Jimmy Rushing

The essentials of Jimmy Rushing on 2 CDs.

He was born in the Middle-West in 1903, he had honed his vocal cords with some formidable groups in this region conducive to the emergence of blues singers, before making a definitive name for himself alongside Count Basie whose he contributed to the good times for more than a decade (1937-1949); In 1950, at the age of forty-seven, he finally stood on his own two feet and began a fruitful freelance career. Irresistible “blues shouter” , “Mr Five by Five” , as his colleagues called him because of his imposing dimensions, left us in 1972; he will have marked the history of jazz with the breadth of his voice , the density of his feeling and his unique ability to marry the most authentic vocal blues with sophisticated orchestral accompaniments specific to instrumental jazz.

Let's listen to him in the first CD declaiming the blues and its derivatives in the company of the "Count" and his admirable soloists; and let's listen attentively to the sides under his name on CD 2, which allow us to hear him to satiety in his favorite blue exercise. We will also notice with what talent Rushing , as a true musician, knows how to move away from the blues to seize here and there a few stainless standards that the breadth of his voice gives a particularly seductive resonance.