‘Jay McShann Obituary’ – by Keith Woods, from Tales From The Woods
Jay McShann, the blues pianist and bandleader, died aged 90 in Kansas City, Missouri on December 7th, 2006. Although Snooky Pryor, Homesick James and Jay McShann all spent their last days in the state of Missouri, McShann moved in a very different world to the other bluesmen we are remembering in this issue. His was the world of big bands, where blues shouters had to make themselves heard over saxophones and trumpets, where the musicians improvised around arrangements they read from charts, a more jazzoriented world.
James Columbus McShann was born in Muskogee Oklahoma on January 12th 1916. His parents paid for piano lessons for his sister, but could not afford to do so for Jay, so he learnt to play by watching and listening to his sister. In a familiar blues story, his religious parents wanted him to play church music, but he was more interested in the blues and jazz he listened to on late-night radio.
As a teenager he attended Fisk University in Nashville, intending to become a football player, but his family could not afford to keep him there. After he dropped out, he hitch-hiked to Tulsa, where he sat in with Al Denny’s band, who were looking for a piano player. When they found out he was playing by ear and could not read music, the band encouraged him to learn. Over the next couple of years he played with a number of bands. One day, returning from an engagement in Arkansas, he had a 2-hour stopover in Kansas City, and wandered into Reno’s bar, where he was immediately offered a job in a trio. In those days, Kansas City had a lively music scene, and Jay soon settled in, acquiring his nickname “Hootie” because of his liking for bootleg liquor.
He began to play in small groups, often with saxophonist Charlie Parker, and when McShann started a big band, Parker joined him. It was with McShann’s band that Parker recorded in 1941. The band had a highly successful tour, ending up in New York’s Savoy Ballroom where it was judged to rival that of current favourite Lucky Millinder. With vocalist Walter Brown, he co-wrote “Confessin’ The Blues”, probably his best known song. The band’s success was disrupted when its musicians, including McShann, were called up in the draft. When he was demobbed, big bands were out of fashion, and he formed a smaller group featuring vocalist Jimmy Witherspoon. It was with this band that Witherspoon recorded his huge hit “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” in 1949.
In 1951 he enrolled at Kansas City Music Conservatory. He spent some time in Los Angeles before returning to Kansas City, mostly performing as a solo act. After a period out of the limelight, he benefited from a revival of interest in the late 60’s, particularly in Europe and Canada, where he recorded several albums for Toronto’s Sackville Records.
A biographical film “Hootie’s Blues” was made in 1978, and he was featured in the “Last Of The Blue Devils”, a 1970’s documentary about the Kansas Jazz scene, and in Clint Eastwood’s “Piano Blues”, part of the Martin Scorsese TV blues series.
He is survived by his wife and three daughters.
Keith Woods
