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Jimmy Rushing

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

Jimmy Rushing was an American singer and pianist from Oklahoma City, born in 1901. He came from a musical family: his father played trumpet, and his mother and her brother sang. He studied music theory at high school and, which was unusual at the time, went on to Wilberforce University. His first performance as a singer was in 1924, when a singer in a club invited him to sing something. In the early 1920s he toured the Midwest and California as an itinerant bluesman, and played and sang in Los Angeles with Jelly Roll Morton.

Music and breakthrough

In 1927 he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils and in 1929 the band of Bennie Moten. After Moten's death in 1935 he stayed with the orchestra that Count Basie took over. He was its singer for thirteen years, until 1948. He sang in the Kansas City jump blues style, for example in Sent for You Yesterday and Boogie Woogie. He was known as Mister Five by Five, after his build, and a song with that title became a hit for Harry James in 1942.

Influence

Rushing was a powerful singer with a range from baritone to tenor. His voice could rise above the horns of a big band. Basie said that as a blues vocalist he had never had an equal, although Rushing really saw himself as a ballad singer. After Basie he carried on with his own groups and worked with Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck. In 1957 he sang I Left My Baby on the television programme The Sound of Jazz. He died in 1972.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Sent for You Yesterday with Count Basie's orchestra and notice how Rushing's voice rises above the horns without ever seeming to strain.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists