Search - Big Jay McNeely :: Golden Classics

The Original Contortionist Saxophonist

08/02/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Rudy Pompilli of Haley's Comets began regaling audiences with his on-stage acrobatics while blowing his sax in the mid-Fifties, many others soon began to follow suit. But the guy who really started it all was Big Jay McNeely. He just didn't have the exposure that Haley's Comets did.



Born Cecil McNeely on April 29, 1927 in L.A., he and his tenor sax were first heard on the small Exclusive label beginning in 1946, but it was three years before he found his first hit for Savoy. Unfortunately Deacon's Hop, an instrumental that went to # 1 R&B early that year as by Big Jay McNeely's Blue Jays, b/w Artie's Jump, is not in this compilation. Or any of the other McNeely CDs currently offered. It can, however, be found on the great CD Early Rhythm & Blues along with 24 other jumping, wailing classics.



In fact, the only charted hit that can be found in this particular album, is 1959's There Is Something On Your Mind which he recorded for the Swingin' label as Big Jay McNeely and Band featuring vocalist Haywood "Little Sonny" Warner. A # 5 R&B hit, it was also his only Pop charter, peaking at # 44 Billboard Hot 100 in July. The flipside was Back ... Shack ... Track. A year later Bobby Marchan would take the A-side to # 1 R&B/# 31 Hot 100 under the title There's Something On Your Mind, Parts 1 and 2 (Part 2 was the hit side).



Also apparently not to be found anywhere is another 1949 Savoy instrumental, Wild Wig, which topped out at # 12 R&B in March 1949 billed to Big Jay McNeely And His Blue Jays. Even so, and while it may be frustrating for collectors of hit singles like me, this particular CD is well worth a listen as the songs that are included were regular features of his swinging coarsed-tone stage style."