PIONEER JAZZ AND BLUES MUSICIAN JAY McSHANN PASSES
Kansas City pianist, bandleader and songwriter Jay McShann has died in hospital today (Dec. 7) after a brief illness. He was 90 years old. He was the last of the great Kansas City players and the creator of a style that combined swing and blues and changed the course of popular music. A piano player with a unique and subtle touch, he was a bluesman at heart. His best known composition, "Confessin' The Blues", has been recorded by artists like The Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Little Walter, Esther Phillips, Jimmy Witherspoon, and many others.
A self-taught musician, McShann was born in Muskogee, Oklahama, in 1916 - although some sources list his birth year as 1909. Settling in Kansas City in the mid-'30s, he soon formed a small group, but by 1940 had a large band which included a young alto sax player called Charlie Parker.
His links to Parker are widely known, but McShann's later role in building the career of singers Walter Brown (who co-wrote Confessin' the Blues") and Jimmy Witherspoon has been largely overlooked. Typecast as a blues band, McShann's group recorded few of his more complex jazz arrangements, but they helped build his reputation and he was able to move to New York in 1942 - however, the second World War intervened, McShann was drafted, and moved to Los Angeles after his discharge two years later.
For many years, he languished in relative obscurity, but emerged again in 1969, taking up a heavy touring schedule that brought him international fame. Along the way, he recorded for numerous labels, including Decca, Mercury, Vee Jay, EmArcy and Atlantic.
STRONG LINKS WITH CANADA
Toronto was frequently on his tour schedules; jazz musician and Downtown Jazz Festival artistic director Jim Galloway brought him to the now-vanished Bourbon Street club in 1972 and Jay recorded close to a dozen albums in the city for the Sackville label. His last four albums, including the Grammy-nominated 2003 release Going to Kansas City, were recorded for the Edmonton-based Stony Plain label; three of them were co-produced by guitarist Duke Robillard.
Stony Plain's owner Holger Petersen, acting as tour manager, frequently accompanied McShann to international jazz festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Monterey, and North Sea Jazz Festival in Holland.
Said Petersen: "Jay had a great uplifting smile and kind words for everyone. He was always a delight to travel with and had a very laidback, inquisitive and cheerful attitude. I'll miss his smile and hearing him saying, 'Everything's cool'."
Jim Galloway summed it up: "His passing marks the end of a line. He will be missed." Jay leaves his companion of more than 30 years, Thelma Adams (known as Marianne McShann), and three daughters - Linda McShann Gerber, Jayme McShann Lewis, and Pam McShann. Funeral services will be announced shortly; plans are pending for a musical celebration of his life to be held in Kansas City early next year.
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For further information please contact: Richard Flohil at 416 351-1323 [email protected] or Holger Petersen at Stony Plain Records 780 468-6423 [email protected]
Richard Flohil & Associates
60 McGill St., Toronto ON M5B 1H2
PH: 416 351 1323 FAX: 416 351-1095 [email protected] www.richardflohil.com
Working with Stony Plain Records, Downchild, Jeff Healey, Loreena McKennitt, Pork Belly Futures, Roxanne Potvin, Paul Reddick, Tom Russell, Justin Rutledge, Serena Ryder, Jeff Healey's Roadhouse, and some 20 Hugh's Room, Roadhouse and Rivoli concerts each year ... Editor and writer, Applaud! Canadian Music on the World Stage.
It's too LATE to stop now! - John Lee Hooker
