My Christmas Gift Has Arrived!

You all may remember my post about Jimmy Jackson's album Rolling Dice. I've heard his voice -- and ever since, I loved it. But when I was trying to find some biographical material about Jimmy, it became painfully clear that Jimmy Jackson is one of the many great artists who seemed to have disappeared without a trace from the history of Soul music. 
I kept searching nevertheless ... and this is my Christmas gift -- I got lucky.
I saw a YouTube post by his grandson -- and your ever so daring Raggedy sent him a message. The young men was kind enough to answer me and even put me in contact with his father, Jimmy's son. I couldn't believe it!
Jimmy's son agreed to my posting the short biography he's sent me. And I will post it today -- the day before Christmas eve.
Sadly enough, Jimmy Jackson is no longer with us. May his soul rest in peace. His voice sure brought much joy into my life.

Many thanks to his son and grandson for their generosity!

Here is what his son told me:

"My son informed me that you were looking for information on Jimmy Jackson for your blog. Here is a quick Bio on him. Hopefully it will help you. He would have loved to know that his music was still being enjoyed and discussed.

Jimmy Jackson was born in August 1948 in the lower east side of New York. He attended school in New York city before attending St Paul's University in Virgina where he was a star football player. Once he returned to New York, he had a brief professional football career before an injury ended his football playing days.

After football, he began to focus on a career in law enforcement and singing R&B. After a short time he was signed with Motown Records where he recorded several songs that went un-noticed. He became somewhat concerned that he would never get the personal attention that he needed because of the focus on other Motown recording artists.

It was at that time that he decided to sign with Budda Records. While at Budda records he enjoyed some success including having a single Rolling Dice be nominated for a Grammy. He made numerous appearances at the Apollo and became the opening artist for Melba Moore. He also appeared on Soap Factory Disco which was a nationally syndicated show similar to Soul Train and American Band Stand.

During this time he continued his career in Law Enforcement and was known as the Singing Cop (locally). He continued to perform locally for years, but returned to his love of football as a Head Coach for a minor professional team. Unfortunately, he became chronically ill and passed away four years ago shortly before seeing his youngest child get married.

Hopefully this will help. Please send me a link to your blog so that I can see the work that you are doing to keep artists like Jimmy alive by sharing their talents. I don't know if you have heard his Rolling Dice. Here is a link; someone put it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6i4IZq-J4

Keep up the great work."

This is The title track from Rollin' Dice which was nominated for a Grammy