Floyd Dixon
b. 8 February 1929, Marshall, Texas, USA. Aka J Riggins Jnr., Dixon began playing piano and singing as a child, absorbing every influence from gospel and blues, to jazz, and even hillbilly. In 1942 his family moved to Los Angeles and he came into contact with fellow ex-Texan Charles Brown who took a shine to young Floyd and turned the boy on to his brand of cool, jazzy night club blues as singer and pianist with Johnny Moore's Three Blazers. When the Blazers split up, Dixon was a natural choice for a substitute Charles Brown, and he made early recordings in the Brown style with both Eddie Williams (the Blazers’ bassist) for Supreme and with Johnny Moore's new Blazers for Aladdin and Combo. His own trio recorded extensively for Modern, Peacock and Aladdin labels between 1947 and 1952; then later, in a harder R&B style, for Specialty, Cat and Checker; and in the late '50s and '60s for a host of tiny west coast and Texas independent labels. In 1975 Dixon made a comeback, beginning with a tour of Sweden and became the first artist to be featured on Jonas Bernholm's celebrated Route 66 reissue label. Dixon was commissioned to write a blues, Olympic Blues for the 1984 Los Angeles games.