Jimmy Raney born 20 August 1927

Jimmy Raney (August 20, 1927 – May 9, 1995) was an American jazz guitarist born in Louisville, Kentucky, known for his work from 1951 to 1952 and then from 1953 to 1954 with the Red Norvo trio (replacing Tal Farlow) and, during the same time period, with Stan Getz. In 1954 and 1955, he won the Down Beat Critics' Poll for guitar. Raney worked in a variety of jazz mediums, including cool jazz, bebop, post bop, hard bop, and mainstream jazz.

James Elbert Raney was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The son of Pearle Glasscock and Elbert Raney, he got his first guitar at age 10 and reportedly got his bearings with the help of his grandmother, who played ukulele. He soon became adept at the guitar, doing gigs at a really young age. He first studied with A.J. Giancola, a classical teacher, then Hayden Causey who was able to nurture his fascination with jazz guitar and his early guitar hero, Charlie Christian—the guitarist that turned Jimmy’s head around with the classic “Solo Flight”. Hayden was able to recommend Jimmy for the Jerry Wald Band in 1944. Jimmy joined the Wald band at the Hotel New Yorker, making his first trip to and staying for 2 months.

He moved up to Chicago and played with many of his peers in the new bebop movement, including pianist Lou Levy, saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Sonny Stitt, and guitarists Jimmy Gourley and the legendary, Ronnie Singer. In 1946, he worked for a time as guitarist with the Max Miller Quartet at Elmer's in Chicago, his first paying gig.  In 1948, he joined the Woody Herman band, at that time known as “The Second Herd”.

Jimmy was happy with being in a major big band, but he began to feel restless with having few solos and playing mostly rhythm guitar. Nevertheless, Jimmy practiced a ton and band mates often noted this. He was rapidly becoming a new voice for bebop guitar. He would take his first trip to the studio in 1948 with Al Haig and Stan Getz which produced a series of exceptional recordings and brought Mr. Raney's playing to a wider audience. He maintained a busy recording schedule, also working with the pianists Sonny Clark and Hall Overton.

Jimmy would get the opportunity to play out when he joined the equally noted Artie Shaw band, and later, the next incarnation of his small group, the Gramercy Five in 1949. Jimmy’s bebop voice at this point was becoming clearer and approaching what would be his influential style later on. During this time, Jimmy recorded with Harry Belafonte. Jimmy also made his curious debut as a scat vocalist with Blossom Dearie on an Al Haig date. But after the record producer talked him into it, he was mortified at the resulting record and vowed never to do such a thing again. This non-commercialist streak would stay with him for the rest of his career.

                              

Although Jimmy played and recorded with Stan Getz earlier, he didn’t officially join his band until after finishing up with Artie Shaw’s bands and cutting a few more records. During the early 50’s Jimmy replaced Tal Farlow  in the Red Norvo trio which 

was a popular touring band since the early fifties. The first gig with Red was at The Embers in New York in 1953. The first tracks were recorded in March of 1953. He then toured with Red going to Toronto, the midwest, Colorado and San Francisco. His most notable tour was however his famous one to Europe from Jan-Feb 1954 (organized by record producer, Leonard Feather) where the trio was joined up with Buddy DeFranco and Sonny Clark to accompany Billie Holiday in Mustermesse, Basil (Switzerland).

Jimmy recorded several albums – a quintet date in Sweden with tenor saxophonist Gosta Theselius and Sonny Clark and two albums in Paris with a French rhythm section (as well as Bobby Jaspar on tenor) and the other with Mitchell, Clark and drummer Bobby White. These two albums were Jimmy’s famous Jimmy Raney Visits Paris (vol 1 and 2). In the 1960's Mr. Raney moved to New York and did a substantial amount of playing in recording and television studios, but in 1967 alcoholism and other professional difficulties led him to return to his native Louisville.

In the 70's, his career picked up, especially in Europe and Japan. He recorded several fine albums for the Xanadu label, and in the 1980's he kept a fairly consistent touring and recording schedule, performing with his son Doug (who has a very similar sound on guitar). Raney was less active in the late '80s and '90s, up until his 1995 death.  

Raney suffered for thirty years from Ménière's disease, a degenerative condition that led to near deafness in both ears, although this did not stop him from playing. His last series of recordings, uniformly strong, were made for the Criss Cross label in the Netherlands. He died of heart failure in a nursing home in Louisville, Kentucky May 9, 1995. He was 67.  

His obituary in the New York Times called him "one of the most gifted and influential post-war jazz guitarists in the world".

(Edited from Wikipedia, New York Times & jonraney.com)