" James Edwards "Jimmy" Yancey (February 20, 1894 – September 17, 1951) was an African American boogie-woogie pianist, composer, and lyricist. One reviewer noted him as "one of the pioneers of this raucous, rapid-fire, eight-to-the-bar piano style".Yancey was born in Chicago in 1898. His older brother, Alonzo Yancey (1894 – 1944) was a pianist as well; their father was a guitarist. Yancey started performing as a singer in traveling shows during his childhood. He was a noted pianist by 1915, and he influenced younger musicians, like Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons.
While he played in a boogie-woogie style, with a strong-repeated figure in the left hand and melodic decoration in the right hand, his playing was delicate and subtle, rather than hard driving. He popularized a left hand figure which became known as the 'Yancey bass', which was later used in Pee Wee Crayton's "Blues After Hours", Guitar Slim's "The Things That I Used to Do", and countless other songs. A part of Yancey's distinctive style was that he played in a variety of keys but often ended pieces in E flat, even when playing in a different key; he also favored keys considered atypical for barrel house blues (like E flat and A flat).
Although Yancey did not record during the twenties, (he only performed at houseparties and clubs) his influence was still great. Yancey was first recorded in 1939, immediately causing a great stir in both blues and jazz circles.While many of his recordings were of solo piano, he also recorded with vocals by his wife, Estelle 'Mama' Yancey, under the billing 'Jimmy and Mama'. They appeared together in concert at the Carnegie Hall in 1948 and in 1951, the couple recorded their first album, released by Atlantic Records, the following year.
During World War I, Yancey played baseball on a Negro league baseball team, the Chicago All-Americans. Throughout his life, Yancey kept a day job as a groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox. Mr. Yancey died of a stroke secondary to diabetes in Chicago on September 17, 1951. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986." mostly wiki
