Jamison was soulful local music figure
His business was blood, but his passion was soul. Songwriter, producer and manager Roosevelt Jamison Sr. — who helped discover singers O.V. Wright and James Carr, and who penned the R&B classic “That’s How Strong My Love Is” — was an unassuming behindthe-scenes figure, but the history of Memphis music would not have been the same minus his words and vision.
Mr. Jamison died at home on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 76.
“What he had was a depth of spirit; he was one of the most spiritual people I’ve ever met,” said R&B historian Red Kelly, who struck up a friendship with Mr. Jamison after he helped organize a 2008 tribute concert for O.V. Wright in Memphis. “With Roosevelt, you couldn’t be in his presence and not feel the same spirit and emotion that helped create a song like (That’s How Strong My Love Is)’. He embodied the idea of ‘soul.’”
Beyond his musical work, Mr. Jamison devoted most of his life to the medical profession: He spent his early years doing sickle cell research at the University of Tennessee; taught Anatomy and Physiology at Draughn’s Business College; and served as a supervisor in the hematology lab at The Med until his retirement.
Born in Mississippi, Mr. Jamison was raised around Beale Street. He began his medical career working at the old John Gaston Hospital, as manager of the Interstate Blood Bank. It was there, in the early 1960s, that he began to manage a number of local groups and singers, often rehearsing them in the back of the blood bank’s offices. Mr. Jamison’s two great discoveries were O.V. Wright and James Carr, both veterans of the gospel group the Harmony Echoes.
Famously, Mr. Jamison showed up on the doorstep of Goldwax label co-head Quinton Claunch in the middle of the night with Carr, Wright and a tape of demo songs in tow. “What a place to be, that night when Quinton Claunch opens his door and there’s Roosevelt Jamison with this two clients, James Carr and O.V. Wr i g h t , ” said author and Memphis music expert Robert Gordon.
Claunch was i mmediately taken with what he heard and began working with all three men, ushering in the label’s golden era, and establishing Wright and Carr as two of the greatest deep soul singers of all time.
In addition to guiding careers, Mr. Jamison was a gifted songwriter, who penned material recorded by acts like the Lyrics and Ovations. But his greatest and most lasting contribution to the R&B cannon was “That’s How Strong My Love Is.” Originally recorded by Wright and released on Goldwax, the track would gain further prominence when it was cut by Stax star Otis Redding in 1964.
In the decades since, the song has become a soul music standard, covered by a wide range of artists from the Rolling Stones to Humble Pie, Little Milton to Taj Mahal, Percy Sledge to Iggy Pop. “It’s so simply stated, so heartfelt, that anybody can do it and make it a great song,” said Gordon.
Mr. Jamison continued to write and record in recent years, though his attempts to complete an album were thwarted by his ongoing health issues. In 2011, he was honored with a Brass Note on Beale, and saw the Memphis City Council pass a resolution renaming Emerald Street between Mt. Moriah Road and Knight Arnold Road “Roosevelt Jamison Road.”
Mr. Jamison is survived by his wife Linda La Rue Jamison; daughters Sherry Scott- Chambers, Tijuana Jamison and Regina Allgood; sons Michael Matthews, Roosevelt Jamison Jr., Rickey Jamison, Terrance Jamison, Christopher Jamison and Kevin La Rue; sister Maggie King and brother A.C. Jamison.
Visitation is Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. with a memorial program from 6 to 7 p.m. at Temple of Christ Baptist Church, 1581 Ball Road. Funeral services will be held Saturday at Berean Missionary Baptist Church, 1666 East Raines Road Joe Ford Funeral home has charge. Roosevelt Jamison