandson Davell Crawford's 1995 album, Let Them Talk. He made some stage appearances with Davell including one at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (1996), and more recently at the seventh annual Ponderosa Stomp in April 2008.

Among the artists Crawford recorded with was Snooks Eaglin.

James Crawford died after a brief illness in a hospice in 2012, aged 77.

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, New Orleans R&B pioneer (1934-2012), photo by Earl Perry.

                                                                     
                            


                                                         
                              


                              

Born October 12, 1934, Sugar Boy grew up in Central City, where he learned to play the piano at a neighbor’s house. While attending Booker T. Washington High School, he also learned to play trombone and formed a band with some of his classmates. The group caught a break in 1952 when they were spotted by local deejay Dr. Daddy-O, who invited them to appear on his Saturday morning program. The group didn’t have a name so Daddy-O dubbed them “The Chapaka Shawee.”

The following year, Leonard Chess, the owner of Chicago’s Chess label, was in town promoting records when he heard the group rehearse at radio station WMRY. In exchange for $5, Chess taped what the band thought was an audition. A month later, the group was back in the studio when deejay Ernie the Whip showed them a brand new 78 r.p.m. copy of “I Don’t Know What I’ll Do” credited to Sugar Boy and the Cane Cutters. Chess signed them and instructed them to report to the J&M Studio. With guitarist Snooks Eaglin in tow, Sugar Boy achieved immortality upon recording “Jock-A-Mo.”

In 1963, Sugar Boy and his band were on their way to a job in North Louisiana when they were pulled over by the state police. For some reason, a state trooper severely pistol whipped Sugar Boy, and he was in a coma for several months and paralyzed for over a year. He attempted a comeback, but after 1969, he confined his singing to church. He enrolled in trade school and studied to be a building engineer. Sugar Boy maintained the Masonic building on St. Charles Avenue for over a decade.

Eventually, the royalties from “Jock-A-Mo” began to accumulate. Sugar Boy took his earnings and opened his own business, C&C Locksmith. For the better part of the last decade, he crisscrossed the city in a van installing locks and duplicating keys.

Sugar Boy will make a final, posthumous appearance in Season 3 of HBO’s Treme, singing with his grandson Davell Crawford.