Library Rock's Backpages

Big Jay McNeely

Bill Millar, Saxonograph Records sleevenote, 1985

IN AUGUST 1983 Big Jay McNeely flew to London for the R & B Jamboree at Camden 's Electric Ballroom where he topped a bill which included Willie Egan, Chuck Higgins and the grievously underrated Young Jessie. The companionably crowded audience gave the 56-year-old Grand Master a tumultuous reception and he played to the gallery in a vulgar, rough-hewn style unseen in Europe since Big Jim Wynn toured with Johnny Otis over ten years before.

Total word count of piece: 6436

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.