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Jess Stacy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jess Stacy was an American jazz pianist of the swing era. He was born in 1904 in Bird's Point, Missouri. His first piano teacher played piano for silent films. At school he already played in a small jazz group, which in 1921, as Peg Meyer's Melody Kings, toured the Mississippi on riverboats. In the early 1920s he moved to Chicago, where he played with Paul Mares, the leader of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, in what was later called the Chicago style. His greatest examples were Louis Armstrong and above all the pianist Earl Hines.

Music and breakthrough

In 1935 Benny Goodman asked him to join his band. Stacy stayed until 1939 and was part of the famous Carnegie Hall concert in 1938. During Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing), after a duet between Goodman and Gene Krupa, he was unexpectedly given a piano solo. That unplanned, lyrical solo later became famous. He also played with Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton and Jack Teagarden, and in Bob Crosby's orchestra.

Influence

In 1950 he moved to Los Angeles, where his career declined into work in clubs. He stopped performing and worked as, among other things, a salesman and a postman. A brief revival followed in the 1970s. His last performance was broadcast in 1981 on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. He died in 1995 and was inducted a year later into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing) from the 1938 Carnegie Hall concert and notice Stacy's piano solo, which, after Krupa's thundering drums, begins quietly and melodically.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists