Biography

After studying music, Jimmy Rushing became a full-time professional singer in 1923. In the mid-20s, he joined Bennie Moten, and, by 1935, was a core member of the Count Basie band. He remained with Basie until 1948, then worked as a solo, and sometimes led a small band himself. During these later years, he regularly worked with leading jazz artists such as Benny Goodman, Buck Clayton, and Basie himself. Rushing’s tenor voice has a slightly nasal quality that carried comfortably over the sound of a big band, giving his performances a keening, plaintive quality. He continued to tour and record into the early-'70s. Although his voice showed signs of wear and tear, he retained his unflagging swing.

Top Tracks

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• Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home

• Baby Won't You Please Come Home

• Blues In The Dark

• Boogie Woogie

• Dinah

• Don't Cry Baby

• Don't You Miss Your Baby

• Evenin'

• Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You?

• Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You

• Goin' To Chicago

• Goin' To Chicago Blues

• Good Morning Blues

• Good Rockin' Tonight

• Harelip Blues

• Harvard Blues

• Heartaches

• How Long

• I Cried For You

• I Left My Baby

• I Want A Little Girl

• I'm Coming Virginia

• I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town

• In The Moonlight

• Just Because

• Listen My Children (and You Shall Hear)

• Lullaby Of Broadway

• Mister Five By Five

• My Bucket's Got A Hole In It

• Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

• See See Rider

• Sent For You Yesterday

• Sent For You Yesterday (and Here You Come Today)

• She's Mine, She's Yours

• Stop Beatin' Round The Mulberry Bush

• Take Me Back, Baby

• The Way I Feel

• When You're Smiling

Discography

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• The Humphrey Lyttelton Big Band with Jimmy Rushing

  United States / Upbeat Jazz Records / United States of Distribution

  2001

• The You and Me That Used to Be

  Bluebird RCA

  1971

• Goin' to Chicago

  Vanguard

  1971

• Livin' the Blues

  1968

• Sent for You Yesterday

  BluesWay

  1968

• Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You

  Classic Collection

  1967

• Who Was It Sang That Song?

  New World Records

  1967

• Every Day I Have the Blues

  Impulse!

  1967

• Blues and Things

  Classic Collection

  1967

• Five Feet of Soul

  Roulette Records

  1963

• Rushing Lullabies

  Sony Music Distribution

  1960

• Jimmy Rushing and the Smith Girls

  1960

• Little Jimmy Rushing and the Big Brass

  1958

• If This Ain't the Blues

  1958

• The Jazz Odyssey of James Rushing, Esq.

  Columbia

  1957

• Cat Meets Chick

  Columbia

  1956

• Jimmy Rushing Sings the Blues

  Vanguard

  1955

• Jimmy Rushing Sings the Blues and All That Jazz

  WNTS

  1955

• Listen to the Blues

  1955