Trudy Pitts born 10 August 1932

Gertrude E. "Trudy" Pitts (August 10, 1932 – December 19, 2010) was an American soul jazz organist, pianist and singer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A fine soul-jazz organist of the 1960s, Trudy Pitts has been relatively overlooked in comparison to the small crowd of other Philadelphians from the period who made their mark with the Hammond B-3 organ. Although she favoured a slightly more pop-oriented sound than most of her peers, with a romantic loungish air on some of her recordings, she could also burn through uptempo tunes, occasionally adding some dinner-clubbish singing of her own.

Trudy is a native Philadelphian who began playing piano at age six. Her mother, too, was a musician and inspired this family tradition.

Trained as a musician and a music educator, Pitts studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, Temple University and Juilliard. She achieved a degree in music from the Connecticut College for Women. She was doing some club singing and teaching when she was approached by drummer Bill Carney in 1955 to fill the organ chair in his group, which had previously been occupied by Shirley Scott; Tootie Heath and John Coltrane were also in Carney's combo. Early work experience included a position as an assistant to the pianist in the Tony Award-winning musical Raisin. 

Pitts had not yet played often in the jazz style, and although the job went to someone else, Carney encouraged Pitts' progress on jazz organ by helping her get work. By 1958 she was playing in Carney's group the Hi-Tones and married to Carney; the group assumed the billing of Trudy Pitts & Mr. C. Pitts developed a style that was somewhat less blues-based than other Hammond organists, partly as a result of her classical training and also from using her foot to play bass instead of depending on her left hand.

Pitts recorded a few albums for Prestige in the late '60s, the first few of these featuring Pat Martino on guitar, with Carney still filling the drum seat. Although some of the tracks on these were overt pop covers such as Herb Alpert's "The Spanish Flea," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" (from Fiddler on the Roof), and "A Whiter Shade of Pale," these were actually interpreted with imaginative taste and a pretty solid soul-jazz groove. Carney and Pitts also wrote some original material in a more straight-ahead jazz vein, and she proved herself able to swing with the best of them with fluid and passionate runs on cuts like her version of "Take Five."

                             

In 1967, she released her debut album “Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts.” Allmusic awarded the album 3 stars stating "A strong debut from Trudy Pitts, divided between covers of pretty mainstream standards and gutsier straight soul-jazz. The Boston Globe printed a piece calling her a rising star and complimented her drawbar variation, vibrato shadings, and bass pedal work.

Pitts and Carney stopped touring in the early '70s as their family grew, but she eventually went on to play with Ben Webster, Gene Ammons, and Sonny Stitt. She recorded four albums for Prestige Records, appearing with Willis Jackson among others. One of Pitts' most distinguished performances, on piano, is with Rahsaan Roland Kirk on the 1976 album Other Folk's Music. It includes her flowing composition "Anysha," named for her daughter and scored for cello, harp, flute, and other instruments.

Pitts stayed active on organ and piano, and became a mentor figure in Philadelphia and an adjunct associate professor at the city’s University of the Arts, where she began teaching in 1991. In her later years Pitts played keyboard for the theatre and restaurants, but mostly the piano rather than the organ. 

Recent festival appearances include the 11th Annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., in May 2006. On September 15, 2006, Pitts was the first jazz artist play a concert on Philadelphia's Kimmel Center's 7,000 pipe organ, "taking the medium to a whole new level".

In 2008, she again performed on an exceptional organ, this time the Kennedy Centre’s Filene Organ.  Trudy Pitts died at Chestnut Hill Hospital on December 19, 2010, aged 78, from pancreatic cancer.

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Barbara Mason born 9 August 1947

Barbara Mason (born August 9, 1947, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American soul singer with several R&B and pop hits in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for her self-written 1965 hit song, "Yes, I'm Ready".

Barbara Mason, one of the few ladies of Soul who not only sang but wrote a great portion of her material, began to "mess" with her grandmother's piano at a the tender age of twelve. While still in school, Barbara formed several groups, comprised of both male and female members. Barbara, the lead singer, would come up with the songs, accompany on the piano and naturally win many of the local talent shows, which were held at a playground near her house every summer.

Her next door neighbour was Earl Oxidine of the 4 Larks, a vocal group from Philly and it was another member of that constellation, Weldon Arthur McDougal III, who offered Barbara to perform during odd spots and intervals on the 4 Larks' shows in various nightclubs around the Philadelphia area. Weldon Arthur McDougal

III also introduced Barbara to Jimmy Bishop, one of the most popular DJ's in Philadelphia at the time.

Jimmy Bishop was suitably impressed with Barbara's easily identifiable, innocent-sounding voice and self-penned material and after aiding in the financing of her debut single "Trouble Child" on the local Crusader Records label, Bishop signed her to his Arctic Record Company which had a better chance of distributing its records. Barbara wrote all her songs. One of these records would boost her stardom. That disc was originally titled “Are you ready?”

                                

Barbara had been a big fan of Curtis Mayfield and a song that Curtis had written and given to Major Lance, The Monkey Time, had particularly impressed her and became her inspiration for the song, which was renamed "Yes, I'm ready." It was the spring of 
1965 and in a short time, she reached the top and remained there for ten weeks, with peaking at number five. It was a fetching soul-pop confection that spotlighted her high, girlish vocals. One of the first examples of the sweet, lush sound that came to be called Philly soul,

She had modest success throughout the rest of the decade on the small Arctic label, run by her manager, top Philadelphia disc-jockey, Jimmy Bishop. She reached the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Top 40 again in 1965 with "Sad, Sad Girl", and "Oh How It Hurts" in 1967. A two-year stay with National General Records, run by a film production company, produced one album and four singles which failed to find success.

She made numerous appearances on music television shows and became friends with Dick Clark. She later went to Chicago in the 1970’s and signed with Buddah Records and toughened her persona, singing about sexual love and infidelity with an uncommon frankness at the time in songs like "Bed and Board", "From His Woman to You", and "Shackin' Up" and would interrupt her singing to deliver straight-talking 'raps' about romance. She also continued to write some of her new material.

Curtis Mayfield produced her on a cover version of Mayfield's own "Give Me Your Love", which restored her to the pop Top 40 and R&B Top Ten in 1973; "From His Woman to You" (the response to Shirley Brown's single "Woman to Woman") and "Shackin' Up", produced by former Stax producer Don Davis in Detroit were also solid soul sellers in the mid-1970s. These two were to be her last top forty records. The Disco era came into vogue, and Barbara Mason didn't want to have anything to do with it.

After leaving Buddah Records in 1975, surprisingly after two top ten R&B hits, she only dented the charts periodically on small labels. They included "I Am Your Woman, She Is Your Wife", which was produced in 1978 by Weldon McDougal who had produced her first major success, "Yes I'm Ready", and later in 1984, "Another Man" on West End Records.

Barbara Mason got away from performing for a number of years. In the early 90's producer Alan Beck asked her to perform at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. After a terrific performance there her career once again took off. She has worked on commercial 
ventures for companies such as Blockbuster, Sony and Toyota and has her own publishing company called Marc James Music (named for her son).

Mason was inducted into the Soul Music Hall of Fame on March 1, 2016. She is still performing to sold-out audiences. She recently performed at the Jazz Café in London during July and her next show will be at the Greek Theatre L.A, on 5^th October 2019.

(Edited from Wikipedia, discogs.com & tsimon.com)

Freddie Slack born 7 August 1910

Frederick Charles Slack (August 7, 1910 – August 10, 1965) was an American swing and boogie-woogie pianist and bandleader.

Slack was born in Wisconsin. He learned to play drums as a boy.

Later he took up the xylophone, and at the age of 13 he changed to the piano. He studied with a local teacher throughout high school. At the age of 17 he moved with his parents to Chicago, where he continued his musical training. He met Rosy McHargue, a well-known clarinetist, who took him to hear many leading musicians, including Bix Beiderbecke and Earl Hines. His first job was with Johnny Tobin at the Beach View Gardens. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with Henry Halstead, Earl Burtnett and Lennie Hayton, before joining Ben Pollack in 1934 until 1936.

He played with the Jimmy Dorsey Band from 1936 to 1939. As a key piano soloist with Will Bradley & His Orchestra during 1939-1941, Known to band-mates as “Daddy Slack”  he was well showcased on the famous recording of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" that helped launch the boogie-woogie fad. Slack was a key voice on many other Bradley recordings in the same vein; he also played quite effectively on some Big Joe Turner records.

He formed his own band in 1942 and signed with the newly founded Capitol Records. He recorded three songs at his third recording session for Capitol, on May 21, 1942. His recording of "Cow Cow Boogie," sung by the 17-year-old Ella Mae Morse, was the second record Capitol issued on July 1, and by July 25 it had reached number 1 on the Hit Parade. It was Capitol's first gold single.

                              

T-Bone Walker was a member of Slack's band from 1942 to 1944 and Slack later accompanied Walker on his first solo recording for Capitol, "Mean Old World". This band also had a hit with "Strange Cargo." He also co-wrote the 1945 classic "The House of Blue Lights" first recorded with singer Ella Mae Morse, and later by 
Chuck Miller, The Andrews Sisters, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. Musicians who worked with his band included, at various times, Manny Klein and Clyde Hurley (trumpets), Bruce Squires (trombone), Barney Bigard (clarinet/tenor saxophone), Les Baxter (saxophone), Jud DeNaut (bass), and Bob Bain (guitar).

Slack continued to record with Capitol until at least 1949, recording some 80 tracks for the label. Slack also recorded as an accompanist for Big Joe Turner, Johnny Mercer, Margaret Whiting and Lisa Morrow. He was based in California in the 1950s and '60s, but he faded from the spotlight at the end of the 1940s, recording a final small-group album for EmArcy in 1955. Boogie Woogie on the 88 featured a horn section including jazz musicians Shorty Sherock and Herbie Harper among others, and with arrangements by Benny Carter.

He appeared on a 1960 NBC-TV special, "The Singin' Swingin' Years," reprising his role as bandleader for Morse to do Cow-Cow Boogie. 

Slack was still active the 1960’s albeit as part of a piano duo or trio, appearing in clubs and cocktail lounges around the San Fernando Valley. For the last few years of his life, he suffered from diabetes and was found dead in his Hollywood apartment on August 10, 1965, from 'undetermined causes'.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Slack's body was found a few days after his 55th birthday in August 1965 by the landlady of his apartment, Mrs. Mary Coyle, who observed him through a window, apparently unconscious, and called police.

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic)

Don Rich born 15 August 1941

Donald Eugene Ulrich (August 15, 1941* – July 17, 1974), best known by the stage name Don Rich, was a country musician who helped develop the Bakersfield sound in the early 1960s. He was a noted guitarist and fiddler, and a member of The Buckaroos, the backing band of country singer Buck Owens.

Don Rich -- who was born in Olympia, Washington on August 15, 1941 and was adopted by Bill and Anne Ulrich -- began playing music at an early age, learning the fiddle when he was only three, and appearing on local radio broadcasts two years later. Soon he picked up guitar as well, and by the time he entered his teens, he was gigging locally, eventually landing a residence at Steve's Restaurant in Tacoma. It was at this venue that Buck Owens discovered Don Rich.

Faced with some professional frustrations in Los Angeles, Owens had then-recently relocated to Tacoma, where he co-owned the KAYE radio station and spent his time DJing and playing shows. Taken with Rich's fiddle skills, Owens immediately hired him to play with him in the Washington area. About two years later, Owens' "Under Your Spell Again" took off on the national country charts so Buck headed back to his hometown of Bakersfield, California, making a plea to Rich to follow along, but Don declined.

Rich decided to attend Centralia College in hopes of becoming a music teacher. He held onto this dream until December of 1960, when he packed it in and headed down to Bakersfield to play with Buck. Don first appeared on 1960's "Excuse Me (I Think I've Got a Heartache)" and, from that point on, the two were inseparable as friends and collaborators, developing the driving, electrified honky tonk variant Owens called the "freight train sound" but which everybody else knew as the sound of Bakersfield Country.

This sound clicked into place when Rich moved from fiddle to lead electric guitar, a transition that took place over the course of 1962 and started to flourish in 1963 with the smash single "Act Naturally" and its sequel "Love's Gonna Live Here." Around this time, Owens decided to officially form a backing band called the Buckaroos -- Merle Haggard, who played bass in an early line-up for a couple of weeks, came up with the name -- enlisting Rich as the bandleader. Musicians cycled through the 

group quite quickly in the early days but the classic line-up of Rich, bassist Doyle Holly, steel guitarist Tom Brumley, and drummer Willie Cantu consolidated by the end of 1964.

In addition to leading the Buckaroos, Don Rich co-wrote hits with Owens -- the biggest were "Before You Go" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line;" he co-wrote "Think of Me" with Estella Olson -- and after the instrumental "Buckaroo" turned into a country number one in 1965, the Buckaroos started releasing their own LPs, all featuring Don's guitar and sometimes his voice.

                               

The first of these Buckaroos albums was 1966's The Buck Owens Songbook, where the group revisited early Buck hits instrumentally. By most measures, 1966 was the peak year for Buck Owens & the Buckaroos, as they were dominating the charts and headlined Carnegie Hall, but the band remained one of the most popular acts in country music until the early '70s, aided in part by Buck's television stardom as one of the two co-hosts of the cornball variety show Hee Haw.

Launched on CBS and later popularized in syndication, Hee Haw made Owens a household name and featured the Buckaroos as the show's house band. As the show's popularity rolled on, so did the Buckaroos LPs, and soon Rich was recording solo projects of his own. In 1970, Don cut a vocal album of George Jones songs, but it was shelved (it received a belated release on Omnivore Records in 2013), but the fiddle-heavy instrumental album That Fiddlin' Man made it into the stores in 1971, as did We're Real Good Friends, a duet album made with Buck's son Buddy Alan.

That Fiddlin' Man didn't hit the charts, nor did the two Buckaroos LPs of 1971, and so Rich's solo recording career slowly came to a close. He returned to his position as Buck's trusted lieutenant, playing on records, in concerts, and on Hee Haw until his tragic death.

On July 17, 1974 Don Rich finished a few recording chores at the Bakersfield studio.  He then set off, by motorcycle to meet his family up the coast in Morro Bay where they had been vacationing.  Somewhere between his night ride from Bakersfield to Morro Bay Don’s motorcycle crashed into a lane divider and he was thrown from his bike.  

Don Rich suffered extensive damage and was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced Dead On Arrival.  He was only 32 years old. The cause of his accident is still a bit of a mystery, since there were no witnesses, but police at the time noted there were no skid marks before the crash.

Buck Owens was devastated by the loss of his friend, his collaborator and one of the most renowned guitarists in country music history.  Buck later said: “He was like a brother, a son, and a best friend. Something I never said before, maybe I couldn’t, but I think my music life ended when he died. I carried on and existed, but the real joy and love, the real lightning and thunder is gone forever.”

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic) (* other sources give 5th as birthday)

Ken Mackintosh born 4 August 1914

Ken Mackintosh (4 August 1919 – 22 November 2005) was an English saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Mackintosh was born in Liversedge, Yorkshire, and died in Mitcham, Surrey, England. Mackintosh accompanied singers such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Matt Monro.

He was born in Liversedge, in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1919 and devoted his life to music, Mackintosh's father was an amateur musician, so the young Ken grew up familiar with bands and, at the age of 14, decided it was the alto saxophone that interested him the most. Told that it was easy to play, he bought one on hire purchase for two shillings a week. Ken did find it easy and was soon to play it better than his tutor, getting employment in bands around the Leeds and Bradford areas.

At the outset of the Second World War, he joined the Royal Army Service Corps and was posted to France in the British Expeditionary Force. They were soon cut off by a German attack, and it became every man for himself, but hanging on to his alto, Mackintosh walked the 10 miles to Cherbourg and was taken to Southampton on a relief ship. His rescue made the national press. He spent the next four years in the machine workshops of his regiment. He also played in a military band before being demobbed and then went straight into a London band led by the trumpeter Johnny Claes, before joining the bands of George Elrick, then Oscar Rabin, and finally Frank Weir.

Mackintosh was intent on creating his own swinging big band, and the opportunity arose in 1948 with an invitation to open the new Astoria Ballroom in Nottingham. That in turn led to regular BBC Midland Region radio broadcasts, and his band-leading fame began to spread. He remained in Nottingham for two years, until Wimbledon Palais beckoned and Mackintosh and the band came south to the new venue, from which they regularly began broadcasting on the BBC Light Programme. He also had great singing strength with such well-versed vocalists as Kenny Bardell, Gordon Longhorn and The Mackpies.

                             

 In 1951 he secured a recording contract with HMV, kicking off with Victor Herbert's "Kiss Me Again", and scoring a big hit with "The Creep" two years later.  The Wimbledon Palais tenure lasted three years and by then Mackintosh felt the band was becoming musically stale and a tour would be the cure. It lasted more than 10 years - entertaining on cruise liners and playing concerts all over the UK. The band also featured in a Diana Dors film, An Alligator Named Daisy (1955), and they appeared on television on Come Dancing and later their own show, Flying Standards.

It was such a punishing schedule for so many years that the idea of a ballroom residency was again becoming attractive. As luck would have it, the lavish £1m-refurbished Empire Ballroom in Leicester Square, London was about to reopen - and Ken Mackintosh and his Orchestra were the first choice, with a seven-year contract. The Hammersmith Palais came next, with another seven-year stint to fulfil, before moving over to the Royal, Tottenham, for a few years.

The band was still busy recording, with "Raunchy" and "No Hiding Place" becoming notable. Records were also made accompanying the star vocalists Alma Cogan, Anne Shelton and Frankie Vaughan, and the band were given their own radio series entitled Mack the Knife.

But by the 1970s, big bands were in decline, having been replaced by less expensive guitar-led pop groups. The desire for bands hadn't gone completely, but bookings were slack and, although touring remained on the agenda, it was time to consider partial retirement. With so many years as a ballroom band-leader behind him, Ken Mackintosh personally remained in demand and, for three successive years in the late 1990s, he was invited to conduct the 

International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall and, in 2001, was awarded the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters "Gold Badge" for outstanding services to British music.

Always mentally and physically active, for his hobbies Mackintosh became an enthusiastic radio ham by night and, by day, restored vintage cars using the skills he had acquired during the war in the RASC machine workshops. Up until his death , he was still occasionally playing and leading a local orchestra.

Among his fans was the Queen Mother, for whom he played twice at Windsor Castle. Towards the end of his life he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London. He died in Mitcham, Surrey, 22 November 2005.

After Ken died some ex-members from the Ken Mackintosh Orchestra formed The Mack Big Band which now comprises of 17 band members. It features top soloists and vocalists and it is still available for functions of all shapes and sizes.  (Edited from various sources mainly Brian Willey obit @ The Independent)

Eddie Jefferson born 3 August 1918

Eddie Jefferson (August 3, 1918 – May 9, 1979) was a jazz vocalist and lyricist. He is credited as an innovator of vocalese, in which he took the recorded solos of jazz horn players, wrote lyrics to them and sang them as tributes to their creators.

He was born Edward Jefferson in Pittsburgh.  He played the tuba, guitar and drums but he made his show-business debut as a tap dancer at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. During the 30s in Pittsburgh he performed as a dancer and scat singer doing occasional Cab Calloway impressions with Art Blakey on piano.  It was his friend Leo ‘Scat’ Watson - a big influence - who suggested the idea of adding words to instrumental solos.

In 1939 he worked opposite Coleman Hawkins’ big band in Chicago after the great man’s return from Europe and Nat King Cole was the intermission pianist. During WW2 he played drums in the army band but little is known of his musical activities during the 40s although he did tour with Bob Crosby and the Bobcats and he appeared on the Sarah Vaughan radio show in 1950. It was not until 1952 that he really concentrated on singing.

It was his lyric for King Pleasure’s big hit Moody’s Mood For Love in 1952 which really put him on the map. James Moody had recorded the solo in 1949 in Sweden using a borrowed alto from Lars Gullin.  He turned in a gem of a performance in one take although it was his first recording on the instrument. Eddie loved the solo because in a little less than three minutes “It told a story”. 

Living in Cambria Heights in Queens he took a day job as a manager in a men’s clothing firm supplemented with occasional club dates.  One night in 1953 when he was doing a dance act with Irv Taylor at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre he met James Moody. Babs Gonzales had been travelling with Moody as vocalist and band manager but he was leaving so the tenor-man offered the job to Jefferson. They stayed together until 1962 when Moody disbanded to join Dizzy Gillespie. In 1957 when they appeared at the Zebra Lounge in Los Angeles they worked there for a time with King Pleasure. The following year Jefferson sat in with Miles Davis at the Café Bohemia in New York.

                                    

In 1959 he recorded his celebrated Body And Soul with a lyric set to Coleman Hawkins’ 1939 masterpiece and the words make it clear just what Hawkins meant to him. During the 60s he and Moody often performed with Dinah Washington because they were all represented by the Billy Shaw Agency in New York. During his 
time with Moody the singer was featured on several albums highlighting fine examples of his unique sound with its soulful and very earthy delivery.

Soon after James Moody went back to working with Dizzy In 1962 Eddie recorded with Johnny Griffin for Riverside but the 60s and the 70s were a difficult time for him and for jazz too. Moody’s decision to reform his group was celebrated with their well received 1968 Body And Soul album on which Eddie featured some new material .

In August 1970 he appeared at Chicago’s North Park Hotel at a Charlie Parker Memorial concert where he performed Now’s The Time and Parker’s Mood.  A little later James Moody moved out to Las Vegas to work with the Hilton Hotel Orchestra and Eddie carried on working locally supplementing his income by driving a New York cab. 

In 1973 he and his wife Yvonne separated because of long-standing money problems although they remained on good terms. Around this time he joined forces with Billy Mitchell. One summer they taught a jazz course at Bennington College in Vermont and in 1974 they made their only album together with the optimistic title Things Are Getting Better.

A little late in the day he won the 1975 Downbeat Critics’ Poll as Talent Deserving Of Wider Recognition. That was also the year he sat in at a Greenwich Village club with the sensational, young bebop alto player Richie Cole. They were to have a long and productive relationship until Jefferson’s murder.

In March 1979 he appeared with Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter at New York’s Carnegie Hall and with bookings lined up at the Monterey and Newport Jazz Festivals as well as some European summer concerts. He was filmed along with Cole performing at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase on 6 May. Three days later the group was booked into Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit and Eddie was shot and killed as he left the club around 1 a.m. 

The suspect who was known to him was arrested but later released. “The tragic part is that he was cut down when things were starting to happen for him” Bill Mitchell said at the time. Ironically Jefferson had been presented with the key to the city the previous year by Coleman Young, Detroit’s first African-American mayor.  (Compiled and edited from various sources mainly Jazz profiles.)

Boogie Jake born 2 August 1927

Boogie Jake (born Mathew Jacobs, August 2, 1927 - December 6, 2013) was a blues singer and guitarist from Marksville, Louisiana, USA. 

Like many blues artists with a small discography, Jacobs was a reluctant performer, even at the height of his limited popularity. Learning guitar from a neighbour, Ernest Barrow, Jacobs’ first public performance was with his second cousin, Little Walter Jacobs, at the Golden Lantern Club in Marksville. Soon afterwards, he moved to Baton Rouge.

Whist working in a factory during the day and playing clubs at night, he met drummer Joe Hudson. They played clubs such as the Apex & Rhythm. He came to the notice of Jay Miller and was invited to play on a Slim Harpo session, supposedly playing the distinctive guitar riff on ‘King Bee’. Miller, who gave Jacobs the stage name of Boogie Jake recorded Jacobs some time later, in company with Lazy Lester and Katie Webster. Of several titles, only ‘Early Morning Blues’ and ‘I Don’t Know Why’ were issued decades later on Flyright.

                               

In 1959, he was approached by New Orleans record distributor Joe Banashak, who proposed that Jacobs launch his Minit Records label. ‘Early Morning Blues’ and ‘Bad Luck And Trouble’ (‘I Don’t Know Why’ in disguise) were recorded in June of that year. 

About a month later, a second single was recorded, ‘Loaded Down’, and the swamp-pop ‘Chance For Your Love’. Jacobs’ music had the flavour of the juke joint and his first single was picked up for national distribution by Chess Records.

For a time, he toured with other Minit artists and alongside Lightnin’ Slim. Although his music career was going strong, disillusionment caused him to take his family west to California, where his wife left him.

He remained outside music throughout the 60s working various day jobs. Whist working at the University of California he was re-discovered by Tom Mazzolin.  

His appearance at the 1974 San Francisco Blues Festival led to more regular work and a session for the Blues Connoisseur label in 1977 from which his single was issued with the harmonica player Mark Hummel. At this time, he had formed a partnership with another Louisiana migrant, ‘Schoolboy’ Cleve White, but by the early 80’s he had moved to Louisianna.

In his later years he served as a deacon in his local church and enjoyed the quiet life of rural Louisianna. Although he was a dedicated ham radio operator for more than 30 years, his main passion was the blues which he stated to “Living Blues” magazine, as keeping him active and healthy.

Jacobs died in New Orleans on December 6, 2013.

(Edited mainly from AllMusic & Digital Living blues and jukegh.blogspot.com)