I’ve been listening to a lot of piano-based blues lately, and reminiscing on my dear departed friend Barrelhouse Chuck, who along with fellow Chicago piano legend Erwin Helfer were the shining lights on a form of blues whose ranks of practitioners, at least in Chicago, is quite thin. 

Chuck was always effusive with his praise for bluesmen whose music influenced him, and often while performing he would indicate his belief that blues piano players everywhere owed a huge debt of gratitude to Leroy Carr, the Indianapolis, Indiana-based bluesman whose catalog of work included the blues standards “How Long, How Long Blues” and “Blues Before Sunrise.”

Now, Helfer is in all likelihood the last of the great Chicago blues piano men, and fans of the art form should pay heed to him and his great accumulation of work, especially that which is available on Dr. Steven Dolins’ The Sirens Records label.  Helfer is a living glimpse into the past when Chicago was bustling with blues piano keyboard men such as Cripple Clarence Lofton, Albert Ammons, Blind John Davis, Little Brother Montgomery, Sunnyland Slim, Detroit Jr., Pinetop Perkins, Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, Willie Mabon, and so many others who plied their blues efforts over upright piano keyboards in all parts of the city.

Having had the recent privilege to review a number of Helfer’s superb releases on The Sirens Records label, I’ve been turning toward the piano blues artists and recordings that I have in my broad collection. More specifically, I have been drawn to blues piano man Jimmy Yancey’s excellent body of work.  Without fail, I am consistently delighted with his offerings, so perhaps an overview of Yancey and his work is overdue on these pages.

Jimmy Yancey’s birthdate, like that of many blues artists, has flummoxed researchers, with years suggested including 1894, 1895, 1898 (a date I observed on his gravestone in Lincoln Cemetery in Blue Island, Illinois), 1900, 1901, and 1903 proposed.  Nonetheless, Yancey was born in Chicago, and by a very young age, he was set traveling with both his father and brother Alonzo performing on the vaudeville circuit across a wide swath of the U.S.  While Yancey’s father would play guitar and his brother the piano, the young Yancey would entertain audiences with his singing and tap dancing skills.  It was a familial entertainment event.

This indoctrination into the world of entertainment found the Yanceys also performing across the ocean in Europe pre-WW I.  It should be noted that around the age of 15 Yancey taught himself how to play the piano, adding another layer to his musical skill set and performing profile.  In total, by the age of 20, Yancey had accumulated significant experience in the professional musical arena.

Interestingly, and as testament to his already broad base of piano skills, by the age of 20 Yancey was also beginning to have an acute influence on young piano artists such as Albert Ammons and Meade “Lux” Lewis, such were his competencies on the instrument.

Yancey married fairly young to a woman named Estella Harris, and this proved to be a pivotal personal and career move for the young man.  Estella was a guitar player and singer, and the two joined forces performing as “Mama And Papa Yancey,” both at the various informal house rent gatherings and other events in Chicago, while also plying their brand of music in church.  Research also indicates that they also played club opportunities in Chicago, as well.

Yancey’s piano playing was extremely contributory to the boogie woogie obsession that eventually swept across the country for a number of technical reasons.  To be certain, Yancey used his left hand to fashion powerful recurrent low-end patterns while his right hand was enhancing the solid bass work with tuneful scripts.  But unlike many boogie woogie artists, Yancey’s right-hand melodies were not crashing and dynamic; no, they can be labeled as more understated and gentler.  Nevertheless, Yancey’s left-hand excursions, it can be argued, authored the framework for the boogie woogie piano methodology.  To many, Yancey’s low-end left-hand work became known as “the Yancey bass.”

Interestingly, Yancey favored the use of the keys A-flat and E-flat (keys that were not known within the barrelhouse blues piano crowd), and it has been noted by various researchers that no matter the key in which Yancey began a song he tended to end it in E-flat.  Listen closely to one of his fine recordings, and even the untrained ear will hear it.

As an aside, Yancey did not confine himself solely to his blues piano efforts to support his family.  In 1925, Yancey signed-on with the Chicago White Sox organization as a groundskeeper, a position he held for 26 years.  This obviously provided some semblance of economic security to the Yancey household.  He eventually left this position due to health reasons.  Also baseball-related is the fact that during WW I, Yancey played baseball for the Negro League Chicago All-Americans.

Yancey’s influence continued to be profound on young boogie woogie piano stylists, and in 1936, the abovementioned Meade “Lux” Lewis recorded “Yancey Special,” a tune that finally brough Yancey notoriety outside of his hometown Chicago.  At last in 1939, Yancey’s opportunity to record unveiled itself to him with the songs “The Fives”/”Jimmy’ Stuff” on the Solo Art label, an imprint that would also release piano boogie woogie by other esteemed artists of the genre including Meade “Lux” Lewis, Albert Ammons, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Pete Johnson, and Art Hodes.

With that release, Yancey’s recording career was off and running, with his blues and boogie woogie piano recordings usually released as solo outings.  He recorded pieces for a variety of labels including Solo Art, Vocalion, Parlophon, and His Master’s Voice, with additional releases, some being EPs, seeing the light of day on the RCA Victor, Session, “X”, Atlantic, Not On Label, Roots, and Metronome imprints after his passing.

Oftentimes, Estella Yancey would provide her vocals to Jimmy Yancey’s work, as his voice was not especially impressive. 

It should be noted that Yancey also recorded a number of superlative duet songs with the aforementioned Cripple Clarence Lofton during his career.

In 1948, a major performing event for Yancey unfurled when he and Estella played a show in New York City at the famed Carnegie Hall.  This appearance led to the Atlantic Records album entitled Pure Blues, a July, 1951 release for the pair. 

Unfortunately due to Yancey’s diabetes, his health progressively worsened through 1951, and in September of that year, he succumbed to a stroke brought upon by the affliction.  It should be noted that Estella continued to be active and record for another 30 plus years until she passed at the age of 90 in 1986 in Chicago. 

Jimmy Yancey was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1986 as an early influence inclusion.

Jimmy Yancey set the stage for the many boogie woogie piano artists who later came to the fore, and his brand of the music, certainly boogie woogie, but somewhat more restrained, is a joy to consider, and is well worth any blues fan’s time.

Once again, the great Document Records makes available the broad ribbon of Jimmy Yancey’s recordings (in many cases with Estella Yancey) via four phenomenal CDs, plus two compilations with others.  Those interested in the work of Jimmy Yancy are advised to check these collections out, and the link to Document Records is below.  The “Search 2.” feature found after one clicks the “Search” link on the company’s web home page allows for a drilling-down by artist.

Document Records – Vintage Blues and Jazz (document-records.com)