Jimmy Witherspoon was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jump blues

Jump blues

Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...

 singer.

Early life and career

James Witherspoon was born in Gurdon

Gurdon, Arkansas

Gurdon is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,276 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Gurdon is located at ....

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

. He first attracted attention singing with Teddy Weatherford

Teddy Weatherford

Teddy Weatherford was a jazz pianist, an accomplished stride pianist.Weatherford was born in Pocahontas, Virginia and was raised in neighboring Bluefield, West Virginia. From 1915 through 1920 he lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he learned to play jazz piano...

's band in Calcutta, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, which made regular radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 broadcasts over the U. S. Armed Forces Radio Service during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Witherspoon made his first records

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 with Jay McShann

Jay McShann

Jay McShann was an American Grammy Award-nominated jump blues, mainstream jazz, and swing bandleader, pianist and singer....

's band in 1945. In 1949, recording under his own name with the McShann band, he had his first hit, "Ain't Nobody's Business

Ain't Nobody's Business

"Ain't Nobody's Business" or "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do" is an eight-bar vaudeville blues song that became an early blues standard. It was written in the 1920s by pianist Porter Grainger, who had been Bessie Smith's accompanist, and Everett Robbins. The song was first recorded October 19,...

," a song which came to be regarded as his signature tune. In 1950 he had hits with two more songs closely identified with him: "No Rollin' Blues", "Big Fine Girl", as well as "Failing By Degrees" and "New Orleans Woman" recorded with the Gene Gilbeaux Orchestra which included Herman Washington and Don Hill on the Modern Records label. These were recorded from a live performance on May 10, 1949 at a "Just Jazz" concert Pasadena, CA sponsored by Gene Norman. Another classic Witherspoon composition is "Times Gettin' Tougher Than Tough".

Witherspoon's style of blues - that of the "blues shouter

Blues shouter

A blues shouter is a blues singer, often male, capable of singing with a band. The singer must project, or "shout", to be heard over the drums and musical instruments of the band. Blues shouting was a major pathway by which jazz music edged over into rock and roll...

" - became unfashionable in the mid-1950s, but he returned to popularity with his 1959 album, Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which featured Roy Eldridge

Roy Eldridge

Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...

, Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

, Ben Webster

Ben Webster

Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, Earl Hines

Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was an American jazz pianist. Hines was one of the most influential figures in the development of modern jazz piano and, according to one source, is "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz".-Early...

 and Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....

, among others. He later recorded with Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

, Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar

Leroy Vinnegar was an American jazz bassist.Born in Indianapolis, the self-taught Vinnegar established his reputation in Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. His trademark was the rhythmic "walking" bass line, a steady series of ascending or descending notes, and it brought him the nickname...

, Richard "Groove" Holmes

Richard Holmes (organist)

Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre...

 and T-Bone Walker

T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a critically acclaimed American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who was one of the most influential pioneers and innovators of the jump blues and electric blues sound. He is the first musician recorded playing blues with the...

.

Tours and successes

In 1961 he toured Europe with Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...

 and returned to the UK on many occasions, featuring on a mid-sixties live UK recording Spoon Sings and Swings (1966) with tenor sax player Dick Morrissey

Dick Morrissey

Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...

's quartet. In 1970, he appeared on Brother Jack McDuff's London Blue Note

Blue note

In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...

 recording To Seek a New Home together with British jazz musicians, including Terry Smith

Terry Smith (British jazz guitarist)

Terence 'Terry' Smith is a British Jazz guitarist.-Biography:Twice winner of the Melody Maker Music Polls, Smith spent the early 1960s playing with the Tony Lee Trio, before becoming Scott Walker's musical director and accompanying The Walker Brothers on their Japan tour in 1968...

 and Dick Morrissey

Dick Morrissey

Richard Edwin "Dick" Morrissey was a British jazz musician and composer. He played the tenor sax, soprano sax and flute.- Background :...

. In the 1970s he also recorded the album Guilty! (later released on CD as Black & White Blues) with Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon

Eric Victor Burdon is an English singer-songwriter best known as a founding member and vocalist of rock band The Animals, and the funk rock band War and for his aggressive stage performance...

 and featuring Ike White & the San Quentin Prison Band. He then toured with a band of his own featuring Robben Ford

Robben Ford

Robben Ford is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist.-Biography:Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, but raised in Ukiah, California, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13...

 and Russ Ferrante. A recording

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 from this period, Spoonful, featured 'Spoon' accompanied by Robben Ford

Robben Ford

Robben Ford is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist.-Biography:Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, but raised in Ukiah, California, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13...

, Joe Sample

Joe Sample

Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 .- Biography :Sample began playing the piano...

, Cornell Dupree

Cornell Dupree

Cornell Luther Dupree was an American jazz and R&B guitarist. He worked at various times with Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, King Curtis and Steve Gadd, appeared on David Letterman, and wrote a book on soul and blues guitar: Rhythm and Blues Guitar ISBN 0-634-00149-3...

, Thad Jones

Thad Jones

Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.-Biography:Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten . Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen...

 and Bernard Purdie

Bernard Purdie

Bernard Lee "Pretty" Purdie is an American session drummer, and is considered an influential and innovative exponent of funk...

. He continued performing and recording into the 1990s.

Other performers with whom Witherspoon recorded include Jimmy Rowles

Jimmy Rowles

Jimmy Rowles was an American jazz pianist who was best known as an accompanist. He also released a number of albums under his own name, and explored various idioms including swing and cool jazz. - Biography :Born in Spokane, Washington, Rowles studied at Gonzaga College in Spokane, Washington...

, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Vernon Alley

Vernon Alley

Vernon Alley was an American jazz bassist.Alley was born in Winnemucca, Nevada, and played football in high school and college. His brother, Eddy Allen, was a drummer; they played together often. Vernon played with Wes People in 1937 and with Saunders King until the end of the decade...

, Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....

, Teddy Edwards

Teddy Edwards

Theodore Marcus "Teddy" Edwards was an American jazz tenor saxophonist based on the West Coast of the US. Some consider him to be one of the most influential jazz saxophonists.-Biography:...

, Gerald Wiggins

Gerald Wiggins

Gerald Wiggins was a jazz pianist and organist. He studied classical, but switched to jazz in his teens. He began as a professional playing accompaniment to Stepin Fetchit. He worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. In the 1940s he moved to Los Angeles where he played music for television...

, John Clayton

John Clayton (bassist)

John Travis Clayton Jr. is an American jazz and classical double bassist.-Music:John Travis Clayton Jr. began seriously undertaking the study of double bass at age 16, studying with bass legend Ray Brown...

, Paul Humphrey

Paul Humphrey

Paul Nelson Humphrey is an American jazz and funk/R+B drummer.He worked as a session drummer in the 1960s for jazz artists such as Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Kai Winding, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, Blue Mitchell and Gene Ammons.As a bandleader, he recorded under the name Paul Humphrey and the...

, Pepper Adams

Pepper Adams

Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III was a jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 43 pieces, was the leader on twenty albums, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman.-Biography:...

, Kenny Burrell

Kenny Burrell

Kenneth Earl "Kenny" Burrell is an American jazz guitarist. His playing is grounded in bebop and blues; he has performed and recorded with a wide range of jazz musicians.-Biography:...

, Harry "Sweets" Edison

Sweets Edison

Harry "Sweets" Edison , born in Columbus, Ohio, was an American jazz trumpeter and member of the Count Basie Orchestra.-Biography:He spent his early childhood in Kentucky, where he was introduced to music by an uncle...

, Jimmy Smith

Jimmy Smith (musician)

Jimmy Smith was a jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument...

, Long John Baldry

Long John Baldry

John William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...

, Junior Mance

Junior Mance

Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...

, Ellington

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

 bassist Jimmy Woode

Jimmy Woode

Jimmy Woode was a jazz bassist. His father, also named Jimmy Woode, was a music teacher and pianist who played with Hot Lips Page...

, Kenny Clarke

Kenny Clarke

Kenny Clarke , born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook" and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming...

, Gerry Mulligan

Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

, Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen

Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...

, Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Gene Gilbeaux and others.

Death

Witherspoon died of throat cancer

Head and neck cancer

Head and neck cancer refers to a group of biologically similar cancers that start in the upper aerodigestive tract, including the lip, oral cavity , nasal cavity , paranasal sinuses, pharynx, and larynx. 90% of head and neck cancers are squamous cell carcinomas , originating from the mucosal lining...

 in Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 on September 18, 1997.

Chart singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions
		US Pop Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...
1949	"Ain't Nobody's Business Ain't Nobody's Business "Ain't Nobody's Business" or "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do" is an eight-bar vaudeville blues song that became an early blues standard. It was written in the 1920s by pianist Porter Grainger, who had been Bessie Smith's accompanist, and Everett Robbins. The song was first recorded October 19,...  (Parts 1 & 2)"	-	1
	"In The Evening"	-	5
	"No Rollin' Blues"	-	4
	"Big Fine Girl"	-	4
1952	"The Wind Is Blowin"	-	7
1965	"You're Next"	98	-
1975	"Love Is A Five Letter Word"	-	31

LP, CD

• 1957 Goin' to Kansas City Blues RCA Victor
• 1959 Battle of the Blues, Vol. 3 Deluxe
• 1959 Jimmy Witherspoon & Jay McShann Black Lion
• 1959 Singin' the Blues Blue Note
• 1960 Jimmy Witherspoon at the Monterey Jazz Festival [live]
• 1961 Spoon Collectables Records
• 1961 There's Good Rockin' Tonight World Pacific
• 1962 A Spoonful of Blues Who's Who in Jazz
• 1962 Roots Collectables Recordes
• 1962 Hey Mrs. Jones Collectables Records
• 1962 Roots Collectables Records
• 1963 Baby Baby Baby Bluesville/Original Blues Classics
• 1963 Mean Old Frisco Prestige Records
• 1963 Evenin' Blues Prestige/Original Blues Classics
• 1963 Blues Around the Clock Obc
• 1964 Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues Original Blues Classics
• 1964 Blue Spoon Concord Jazz
• 1964 Goin' to Chicago Prestige
• 1965 Blues for Spoon and Groove Surrey
• 1965 Spoon in London
• 1966 Blue Point of View
• 1966 Blues Box
• 1966 Blues for Easy Livers Original Blues Classics
• 1966 In Person Verve
• 1967 The Blues Is Now Verve
• 1968 Spoonful of Soul Verve
• 1969 Blues Singer BluesWay
• 1970 Handbags & Gladrags ABC Music
• 1970 Huhh BluesWay
• 1971 Guilty United Artists Records
• 1973 Groovin'& Spoonin' Original Music
• 1974 Jimmy Witherspoon & Ben Webster Verve
• 1975 Love Is a Five Letter Word Rhino
• 1975 Spoonful Avenue (Rhino)
• 1976 Live: Jimmy Witherspoon & Robben Ford Rhino
• 1976 Live Crosscut (Germany)
• 1980 Jimmy Witherspoon with Panama Francis & the Savoy Sultans Sings the Blues Muse
• 1980 Spoon's Life Evidence
• 1981 Big Blues JSP
• 1985 Patcha, Patcha, All Night Long Pablo
• 1986 Midnight Lady Called the Blues Muse
• 1988 Rockin' L.A. Fantasy
• 1989 'Spoon Concerts Fantasy
• 1990 Live at Condon's Who's Who in Jazz
• 1991 Call Me Baby Night Train
• 1992 Live at the Notodden Festival Blue Rock'It
• 1992 The Blues, the Whole Blues & Nothing But the ... Buy Now! Indigo
• 1993 Hot Licks: Ain't Nobody's Business Sound Solutions
• 1993 Blowin' In From Kansas City Ace
• 1994 Amazing Grace Delta Distribution
• 1995 Spoon's Blues Stony Plain
• 1995 Ain't Nothin' New About the Blues [live] Aim Records
• 1995 Taste of Swing Time Tuff City Records
• 1995 American Blues Rhino
• 1996 Live at the Mint Private Music
• 1996 'Spoon & Groove Rykodisc
• 1997 Tougher Than Tough Blue Moon
• 1997 Jimmy Witherspoon With The Junior Mance Trio Stony Plain
• 1998 Jazz Me Blues: The Best Of Jimmy Witherspoon Prestige
• 2000 Big Boss Man [live] Starburst Recordings
• 2000 Jimmy Witherspoon with the Duke Robillard Band [live] Stony Plain
• 2000 Same Old Blues Catfish
• 2001 Goin' to Chicago Tim
• 2001 Sings Blues Aim
• 2002 Spoon Meets Pau Eureka
• 2002 Goin' Around the Circles Past Perfect (UK)
• 2003 Sings The Blues Sessions Ace
• 2004 Very Best Of Jimmy Witherspoon: Miss Miss Mistreater Collectables
• 2004 1948-1949 Classics
• 2006 1950-1951 Classics
• 2006 Ain't Nobody's Business SnapperLive
• 2008 Live At The 1972 Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey Jazz Festival
• 2009 Doctor Blues Blues Boulevard
• 2009 Olympia Concert CD Baby
• 2010 Live 59

DVDs

• 2003 20th Century Jazz Masters: Mel Tormé/Jimmy Witherspoon/Carmen McRae/Lambert,Hendricks & Bavan
• 2003 Jimmy Rushing / Jimmy Witherspoon Jazz Casual
• 2009 Goin' Down Blues

Filmography

• 2000 Jazz Casual: Jimmy Witherspoon & Ben Webster
  Ben Webster
  Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...
  
  (Jazz Casual/Idem)
• 2009 Jimmy Witherspoon: Goin' Down Blues with Marshall Royal
  Marshall Royal
  Marshall Royal was an American clarinettist and alto saxophonist best known for his work with Count Basie, with whose band he played for nearly twenty years....
  
   and John Collins
  John Collins
  - Arts :*John Churton Collins , English literary critic*John Collins , bass guitarist for Powderfinger*John Collins , of The New Pornographers and The Smugglers...
  
  

External links