Big Jay McNeely, R&B sax player who developed rock ‘n’ roll, dies
The Washington Post
Big Jay McNeely, a tenor saxophonist whose crazed stage antics and honking style of rhythm-and-blues presaged the rise of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, died Sept. 16 at a hospital in Moreno Valley, California. He was 91.
His son, Richard McNeely, confirmed his death from prostate cancer.
Beginning with the 1949 R&B chart-topper “Deacon’s Hop,” McNeely recorded a string of hits—“Wild Wig,” “Nervous, Man, Nervous” and “3-D,” among others— whose titles telegraphed a gleeful frenzy in the grooves.
His style, built on fast repetitive riffs with honking low and screaming high notes, was rock ‘n’ roll in all but name. And McNeely brought an outsized showmanship to the proceedings. Horn in hand, he’d blow his way through the crowd from the back of the venue to the stage. Once there, he’d often strip down to his shirt in mid-solo and finish on his back while kicking his legs in the air.
By the mid-1950s, McNeely found his music embraced by white and Chicano teenagers at Los Angeles venues such as the El Monte Legion Stadium and Grand Olympic Auditorium—though the pandemonium created at the height of segregation did not go unnoticed.
“I was raised in Watts and we had about three miles of comfort there. We couldn’t come out of that comfort zone, you know,” McNeely told the Ventura County Star in 2011, referring to the Los Angeles neighborhood. “We’d go to South Gate, Lynwood, Compton and we’d get locked up. It was very, very prejudiced.”
He added, “So they just barred me out of Los Angeles so I couldn’t play. My manager was able to get me into the Apollo Theatre and Birdland in New York and the Band Box in Atlantic City.”
Cecil James McNeely was born in Watts on April 29, 1927. His father worked as a porter for a shipboard casino near Santa Monica. His mother, of American Indian heritage, made and sold Indian blankets. Both parents played piano.
In later years, his brothers would join his band—Robert on baritone sax and Dillard on bass.
One of McNeely’s early influences was Illinois Jacquet, the electrifying tenor saxophonist. Bandleader Lionel Hampton’s 1942 recording of “Flying Home,” featuring Jacquet’s hardcharging solo, left an indelible mark on his playing, and the song became a vehicle for competitive jamming.
“Every time we picked up our horns we were just elaborating on that, trying to make it bigger, wilder, give it more swing, more kick,” McNeely told writer Jim Dawson in the biography “Nervous Man Nervous: Big Jay McNeely and the Rise of the Honking Tenor Sax!” (1994). “If you want to know where rhythmand-blues began, that’s it.”
Bandleader Johnny Otis hired McNeely after hearing him at an amateur night contest. The success of “Deacon’s Hop,” made with members of Otis’ band, enabled McNeely to form his own group.
He gave an early break to legendary California baritone Jesse Belvin and in 1959 recorded the oft-covered blues ballad “There Is Something on Your Mind,” a song revived as a No. 1 hit in 1960 for Bobby Marchan.
McNeely also tried his hand at producing and owning a record company. His biggest hit came in 1960 with “Once Upon A Time” by Rochelle and the Candles featuring vocalist Johhny Wyatt on his Swingin’ label.
By the mid-1960s, the new sound in rhythm-and-blues was Motown. As his bookings declined, McNeely became a mailman and put his full-time music work on hiatus. He reemerged in 1983 for a European tour and, in later years, performed at blues and oldies festivals.