Jimmy Witherspoon

A quintessential blues shouter in the tradition of Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon got his start like many urban blues singers, fronting for jump blues and swing bands in the 1940s. By the late '50s, Witherspoon had started collaborating with more straightforward jazz musicians such as Richard "Groove" Holmes, Earl Hines, and Roy Eldridge. This combination of blues grit and jazz sophistication resulted in a highly influential hybrid embraced by many soul vocalists that emerged after Witherspoon. After a 50-year career, he finally succumbed to throat cancer in 1997 at the age of 77.