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JIMMY BLYTHE

James Blythe was born to Richard Blythe and his wife Rena in South Keene, Kentucky, just southwest of Lexington in 1901. His exact date of birth is disputed. His parents were sharecroppers. James was the youngest of five surviving siblings out of a total of eleven born to the couple. Before 1910 the Blythe family moved to Lexington where his mother was working as a servant. Later Jimmy jobbed as a janitor or day labourer.
There is nothing known whether he received a piano training in Lexington. It seems plausible that he simply learnt to play the piano by observing other ragtime pianists and trying to imitate their style.
It seems most likely that Jimmy came to Chicago in the late 1910s, where he lived together with one of his sisters. Blythe hooked up with ragtime and blues pianist Clarence M. Jones, who became his piano teacher and already had some ragtime song successes to his name. Little else is known about his time in Chicago from 1919 to 1922. Probably Jimmy Blythe was also exposed to a number of fine pianists and band musicians and had played in a few public venues.

His break through came in 1922 when Blythe was hired by the Columbia Music Roll Company (and then for Capital when the company was reorganized in 1924). Together with his friend Clarence M. Johnson he produced hundreds of commercial piano rolls.
 

Labels from piano rolls recorded by Jimmy Blythe

It has been estimated that he recorded as many as 300 piano rolls. He was able to take ragtimes or simple popular songs and create an engaging performance from them. Many of these songs he expanded to include blues riffs, stride and the increasingly popular left hand patterns like the walking bass. He was well-known in Chicago for this style of music.

In April 1924 Blythe started to cut sides for Paramount Records. His first track Chicago Stomp had the rolling walking bass pattern throughout. Unlike other early boogie-woogie recordings Blythe's Chicago Stomp is generally considered to be the first full length boogie-woogie recording.
During the next years Blythe led his 'Blythe's Sinful Five' (Viola Bartlette (v), Jimmy Blythe (p), Alfred Bell (co), W. E. Burton (d), Leroy Picklett (violone)) and recorded with a variety of his own ensembles including
'Blythe's Washboard Band' (Trixie Smith (v), Jimmy Blythe (p), Johnny Dodds (cl), Jasper Taylor (wb)),
'Jimmy Blythe and his Ragamuffins' (Jimmy Blythe (p), Johnny Dodds (cl), W. E. Burton (wb)),
'Blythe's Owls' (Jimmy Blythe (p), Johnny Dodds (cl), Baby Dodds (wb), Natty Dominique (co), Bud Scott(bj)).
'The Dixie Four' (W. E. Burton (p, v), Jimmy Blythe (p), Bill Johnson (sb), Marcus Norman(d, wb))
'The Midnight Rounders' (Jimmy Blythe (p), William Lyle (sb), Jimmy Bertrand (wb))
Blythe also played on sessions with Jimmy Bertrand's 'Washboard Wizards', and two fine piano duets each with W. E. 'Buddy' Burton and Charlie Clark. With his groups or other artists he also cut sides for Vocalion Records, Okeh Records and Gennett.

In addition he accompanied a number of singers such as Sodarisa Miller and Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey. Another pianist he met around 1924 was Janice. She became his girlfriend near the end of the year. Both of them indicated that they were married, however, so the circumstances are unclear. The couple never had children.
Singer Alex Robinson was Jimmy's most frequent partner. Jimmy and Alex were playing from time to time on Chicago radio station in 1926 and 1927. Blythe's biggest hit was Mecca Flat Blues, recorded in May 1926.
There are indications that he also performed live on Chicago South Side. He was considered to be relatively quiet for an active musician. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why about his appearances is known only so little. Blythe used at least a couple of different pseudonyms for his work including Duke Owens and George Jefferson.
He is considered to have been an influential jazz pianist and one of the first boogie-woogie stylists. Today his role in the beginnings of boogie-woogie is no longer challenged. Blythe's Chicago Stomp can be regarded as an important contribution to the maturation of boogie-woogie before Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith or Meade 'Lux' Lewis made their first recordings and long before boogie-woogie became publicly associated with Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade "Lux" Lewis, Jimmy Yancey and Clarence "Pinetop" Smith. Jimmy Blythe is also acknowledged as an influence by Clarence "Pinetop" Smith and Albert Ammons (Mecca Flat Blues).
Collectively between his solo and ensemble records and his piano rolls, Jimmy accumulated a wealth of approximately five hundred recordings in just nine years, a feat which was reached only rarely by other African-American artists.
Jimmy Blythe contracted meningitis and tragically young he passed away within a short time on June 21, 1931.

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