Jimmie Lee Robinson

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Maxwell Street Blues: Remembering Jimmie Lee Robinson Guitarist, bassist, and singer Jimmie Lee Robinson, active on the Chicago blues scene since the 1940s, died on Saturday, July 6th, 2002. Early this year Jimmie Lee was diagnosed with a large malignant tumor in his sinuses, which he had removed at the end of April. He began gigging again almost immediately, playing at a celebration of his 72nd birthday at the Deep Blue club in Schaumburg just four days after his surgery, but apparently the cancer had already spread to other parts of his body, and his health deteriorated rapidly over the following months. For those who aren't familiar with him or his music, Jimmie's blues resume was long and illustrious. Born in Chicago's Cook County hospital and raised in the nearby Maxwell Street neighborhood, he began playing guitar on the bustling Maxwell Street market scene when he was in his early teens in the mid 1940s. By the late '40s he was good enough to have played behind blues legends Memphis Minnie and Big Bill Broonzy among others. Around 1950 he formed his first band, The Every Hour Blues Boys, which consisted of Frank "Sonny" Scott (still one of his best friends) on drums, with Jimmie Lee and a young Freddie King sharing guitars and vocals. In the mid 1950s Jimmie was playing on local gigs with Elmore James when Little Walter recruited him into his band, where he spent the next few years. He recorded on a couple of sessions with Little Walter, appearing on "Confessing The

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albums

Chicago Jump

...All My Life

Remember Me

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American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965 CD5

All My Life

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American Folk Blues Festival, 1962-1965

American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1965

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Lonely Traveller

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Down In Kansas

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Bandera Blues And Gospel From The Bandera, Laredo And Jerico Road Labels

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Blues And Gospel From Bandera, Laredo And Jericho Road

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Maxwell Street Blues

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