Jimmy Rushing: Discovering his true date-of- birth by - Steve Siegel

[Elmo]

What are we to make about a public figure, recognized as one of the seminal jazz and blues singers of the 20th century who, in his lifetime, provided 4 different birth years to various sources with presumably the knowledge that all 4 were inaccurate and why did he fail to ever reveal the correct year, which he presumably knew? So goes the story of Jimmy Rushing and his very elusive birth year.

https://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2020/10/searching-for-jimmy-rushing-his-correct.html?m=1

Edited December 18, 2023 by Elmo
left out info

[Niko]

Thanks, that was a fun read!

[Big Beat Steve]

On 12/18/2023 at 9:17 PM, Niko said:

Thanks, that was a fun read!

+1 😉

Sat down right away now and corrected this in my books by Feather, Chilton, New Grove, AMG, Reclam, Jörgensen/Wiedemann et al.

[Elmo]

On Wikipedia, they have the incorrect 1901 date in the Rushing article with a footnote for the Social Security document. I have never edited Wiki so if someone is so inclined to edit the article with the correct date and delete the current footnote and add my article as the new footnote, please do so. I presume that future researchers referencing the Rushing entry would appreciate it.

Perhaps the myriad of incorrect dates in articles might eventually also be corrected.

Thank you! Steve Siegel

 

[Gheorghe]

I think I heard him sing "Dinah" once, is that possible ? Liked it, quite of hi pitched voice. 
I think he was not the only one with different birth dates. 

I never knew when Hawk was born: Once I read 1902, or 1904 or even 1906. Anyway .....for the modern bop stuff he played and rote (Dig "Bean ´n the Boys" which I love to play) it´s wonderful how much ahead of his time he was. 
 

But all those senior players like Hawk, Rushing, Basie I see photos of them it seems they never was really young, they always looked a it like old men. Like on that film of Monk playin Blue Monk with Basie just sittin´ there, he really looks like an old man which sure he wasn´t when that old film was made...

[John L]

6 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I think I heard him sing "Dinah" once, is that possible ? Liked it, quite of hi pitched voice. 
I think he was not the only one with different birth dates. 

 

Yes, Dinah was certainly part of Mr. 5-by-5's repertoire.   

[Ken Dryden]

Eubie Blake gave 1883 as his birth year, but after his death in 1983, research verified he was born in 1887.

As I remember, Tadd Jones was the one who uncovered Louis Armstrong's true birth year of 1901 in baptismal records, though he used 1900 throughout his career.

Edited December 22, 2023 by Ken Dryden