JESSE JAMES
Jesse James is a mysterious figure who supposedly made his only four recordings in a penitentiary. Some have disputed this as fantasy, but the fact remains that no other pianist from this time reported any recollection of him. Along with this mystery is the enigma of his voice and piano playing, both of which are exceptionally distinctive. A prominent feature of James’s playing are the use of clusters: ‘white-key’ in Lonesome Day Blues and chromatic in Southern Casey Jones. In these numbers his playing and singing are at once forceful and touching.
Info:
Jesse James - - PianoBluesReview.com
A while back, in the thread on favorite singers, I posted that the pianist Jesse James was "a biographical cypher". In response to a post on Tommie Bradley, Bunker hill mentioned Steven Tracey's book Going To Cincinnati. I looked it up, and found a "used" (but apparently never touched) hardcover copy for $8.00. I've only just started it, but it looks like a good book - lots of information on artists like Stovepipe Number 1 (Sam Jones)/David Crockett/King David's Jug Band and Kid Cole/Bob Coleman/Walter Coleman/The Cincinnati Jug Band. There are also a few pages on Jesse James, and he's now a bit less of a biographical cipher. Though it's not known where he was born, he was active in Cincinnati in the 1930s. To quote Tracey:
"It isn't known whether Jesse James was his real name or not. It was the only name Pigmeat Jarrett knew him by, but Pigmeat does not know the real names of many of his old musical acquaintances.... Although Karl Gert zur Heide collected some information that James lived in Memphis and worked and even broadcast out of Little Rock, Arkansas, Jarrett insisted that James, a "good fellow", stayed in Cincinnati on Fourth Street, moving to Kentucky around 1955. In later years, James had trouble sitting, much less playing, because of bad hemorrhoids, but he could still play the last time Pigmeat saw him, over 30 years ago:
"Jesse James. Me and him run together for a pretty good while...like I played here, he played there. Now they get me up there next, on this Friday, I'll be up there and he'd be down here. Now Saturday, he would be down here and I'd be up there. They would change around like that, you know. In different places. And at McLemore's and in the Farm House, that was up - this was in Lockland. This is up in the Farm House and down to John Tyson's, that's where the still was at. You understand what I mean, make the moonshine, where you got all the moonshine at, you know. If I tell you this, you won't believe it, but (they) clean the slop jars so, so if the law run in, they ain't gonna f**k with the slop jar. Cause they'd think it's, you know. But it's moonshine.
The interview with Jarret was conducted in 1988, so Jarret probably last saw James around 1958.
(And thanks for the tip, Bunker hill!)
This info appears in :
Jesse James - Weenie Campbell
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