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JIMMY YANCEY
On February 20, 1898 James Edward Yancey was born, unlike many of the older blues musicians, up North, in Chicago, Illinois. His father worked as dancer and guitarist, his older brother Alonzo Yancey played ragtime piano as well. A very mucical child Jimmy Yancey had begun to perform acting as a tap dancer and singer in road shows on the side of his family. At age six he started dancing with Bert Earl vaudeville show, where he came in contact with minstrel music, ragtime and probably blues. Finally a vaudeville show brought him as far as Budapest and Vienna. In London at Buckingham Palace the English Royalty was inspired from his performance.
After his return to Chicago in 1915 Jimmy Yancey played baseball in a Negro league team. With his brother's help he had taught himself the piano. He and his wife Estella 'Mama' Yancey often made music together. They had been married in 1917.
Jimmy Yancey's registration card from September 12, 1918 with an incorrect date of his birth
He acquired his legendary reputation as a well known pianist and entertainer on the rent party circuit and similar events and in small clubs on Chicago’s South Side, including 'Cripple' Clarence Lofton'
House renty party played by Jimmy Yancey and Meade 'Lux' Lewis
Yancey lived near 35th and State Street (35th And Dearborn) and his accommodation became a gathering place for many Chicago musicians like Meade 'Lux' Lewis, Albert Ammons, 'Cripple' Clarence Lofton, Charlie Spand and others.
Yancey got a full time job as one of the workers for the Chicago White Sox baseball club in 1925. He kept it all over the years. Yancey never really made his living by playing piano.
Although grew up with ragtime influences, he can hardly be called a ragtime pianist. One important characteristic of his technique was his rolling, almost Latin sounding, basslines. He is regarded as pioneer of a blues and boogie style close to ragtime and a distinctive rhytmic interplay between the right and the left hand. It was part of Yancey's distinctive style that he played in a variety of keys but he nearly always ended his songs in E flat. The special piano style of Jimmy Yancey had already influenced such younger and better-known pianists as Meade 'Lux' Lewis and Albert Ammons. But he was remaining mostly unknown outside of Chicago until 1936, when Lewis recorded Yancey Special – Lewis’ tribute to Yancey.
Yancey, who never played himself on stage began recording in 1939 late in the age of 41 (Yancey Stomp, State Street Special, …) for a variety of labels. Most of his recordings were of solo piano, but in 1943 he also recorded with vocals by his wife, 'Mama' Yancey. He contiued recording for twelve years until his death, leaving a legacy of 68 known sides. Of these many were duplicates and alternate takes.
On September 17, 1951 Yancey died of a diabetic stroke in Chicago only 53 years of age. Since 1986 Jimmy Yancey is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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