R.I.P. : Jimmy McCracklin passed away

Jimmy McCracklin (August 13, 1921 – December 20, 2012) was an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contained West Coast
blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that spanned seven decades, he said he had written almost a thousand songs and had recorded
hundreds of them. McCracklin recorded over 30 albums, and earned four gold records. Tom Mazzolini of the San Francisco Blues Festival said
of him, "He was probably the most important musician to come out of the Bay Area in the post-World War II years


McCracklin was bornSt. Louis, Missouri. He joined the United States Navy in 1938, later settled in Richmond, California, and began playing
at the local Club Savoy owned by his sister-in-law Willie Mae "Granny" Johnson. The room-length bar served beer and wine, and Granny
Johnson served home-cooked meals of greens, ribs, chicken, and other southern cuisine. A house band composed of Bay Area based
musicians alternated with and frequently backed performers such as B. B. King, Charles Brown, and L. C. Robinson. Later in 1963 he would
write and record a song "Club Savoy" on his I Just Gotta Know album.

His recorded a debut single for Globe Records, "Miss Mattie Left Me", in 1945, and recorded "Street Loafin' Woman in 1946. McCracklin
recorded for a number of labels in Los Angeles and Oakland, prior to joining Modern Records in 1949-1950. He formed a group called Jimmy
McCracklin and his Blues Blasters in 1946, with guitarist Lafayette Thomas who remained with group until the early 1960s.

His popularity increased after appearing on the TV pop Dick Clark's American Bandstand in support of his self written single "The Walk"
(1957), subsequently released by Checker Records in 1958. It went to No. 5 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 7 on the pop chart, after
more than 10 years of McCracklin selling records in the black community on a series of small labels. Jimmy McCracklin Sings, his first solo
album, was released in 1962, in the West Coast blues style. In 1962, McCracklin recorded "Just Got to Know" for his own Art-Tone label in
Oakland, after the record made No. 2 on the R&B chart. For a brief period in the early 1970s McCracklin ran the Continental Club in San
Francisco. He booked blues acts such as T-Bone Walker, Irma Thomas, Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton, and Etta James. In 1967, Otis
Redding and Carla Thomas had success with "Tramp", a song credited to McCracklin and Lowell Fulson. Salt-n-Pepa made a hip-hop hit
out of the song in 1987. Oakland Blues (1986) was an album arranged and directed by McCracklin, and produced by World Pacific. The
California rock-n-roll "roots music" band The Blasters named themselves after McCracklin's backing band The Blues Blasters. Blasters' lead
singer Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band's name: "I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had these 78s – I
thought they were the Blues Blasters. It ends up it was Jimmy McCracklin's. I just took the 'Blues' off and Joe finally told me, that’s Jimmy
McCracklin’s name, but you tell ‘im I gave you permission to steal it."

McCracklin continued to tour and produce new albums in the 1980s and 1990s. Bob Dylan has cited McCracklin as a favorite. He played at
the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1973, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1984 and 2007. He was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues
Foundation in 1990, and the Living Legend and Hall of Fame award at the Bay Area Black Music Awards, in 2007. Supremely prolific, Jimmy
McCracklin continued to write, record, and perform into the 21st century. He had recently performed/recorded with San Francisco's Death
Rock/Art Pop group "Barbarasteele" and tours and plays festivals around the world. He died in San Pablo, California, in the San Francisco
Bay Area, on December 20, 2012, after a long illness, aged 91.


Source : HERE

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