Roots of Blues Jimmy Yancey Rolling The Stone

Recorded: Chicago, April 1939 Jimmy Yancey (p) James Edwards Jimmy Yancey (February 20, 1898 September 17, 1951) was an African American pianist, composer, and lyricist, most noted for his piano work in the boogiewoogie style. Yancey was born in Chicago in (depending on the source) 1894, 1895, or 1898. His older brother Alonzo Yancey was a pianist as well; their father was a guitarist. Yancey started performing as a singer in traveling shows during his childhood. He was a noted pianist by 1915 and influenced younger musicians like Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons. While he played in a boogiewoogie style, with a strongrepeated figure in the left hand and melodic decoration in the right hand, his playing was delicate and subtle, rather than hard driving. Part of Yancey s distinctive style was that he played in a variety of keys but always ended every song in E flat. These endings added a strangely satisfying dissonance to every performance. Most of his recordings were of solo piano, but late