Bull Moose Jackson born 22 April 1919

Benjamin Clarence "Bull Moose" Jackson (April 22, 1919 – July 31, 1989) was an American blues and rhythm-and-blues singer and saxophonist, who was most successful in the late 1940s. He is considered a performer of dirty blues because of the suggestive  nature of some of his songs, such as "I Want a Bowlegged Woman" and "Big Ten Inch Record".

Jackson was born Benjamin Joseph Jackson in Cleveland, Ohio. He played violin as a child but quickly became drawn to the saxophone and started his first band, the Harlem Hotshots, while he was still in high school. In 1943, he was recruited as a saxophonist by the bandleader Lucky Millinder, and the musicians in Millinder's band gave him the nickname "Bull Moose" for his appearance. He began singing when he was required to stand in for Wynonie Harris at a show in Texas.

Millinder encouraged Jackson to sign a solo contract with Syd Nathan of King Records to play rhythm and blues. The first recording in his own right was "I Know Who Threw the Whiskey", in 1946, an answer song to Millinder's "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well". The following year, his recording of "I Love You, Yes I Do" reputedly became the first R&B single to sell a million copies, holding the number 1 spot on the R&B chart for three weeks and crossing over to the pop chart, where it reached number 24.

                           

He formed his own group, the Buffalo Bearcats, and over the next five years recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, including both romantic crooning and bawdy jump blues. His big hits in 1948 included the double-sided hit "All My Love Belongs to You" / "I Want a Bowlegged Woman", and his biggest R&B chart hit, "I

Can't Go on Without You", which stayed at number 1 on the R&B chart for eight weeks. He also made an appearance in the 1948 film Boarding House Blues, with Millinder.

In 1949, Jackson covered "Why Don't You Haul Off and Love Me", a song that been successful for Wayne Raney and also for several country-and-western performers. Jackson toured throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. Around 1951, his band included the bebop composer and arranger Tadd Dameron on piano and Benny Golson, another jazz musician, on saxophone.

Some of Jackson's later risqué material, including "Big Ten Inch Record" and "Nosey Joe" (written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller), caused a sensation during live performances but were too suggestive for the radio, and few of the records were sold. However, his band faithfully played "Big Ten Inch Record" at every show.

Jackson kept recording for King Records until 1954 and had a total of 34 singles issued on Queen/King between 1945 and 1955. Credit on the label usually went to “Bull Moose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats”, a slimmed-down version of the Lucky Millinder orchestra. The rock n roll years were not good to Bullmoose and he had very few releases between 1955 and 1960. In 1960-61 he 

recorded for Morty Craft’s Warwick label and its 7 Arts subsidiary. A re-recording of “I Love You Yes I Do” (1961) returned him to the charts for the last time..

Jackson was virtually out of the music business by 1962 although he occasionally still performed at private parties. He later managed food service at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In a strange twist of fate, the ageing Jackson was lured back on stage after a Pittsburgh rock band named The Flashcats, scored a local hit with “Nosey Joe” in 1983.

The concerts with the Flashcats made him something of a cult figure around Pittsburgh. A new single, “Get Off the Table, Mabel (The Two Dollars Is For the Beer)” got an enthusiastic reception and was followed by an album with the Flashcats, “Moosemania!”. The 1980s proved to be the most successful decade of Jackson’s career. He played Carnegie Hall in 1985, toured Europe as a special guest of The Johnny Otis Show, and thrilled stateside audiences from coast to coast.

In 1987, though, Bull Moose got sick. Stricken with cancer, he performed his final show in Pittsburgh on April 23, 1988. An old girlfriend, who had read about Jackson’s fame, came to care for him during the last days of his life.

Bull Moose Jackson died July 31, 1989, in Cleveland

(Mainly edited from Wikipedia & Black Cat Rockabily)