Dr. Jo Jo Adams

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JO JO ADAMS (By Dave Penny) Born circa 1918, Alabama Died 27 Februay, 1988, Chicago, Illinois "I started playing the blues when I saw a man standing on the stage and he was getting big money. He had a red pocket hand'chief around his neck and coveralls and I said, 'That's not the way it's supposed to go'. I introduced color to the stage. My tailor-made tails that were 55 inches long - when I spun around you could shoot dice on them!" Jo Jo Adams (Living Blues interview) Seldom remembered today among the greats of jump blues, Jo Jo Adams was once quite a celebrity in the 1940s and 1950s Chicago music and entertainment circle. A comedian/singer/dancer/emcee and leader of a successful revue, the few remaining images and film clips we have of the man (for example, his performances from the 1949 William Alexander short "Burlesque In Harlem"), shows a slim, dapper, Cab Calloway-like performer, an impression borne out by his jazzy recordings such as When I'm In My Tea. Once billed as "The Sepia Frank Sinatra" (more for his build and sartorial elegance than his vocal style), Jo Jo Adams was born in Alabama around 1918. Little is known of his early life, except that he sang with a quartet called the Big Four Jubilee singers, and that he was on Chicago's South Side by 1945, playing venues such as the Ritz Show Lounge, and first recorded in early 1946 with guitarist Freddie Williams' band for Williams' own Melody Lane Record Shop label. Within a few weeks, Melody Lane had become Hy-To

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