BIOGRAPHY AND DISCOGRAPHY

 
Veteran saxophonist who made his name in the early 1940’s playing with Jay McShann, eventually replaced by none other than Charlie Parker in that group. Following that stint he led his own band as well as played with other established acts including Harlan Leonard’s Rockets, through whom he met that group’s one-time drummer Johnny Otis who soon took up residence in rock ‘n’ roll.

When Otis signed Jackson’s group to play at his Barrelhouse Club in Watts it led to more recording opportunities, first with Otis’s trumpeter Don Johnson and then under his own name with Otis’s group in support. As reasonably qualified for the new rock terrain as it may have been musically, Jackson was now entering middle age and still more cut out for an older style of music and as a result his stint as a rocker was short-lived.

 
 
EARL JACKSON DISCOGRAPHY (Records Reviewed To Date On Spontaneous Lunacy):

STATE STREET BOOGIE
(Specialty 323; March, 1949)
As sideman… for Smilin’ Smokey Lynn.

JACKSON’S BLUES
(Specialty 323; March, 1949)
As sideman… for Don Johnson. The song’s featured centerpiece, saxophonist Earl Jackson, delivers a pretty basic by-the-numbers performance for rock ‘n’ roll at this stage but hardly anything that will stand out in the ever more crowded field. (4)

WOMAN DON’T WANT A GOOD MAN NO MORE
(Supreme 1532; August, 1949)
A well-meaning effort to adapt to rock ‘n’ roll with a solid composition featuring good support by Johnny Otis on drums, a strong guitar and Jackson’s robust sax work, albeit amidst some underwhelming group horns and modest singing by Walter Roberts. (5)

COME ON BABY
(Modern 20-716; November, 1949)
As sideman… for Little Willie Littlefield.