Tony Jackson
b. 5 June 1876, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 20 April 1920. An entertainer of great repute, Jackson played piano and sang in New Orleans saloons and brothels in the early 1900s. His repertoire included popular songs of the day, emergent blues and operatic arias, but it was as a ragtime pianist that he had most influence upon his contemporaries. As with Buddy Bolden in the field of jazz, Jackson's fame rests on stories told about him by other musicians because, like Bolden, he never recorded. In 1912 Jackson moved to Chicago, where he played in the city's leading nightclubs, usually as a solo act. Billed as ‘the world's greatest single-handed entertainer’, Jackson's private life was troubled. He was an alcoholic and his sexual activities left him disease-ridden. However, his musical ability was such that Jelly Roll Morton, who rarely praised anyone but himself, spoke very highly of him. Jackson seldom bothered to have his own compositions published, believing that the pittance which music publishers of the day would pay him would not be worth the effort involved. Among his songs were such delights as Some Sweet Day and Pretty Baby.