Big Jim Wynn

Big Jim Wynn
Big Jim Wynn
Birth name	James A. Wynn Jr.
Born	June 21, 1908; Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Jazz, swing, jump blues, rhythm and blues
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone
Years active	1930s–1977

James A. Wynn Jr. (June 21, 1908 – July 19, 1977),^[1] known as Big Jim Wynn, was an American jump blues saxophonist, pianist and bandleader.

Life and career

Born in El Paso, Texas, he moved with his parents to Los Angeles when he was a baby.^[1] He learned piano and clarinet, before switching to tenor saxophone in his teens. He began playing in clubs in Watts, where he started playing jazz and swing music, and formed his own band in the mid-1930s, with his friend T-Bone Walker, who was initially known as a dancer, on guitar and vocals.^[2]

He made his first recordings for the

Claude Trenier on vocals. Although the song "Be-Baba-Leba" (or "Ee-Bobaliba", from which the band took its name) was first recorded by Helen Humes, for whom it was a hit, Wynn claimed to have written and first performed it several months previously, though it was not credited to him in later versions which included Lionel Hampton's bigger hit, "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop".^[3]^[2] Wynn's band comprised Stanley Casey (trumpet), David Graha (alto sax), Freddie Simon (tenor sax), Jim Wynn (tenor and baritone sax), Luther "Lord" Luper (piano, vocals), Theodore Shirley (bass), Robert "Snake" Sims (drums), Claude Trenier (vocals), and Pee Wee Wiley (vocals).^[4]

The following year, they recorded for

Jay McNeely was a little kid when he used to come in and watch me play at weekends. Two or three years later he was laying on his back and playing. He's a great musician but he got the clowning from me."^[2]

Although Wynn made further recordings as leader in the 1950s, for various labels including

R&B, soul and pop records made on independent labels in Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s. He toured with Etta James and Richard Berry,^[3] and also worked extensively as a member of Johnny Otis' revue band.^[2]

Wynn died in Los Angeles in 1977, aged 69.[1]