From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Mon Apr 22, 2002  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Bullmoose Jackson
 
BULL MOOSE JACKSON

Born Benjamin Clarence Jackson, 22 April 1919, Cleveland, Ohio
Died 31 July 1989, Cleveland, Ohio

Vocalist / saxophonist / violinist / clarinetist.
Allegedly, Benjamin Jackson resembled a bullmoose. At least, that's what
drummer Panama Francis thought - and the colorful monicker stuck. Up
until then, he was Benjamin Jackson, but it was as Bull Moose that he lit up
the R&B charts repeatedly during the late '40s. Jackson had a split musical
personality - he sang "I Love You, Yes I Do" and "All My Love Belongs to
You" like a pop crooner, then switched gears to belt out the double-entendre
naughties "I Want a Bowlegged Woman" and "Big Ten Inch Record" with total
abandon. Record buyers loved both sides of the Moose.
Jackson received violin tuition prior to taking up the sax. He proved
accomplished on the latter, blowing jazz in a variety of situations before
latching on with Lucky Millinder's band in 1943. He was hired as a sax
player, but was placed in the featured vocalist position following the
departure of Wynonie Harris in 1945. His first 78 under his own name for Syd
Nathan's fledgling Queen logo was "I Know Who Threw the Whiskey in the
Well," (1946), an answer to Wynonie Harris's hit from the year before
that became a # 4 R&B hit in its own right. Stealing away several members
of Millinder's orchestra, Jackson dubbed his combo the Buffalo Bearcats.
In 1947, now recording for King, Moose scored a # 1 R&B hit with
"I Love You, Yes I Do", which also crossed over to the pop charts (# 21).
Hit after hit followed in 1948-49, but after his cover of Wayne Rainey's
hillbilly hit "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me", the good times were
over, chart-wise. Some of Jackson's hilariously risqué stuff - "Big Ten
Inch Record" and the astonishingly raunchy "Nosey Joe" (penned by the
young but obviously streetwise Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), both from
1952, were probably too suggestive to merit airplay, but they're stellar
examples of jump blues at its craziest. Jackson stayed at King into
1955. Six years later, he briefly reentered the charts by remaking "I Love
You, Yes I Do" for 7 Arts, but it was an isolated occurrence (catering kept
the bills paid during the lean years in Washington, D.C.). There was a
belated outbreak of Moosemania! in 1985 when his LP of that name emerged
in conjunction with a Pittsburgh band called the Flashcats, but Moose's
heartwarming comeback was short - lung cancer felled him in 1989.

CD recommendation: Bad Man Jackson That's Me (Charly). 22 tracks
from the King/Federal days, 1945-55. Liner notes by our own Dave Penny.
Website: http://www.bullmoosejackson.com/