Movies and Television featuring Jimmy Rogers' Music:
"Crossing Jordan"...Episode..."After Dark" originally aired 9/26/04...
Jimmy Rogers - "Bright Lights, Big Cities" (From cd.."Blues, Blues, Blues")
"Life"...Featuring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence...
Jimmy Rogers - "That's Alright" (From cd... "Chicago Bound")
"Play It To The Bone"....Featuring Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrellson, and Lolita Davidovich...
Jimmy Rogers - "Why You So Mean To Me" (From cd..."Blue Bird")
"Conan O' Brien Show"...February 1994...Jimmy Rogers Band (including Jimmy D. Lane, Robert Stroger, Ted Harvey, Piano Willie, and Madison Slim) performed.."Walking By Myself"
To Purchase Any Jimmy Rogers CD's, Click on Picture Below
Antone's: Home of the Blues DVD Trailer
Jimmy Rogers - "Walking By Myself". At Antone's in Austin, Texas with; Luther Tucker, Pinetop Perkins, Bob Stroger, Mel Brown, James Cotton, Ted Harvey
Big Walter Horton - The harmonica player on the Jimmy Rogers song "Walking By Myself"
Jimmy Rogers with Jimmy D. Lane and Band "Rock This House" in St. Louis, MO. 1996
Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton in Mexico City 1979 (Links)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv-S6Aza2p8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80eC4q12NYI
Jimmy Rogers and Big Walter Horton at the Elsewhere Club in Chicago 1979 "Pretty Pretty Baby"
Jimmy Rogers and Ronnie Earl "Gold Tailed Bird"
Louisiana Red, Jimmy Rogers and Carey Bell Harrington...
"No Future Blues"
Biography
Guitarist Jimmy Rogers was the last living connection to the groundbreaking first Chicago band of Muddy Waters (informally dubbed the Headhunters for their penchant of dropping by other musicians' gigs and "cutting their heads" with a superior onstage performance) His role in the revolution known as 'Chicago Blues' is as crucial as those of Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Spann and Willie Dixon. Jimmy Rogers was introduced to McKinley Morganfield later to be known world-wide as Muddy Waters, and together they pioneered the 'Chicago Blues' sound.
Born James A. Lane (Rogers was his stepdad's surname), the guitarist grew up all over: Mississippi, Atlanta, West Memphis, Memphis, and St. Louis. Actually, Rogers started out on harp as a teenager. Big Bill Broonzy, Joe Willie Wilkins, and Robert Jr. Lockwood all influenced Rogers, the latter two when he passed through Helena. Rogers settled in Chicago during the early '40s and began playing professionally around 1946, gigging with Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim, and Broonzy.
Rogers was playing harp with guitarist Blue Smitty when Muddy Waters joined them. When Smitty split, Little Walter was welcomed into the configuration, Rogers switched over to second guitar, and the entire postwar Chicago blues genre felt the stylistic earthquake that directly followed. Rogers made his recorded debut as a leader in 1947 for the tiny Ora-Nelle logo, then saw his efforts for Regal and Apollo lay unissued.
Those labels' monumental errors in judgment were the gain of Leonard Chess, who recognized the comparatively smooth-voiced Rogers's potential as a blues star in his own right. (He first played with Muddy Waters on an Aristocrat 78 in 1949 and remained his indispensable rhythm guitarist on wax into 1955.) With Walter and bassist Big Crawford laying down support, Rogers's debut Chess single in 1950, "That's All Right," has earned standard status after countless covers, but his version still reigns supreme.
Rogers's artistic quality was remarkably high while at Chess. "The World Is in a Tangle," "Money, Marbles and Chalk," "Back Door Friend," "Left Me with a Broken Heart," "Act like You Love Me," and the 1954 rockers "Sloppy Drunk" and "Chicago Bound" are essential early-'50s Chicago blues.
In 1955, Rogers left Muddy Waters to venture out as a bandleader, cutting another gem, "You're the One," for Chess. He made his only appearance on Billboard's R&B charts in early 1957 with the driving "Walking by Myself," which boasted a stunning harp solo from Big Walter Horton (a last-second stand-in for no-show Good Rockin' Charles). The tune itself was an adaptation of a T-Bone Walker tune, "Why Not," that Rogers had played rhythm guitar on when Walker cut it for Atlantic.
By 1957, blues was losing favor at Chess, the label reaping the rewards of rock via Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Rogers's platters slowed to a trickle, though his 1959 Chess farewell, "Rock This House," ranked with his most exciting outings (Reggie Boyd's light-fingered guitar wasn't the least of its charms).
Rogers virtually retired from music for a time during the 1960s, operating a West side clothing shop that burned down in the aftermath of Dr. Martin Luther King's tragic assassination. He returned to the studio in 1972 for Leon Russell's Shelter label, cutting his first LP in years, Gold-Tailed Bird. Thanks to numerous publications calling attention to the career of Jimmy his Chess recordings were reissued, a Grammy nomination, and WC Handy Awards, followed. Keith Richards said, "I recognize myself in there between Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Rogers". At the behest of Clapton and Jagger, Jimmy was flown to London in June of 1992 for a series of tribute shows.
Rogers died December 19, 1997. At the time of his death, he was working on an all-star project featuring contributions from Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Jimmy D. Lane, Kim Wilson, Johnny Johnson, Ted Harvey, Stephen Stilles, Carey Bell, Jeff Healy, Robert Plant & Jimmy Page, and Mick Jagger & Keith Richards; upon its completion, the disc was issued posthumously in early 1999 under the title Blues, Blues, Blues.
He was a prime builder in expanding the reach of the Blues to a wider audience, and a resounding performer-composer whose songs will never be equaled....
Jimmy Rogers is survived by wife Dorothy [passed 11/25/04], sons Jimmy D. Lane Jr, Willie and James, plus his daughters Angela, Jacquelean, Marilyn [passed 01/2003], Debra, Vera and 17 grandchildren.
Jimmy Rogers was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1995...
Bill Dahl, All Music Guide & Gary Tate/LivinBlues
Fans Posthumous Remembrances Of Jimmy Rogers CLICKHERE
Sho Komiya and The Lay-Z Boys doing Jimmy Rogers' "You're The One"
