Remembering Jimmy Rushing, the 'Five by Five' man with the enormous voice

And from the 1910s, when his voice could be heard ringing out from nightclubs in Deep Deuce, to his death in 1972, Rushing maintained a mountainous presence in blues and jazz. When William “Count” Basie first heard Rushing, the piano legend was so impressed with the singer's powerful vocals that they spent the next two decades playing together.

“In 1929, we picked up a blues singer in Oklahoma City,” Basie told authors Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro in the 1966 book, “Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz As Told by the Men Who Made It.” “That was Jimmy Rushing, who for my money has never had an equal when it comes to the blues.

“In all the time he was with the band, Jimmy Rushing has been what I might call my right arm,” Basie said. “There were times in the early days of the band that I'd have given it all up but for Jimmy's urging to stick with it.”

Born in Oklahoma City, Rushing's actual birth date has long been in dispute and was called into question in 1994 when the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp with Rushing's likeness that listed his year of birth as 1902. Currie Ballard, who was then historian-in-residence at Langston University, said at the time that Rushing was born in 1899. The website www.jimmyrushing.com includes a copy of a 1938 Social Security Administration form filed by James Andrew Rushing, listing his employer as “Count Basie” and his birthday as “August 26, 1901.”

Rushing was born into a musical family. His father, trumpet player Andrew Rushing, steered his son toward violin and away from piano, the common instrument at the “sporting houses” in the red light district.