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Big Jay McNeely

Big Jay McNeely brought the tenor sax to prominence in the golden age of R&B, known as the “King of the Honkers,” for his wild style and outrageous showmanship..

Tenor saxophonist Cecil "Big Jay" McNeely was born in Watts, California, on April 29, 1927, he formed his own band with jazz legends Sonny Criss (alto sax) and Hampton Hawes (piano) while still in high school. But in late 1948, when he was asked to record for Savoy Records, he abandoned jazz for something more raucous and struck paydirt when his second release, a honked-up instrumental called "Deacon's Hop," went to #1 on the national R&B charts in February 1949. For the next several years, Big Jay was famed for his playing-on-his-back acrobatics and his raw, hard-swinging playing. During his act he'd leave the stage, walk across the top of the bar, and sometimes walk out the door of the club, often with a line of people following him.

In 1959 Big Jay enjoyed his biggest hit, a blues ballad called "There Is Something on Your Mind," featuring Haywood "Little Sonny" Warner on vocals. The record stayed on the R&B charts for six months. Other artists who have recorded Big Jay's song include B.B. King, Etta James, Freddy Fender, The Hollywood Flames, Gene Vincent, Albert King and Professor Longhair.

Big Jay retired from full-time music for 20 years, but in 1983 he returned to performing and hasn't looked back. In 1987 he played in a blues jam with B.B. King, Robert Cray, Etta James, Albert King, Junior Wells and others on the internationally-televised Grammy Awards. Two years later, he was honking outside the Quasimodo Club in West Berlin on the night the Berlin Wall came down.

In 2000 the Experience Music Project in Seattle installed a special Big Jay McNeely exhibit that includes his original Conn saxophone; the Smithsonian magazine put the horn on its June 2000 issue cover, along with Jimi Hendrix's hat, Janis Jopin's feather boa, and Eric Clapton's Stratocaster. Big Jay is also the subject of Jim Dawson's “Nervous Man Nervous: Big Jay McNeely & the Rise of the Honking Tenor Saxophone” (Big Nickel Press, 1995), the only book ever written about the R&B sax and its influences.

These days Big Jay McNeely spends a good deal of time playing in Europe, Australia and Japan, and is recognized internationally as a seminal figure in R&B. The greatest honker of them all! Source: James Nadal

Big Jay McNeely (1927-2018)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
September 17, 2018

Cecil “Big Jay" NcNeely, the father of the R&B tenor saxophone whose stamina and extravagant stage act starting in the late 1940s included playing on his back, setting the tone for rock 'n' roll and soul artists who followed, died on Sept. 16. He was 91. Big Jay had several significant R&B hits in the late 1940s and '50s, including The Deacon's Hop (#1), Wild Wig and There's Something on Your Mind. But his output included so many jump-blues singles ...
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Recording

Big Jay McNeely: 'Life Story'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 16, 2013

The history of R&B and rock and roll would be incomplete without mentioning Big Jay McNeely—father of the honking tenor-sax sound. Incredulously, Big Jay still has not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If he were British or white, I suppose that would have happened a long time ago given who has slid in. For shame, Fame. [Photo above of fans reacting to Big Jay McNeely at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1951 by ...
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Interview

Interview: Big Jay McNeely (Part 2)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
August 1, 2009

Talking to Big Jay McNeely on Wednesday gave me tremendous insight into a period of jazz that has always puzzled me: Namely, the years between bebop and hard bop. I've always wondered how r&b split off from jazz at the end of 1948, why teens loved the music so much in the early 1950s, and what role, if any, r&b and subsequently rock 'n' roll played in stealing jazz's popular thunder. Much has been made of jazz's abandonment of the ...
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Interview

Interview: Big Jay McNeely (Part 1)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 31, 2009

Last Sunday I wrote that Big Jay McNeely viewed himself in the late 1940s as a new breed of jazz musician. A reader posted a comment in response, chiding me for saying so. After scouring books on Big Jay, the reader wrote, he couldn't find any reference to the r&b musician's jazz roots or how he viewed his place in jazz history. The writer added that I had jumped to conclusions and took a parting shot at Big Jay. Now, ...
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154

Interview

Photostory4: Big Jay McNeely

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
July 11, 2009

From time to time, I spot a jazz photo that moves me so much I have to know what happened the moment the camera's shutter came down. As a fan of 1950s jazz photography, I have long admired the high-contrast black-and-white work of Bob Willoughby.

If you're unfamiliar with Bob [pictured], his stunning photos of jazz musicians between 1948 and 1954 are all classics. You'll find them at his site, Willoughbyphotos.com. Bob has published 18 books and has 9 projects ...
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