Jimmy Rogers
| Jimmy Rogers | |
|---|---|
Rogers in concert
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Jay Arthur Lane |
| Born |
June 3, 1924 Ruleville, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | December 19, 1997 (aged 73) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Chicago blues |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | |
| Years active | 1946–1997 |
| Labels | Chess |
| Associated acts | |
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.
Rogers was born Jay Arthur 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.
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