Jimmy Oliver has passed away

[brownie]

A Philadelphia musician who rarely ventured outside of his city. I was impressed by his playing on the Jo Jones album on Denon 'Our Man Papa Jo'.

From yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer:

N. Phila. jazz saxophonist Jimmy Oliver

By Gayle Ronan Sims

Inquirer Staff Writer

Jimmy Oliver, 80, jazz tenor saxophone great who emerged from the music mosaic of North Philadelphia and played along with city icons including Mickey Roker, Bootsie Barnes, the Heath Brothers and Philly Joe Jones, died of heart failure last Friday at home.

Born James Henry Oliver in Columbia, S.C., he was a baby when his family moved to North Philadelphia.

When Mr. Oliver was 15, he took up the sax and dropped out of Northeast High School after the 11th grade.

He bought what he thought was an alto saxophone on time payments. When the store delivered the horn, it turned out to be a tenor sax almost as big as he was, but he decided to keep it.

A year after that, he was playing with an 18-piece band called Rajahs of Rhythm. When World War II started, most of the musicians in the band were drafted.

"I was 4-F, I never found out why, so I stayed out of it," Mr. Oliver said in a 1996 Inquirer article. When he was 18, he started playing in the clubs and found himself in the company of such jazz luminaries as Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Ben Webster and Pearl Bailey. He also played with drummer Max Roach.

In the late 1940s, Mr. Oliver encountered a Philadelphia saxophonist named John Coltrane, who many said was strongly influenced by Mr. Oliver's playing.

"Early on I was branded with having the Philadelphia sound," Mr. Oliver said in the 1996 interview. "I came along before Trane, and so I had a step or two on him. We became close friends."

At 14, Mr. Oliver had fallen in love with Henrietta Harris. By the time he was 16, they had a son. By the time he was 28, they had four children. He was a grandfather at 35. They finally married in the late 1970s. She died in 2001.

His love for his family and his fear of getting heavily into drugs, as many of his fellow musicians had done, kept him in Philadelphia. He turned his back on chances to hit the road and seek a national reputation.

"Things didn't happen to me the way I may have wished them to happen, but... I didn't want New York to give me an early grave," Mr. Oliver said in 1991.

He kept chugging along as a regular on the Philly club circuit. He played gigs up until the end of his life, granddaughter Zina Hardy, who was raised by Mr. Oliver, said yesterday.

"He took good care of his family. When I was 5, I got all dressed up and listened to him in clubs," Hardy said.

"He was supposed to play at the Top Shelf the day he died," she said.

In addition to his granddaughter, Mr. Oliver is survived by sons James Jr. and King; daughters Ramona Dates and Patricia; 11 other grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and a brother.

Friends may visit at 9:30 today at Shiloh Apostolic Temple, 15th and Master Streets. The funeral will follow at 11. Burial will be in Rolling Green Memorial Park in West Chester. A celebration of his life is 3 p.m. at the Clef Club, Broad and Fitzwater Streets.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Recorded with Dizzy Gillespie in 1950 for Prestige - some sources still don't believe it's him and list JO as a pseudonym for Seldon Powell.

Possible source of the confusion is the 1956 Joe Carroll album for Epic where Oliver is on a third of the record and Powell is on another third.

I think those are his only two record sessions, apart from the Denon.

Always remembered fondly by the Philadelphia musicians with whom I have spoken.

Mike

[mikeweil]

I have the Gillespie and the Jo Jones - he plays nice things. Why wasn't he recorded more often? I have heard a lot of less engaging soloists.

[Stereojack]

I remember an episode of the Cosby show where a few jazz musicians appeared - one of them was Oliver. Is Cosby from Philly? Perhaps they knew one another back in the day.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Absolutely, Cosby is from Philly - born in Germantown in 1937, attended Temple University after he was in the U.S. Navy.

Mike

[Chalupa]

Holy smokes! I was just talking about him on Friday w/ a friend of mine who was wondering if he was playing at Ortlieb's this weekend. Bummer. He will be missed.

[brownie]

Recorded with Dizzy Gillespie in 1950 for Prestige - some sources still don't believe it's him and list JO as a pseudonym for Seldon Powell.

Possible source of the confusion is the 1956 Joe Carroll album for Epic where Oliver is on a third of the record and Powell is on another third.

A very enjoyable album that 'Joe Carroll' on Epic. Don't think it has ever reissued.

Oliver was on one of the three sessions. The one with Ray Bryant, Jimmy Rowser and drummer Charles Blackwell. Oliver does an effective job and solos on the four tracks they recorded. Don Hustein shot the Carroll photos on the cover.

The original vinyl is currently being auctioned on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW

[paul secor]

Denon actually released 2 LPs - Our Man Papa Jo (YX-7527) and Papa Jo and His Friends (Denon YX-7405), the latter a 45 rpm LP. I've never seen a CD, but if one was released, the two sessions may have been combined on it.

Edited February 13, 2005 by paul secor

[mikeweil]

I've never seen a CD, but if one was released, the two sessions may have been combined on it.

There was a CD IIRC, but it did not add the 45 rpm LP tracks, so I skipped it as I have the other LP.

[paul secor]

Didn't mean to write about a discographical issue and ignore the man's passing. Judging from the obituary that brownie printed, it seems that he was more concerned about taking care of his family and his health than he was about gaining a national reputation. There's something very positive about that.