Search - Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie :: 1938-1945

More than a blues singer

Tony Thomas | SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA | 02/09/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sorry young man, Jimmy didn't play sax. Back before basie, before Moten Jimmy played a bit of Piano in LA clubs before he ever sang. He must have rocked that box as the saying goes. Jimme shines as a blues singer, but he never saw himself chiefly as a blues singer. That found him. In fact, when Billie Holiday left the Basie band--some say she was chased out by John Hammond but that's another story--Jimmie protested that they didnt need to add another singer. He was all they needed because he saw himself as a ballad singer. This CD covers his recordings with the Basie Orchestra during the years Basie was signed with Columbia and its subsidiary Brunswick. There is of course the great blues at which he has no competition, not even from the great Joe Turner in regard to swinging a band. But I love the ballads and satirical songs. "It's the Same Old South" is worth the whole album, a more or less funny protest song standing up for Black rights and the CIO. What I think Jimmy had that none of the other blues shouters had was a musical nature. He was more than just loud sound and rhythm. He approached the blues and the ballads as a musician. What a powerful voice he had. And how he could swing. With all his size, do you know that Jimmy was renown as a dancer. I've seen him move and swing in movies, and what glory, what soul, what music! I have heard Jimmy Rushing swing a whole big band. I have heard him swing me. This will swing you."