Yancey, Jimmy (actually, James Edwards)

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Yancey, Jimmy (actually, James Edwards)

Yancey, Jimmy (actually, James Edwards), jazz pianist; b. Chicago, Feb. 20,1898; d. there, Sept. 17, 1951. He was a singer and dancer in a Vaudeville act as a child; then taught himself to play the piano and appeared in Chicago clubs. In 1925 he gave up his stage career and worked as a groundskeeper at Comiskey Park. With the revival of boogie-woogie in the mid-1930s, he returned to playing jazz piano and garnered praise in jazz circles. He sometimes worked with his wife, blues singer Estella “Mama” Yancey (1896-1986).

John Chilton/Lewis Porter

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