I was wondering what Jackson was doing on the Sullivan show. The answer: playing the fool. (Willis Jackson was a serious musician, most of the time. Yet what he was performing here is sheer silliness.)
What he is doing here, sir, is playing and performing in the R and B tradition, as did many serious "jazz" artists, such as Johnny Griffin, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Earl Bostic (who had Coltrane in his band), Eddie Lockjaw Davis and others. This tradition required that you not just get up there and blow like a statue, but entertain. It was also called making a living. And if he was "playing the fool," remember the words from a popular song: everybody plays the fool, sometimes. Everybody. Besides, that shit is cooking,
He was the last of a series of black musicians who appeared on the Sullivan show that night, introduced by the popular disk jockey Dr. Jive. Sullivan had Louis Jordan on his first show back in the 40s so he certainly had no aversion to R & B.
@@imagine07018 and as Art Blakey once told Wynton Marsalis, it was the difference between being hired in the North and being hung in the South, so yes even serious musicians "played the fool" sometimes
@@recordguy4321 I know punk rockers suck shit, that's not my point at all. My point is that punk (whatever anyone thinks about it) grew out of the honkers/screamers.
Incredible! The in-the-pocket honking master! Soulful, technical and spiritual all at once.
A little plug at the end from Ed for Alan Freed's 1956 Christmas Show at the Brooklyn Paramount . I was there !!!!!
dean moriarty's soul
yes indeed.
incredible energy. love it.
insanely great!
quite amazing! 1956! American TV! wow!
This was my great grandad apparently
You’re granddad was a saxophone genius 😉
Rock! rock! rock! rock'n'roll!, terrific!!
I believe that was Tommy Smalls Dr Jive who introduced him
The BEST honking - EVER!!!
With a name like “Gator Tail Jackson” I knew this shxt would be hilarious 🎷
Did a piece of Jackson's horn 🎷 fly off as he ran off the stage?
Dang!
< He graduated from Bark-Lee !¡!>
'uck me - takin' no prisoners there!
Fantastic but do we have a title of the tune?
I believe it was a shortened version of the tune that gave him his nickname, "Gator Tail"
Make ya wonder where Peter Townsend of "The Who" got his stage presence!! ;)
I was wondering what Jackson was doing on the Sullivan show. The answer: playing the fool. (Willis Jackson was a serious musician, most of the time. Yet what he was performing here is sheer silliness.)
What he is doing here, sir, is playing and performing in the R and B tradition, as did many serious "jazz" artists, such as Johnny Griffin, Illinois Jacquet, Dexter Gordon, Earl Bostic (who had Coltrane in his band), Eddie Lockjaw Davis and others. This tradition required that you not just get up there and blow like a statue, but entertain. It was also called making a living. And if he was "playing the fool," remember the words from a popular song: everybody plays the fool, sometimes. Everybody. Besides, that shit is cooking,
@@imagine07018Well said. God forbid jazz musicians should play something you can dance to, eh?
He was the last of a series of black musicians who appeared on the Sullivan show that night, introduced by the popular disk jockey Dr. Jive. Sullivan had Louis Jordan on his first show back in the 40s so he certainly had no aversion to R & B.
@@imagine07018 and as Art Blakey once told Wynton Marsalis, it was the difference between being hired in the North and being hung in the South, so yes even serious musicians "played the fool" sometimes
The silly shit comes out of vaudeville and minstrelsy. Later the free jazzers and punk rockers coopted these antics.
The birth of punk rock, NOT rock-and-roll.
Punk rock LOL the beginning of Honkin Hard Driving, RHYTHM and BLUES
@@recordguy4321 Honkin Hard Driving Rhythm and Blues is the very seed of punk rock, sir.
ha ha
and guys that dont know an A chord from a C minor
@@recordguy4321 I know punk rockers suck shit, that's not my point at all. My point is that punk (whatever anyone thinks about it) grew out of the honkers/screamers.
Wonder what Ed thought about this.