Famous Like Me > Actor > N > Jimmy Nelson
Profile of Jimmy Nelson
on Famous Like Me |
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| Name: |
Jimmy Nelson |
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| Date of Birth: |
15th December 1928 |
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| Place of Birth: |
Chicago, Illinois, USA |
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| Profession: |
Actor |
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Jimmy "T99" Nelson (born April 7, 1919) is a "blues shouter" and songwriter.
Press release Karen Leipziger KL Productions: Born in Philadelphia in 1919, Nelson's earliest musical experience was in church. "You talk about rock and roll -- that's where it comes from! And that's where I got started -- in church." In 1941, after moving westward, Nelson caught Big Joe Turner performing at a club in Oakland, CA. Suddenly, everything changed. "I knew right then and there I wanted to sing the blues." Turner mentored Nelson on everything from vocal technique to stage presence to dealing with club owners. Big Joe often toured with Nelson and recorded some of his originals. Nelson absorbed every nuance from Big Joe and, to this day, his performances epitomize the shouting, swinging style that Big Joe pioneered.
Nelson’s big break came when he signed with the Bihari Brothers' Modern/RPM label and released 8 singles -- the biggest of these debuted in June 1951 -- the classic "T-99 Blues" (referring to old Texas Highway 99 heading out from Fort Worth). "T-99" reached #1 position on the national R&B charts and stayed on the charts for twenty-one weeks. In 1952 Nelson scored another RPM hit with "Meet Me With Your Black Dress On". Nelson signed with the Ben Waller Talent Agency and began touring constantly (performing with bands led by Joe Liggins and Roy Milton) playing venues including the Apollo and Howard theaters. Nelson went on to cut singles for a number of labels including Kent, Chess, Music City, Paradise and All Boy. In New Orleans he played the famous Dew Drop Inn and launched regular forways into Texas and Mississippi with Lowell Fulson an others.
In 1955, Nelson came to Texas with bandleader Arnett Cobb to work at Club Ebony. Nelson met and married his late wife Nettie in Houston and adopted Houston as his hometown. For the next 20 years, Nelson settled down and took a job working construction. During that time, he continued to write songs and sit in with bands around town.
Nelson came to the wider attention of blues fans in the early '80s when Ace issued ten of his sides on an album. Since that time, Nelson has graced stages at music festivals across the U.S. and Europe and has released two albums including 1999's "Rockin' And Shoutin' The Blues" (Rounder Records) and "Take Your Pick" (Nettie Marie Records / 2002). Ace recently released "Cry Hard Luck" (2004) featuring re-issues of Nelson's Kent & RPM recordings from 1951-'61.
A big-voiced singer and witty, prolific songwriter, Nelson still swings his music in a distinctive mix of uptown elegrance and down home grit. "When you take the beat out of the music, you have nothing. When you take the feeling from a song, there's nothing. Blues is a feeling. If you don't feel it, it's nothing." (Jimmy "T99" Nelson) With a recording career spanning over 50 years, Jimmy "T99" Nelson, the distinguished elder statesman of American music, is still going strong.
"Jimmy Nelson is certainly in the running for the Best Singer You've Never Heard Of award. After scoring a hit way back in 1951, he recorded a few more times before basically vanishing from sight...he's still active, and still in fine voice after all these years...Nelson can growl one moment and sound smooth as honey the next." (Genevieve Williams/amazon.com)
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