Jimmy Rogers

For similarly named people, see James Rogers (disambiguation).

Jimmy Rogers
Rogers in concert
Background information
Birth name	James A. Lane
Born	(1924-06-03)June 3, 1924 Ruleville, Mississippi, United States
Died	December 19, 1997(1997-12-19) (aged 73) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Chicago blues
Occupation	Musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals Guitar Harmonica
Years active	1946–1997
Labels	Chess Records

Jimmy Rogers (June 3, 1924 – December 19, 1997) was a Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters's band in the early 1950s. He also had solo hits on the R&B chart with "That's All Right" in 1950 and "Walking by Myself" in 1954.

He withdrew from the music industry at the end of the 1950s but returned to recording and touring in the 1970s.

Career

Rogers was born James A. Lane in Ruleville, Mississippi, on June 3, 1924 and was raised in Atlanta and Memphis. He adopted his stepfather's surname. He learned to play the harmonica with his childhood friend Snooky Pryor and as a teenager took up the guitar. He played professionally in East St. Louis, Illinois, with Robert Lockwood, Jr., among others. Rogers moved to Chicago in the mid-1940s. By 1946, Rogers had recorded as a harmonica player and singer for the Harlem record label, run by J. Mayo Williams. Rogers's name did not appear on the record, which was mislabeled as the work of Memphis Slim and His Houserockers.

In 1947, Rogers, Muddy Waters and Little Walter began playing together, constituting Waters's first band in Chicago (sometimes referred to as the Headcutters or the Headhunters, because of their practice of stealing jobs from other local bands). The band members recorded and released music credited to each of them as solo artists. The band defined the sound of the nascent Chicago blues style (more specifically South Side Chicago blues). Rogers recorded several sides of his own with small labels in Chicago, but none were released at the time. He began to enjoy success as a solo artist with Chess Records in 1950, with the hit song "That's All Right", but he stayed in Waters's band until 1954. In the mid-1950s he had several successful releases on the Chess label, most featuring either Little Walter or Big Walter Horton on harmonica, notably "Walking by Myself". In the late 1950s, as interest in the blues waned, he gradually withdrew from the music industry.

In the early 1960s Rogers briefly worked as a member of Howling Wolf's band, before quitting the music business altogether for almost a decade. He worked as a taxicab driver and owned a clothing store, which burned down in the 1968 Chicago riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He gradually began performing in public again, and in 1971, when fashions made him somewhat popular in Europe, he began occasionally touring and recording, including a 1977 session with Waters. By 1982, Rogers was again a full-time solo artist.

In 1995 Rogers was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

He continued touring and recording albums until his death from colon cancer in Chicago in 1997. He was survived by his son, Jimmy D. Lane, a guitarist and a record producer and recording engineer for Blue Heaven Studios and APO Records.

Selected discography

• Jimmy Rogers (1984), compilation album of some pre-1960 songs
• Ludella (1990)
• Jimmy Rogers with Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters (1991), live recording
• Feelin' Good, with Rod Piazza (1994, Blind Pig)
• Sloppy Drunk (1998), compact disc reissue of the album released in December 1973
• Blue Bird (1994, Analogue Productions Originals)
• The Complete Chess Recordings (1997)
• Blues Blues Blues, as the Jimmy Rogers All-Stars, with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Lowell Fulson, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Jeff Healey and others (1999)

External links

• Jimmy Rogers biography at AllMusic website
• Illustrated Jimmy Rogers discography