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Jimmy Wilson was a blues and R&B singer, and occasional bass player and saxophonist, born in Louisiana, who was a gospel singer with the Pilgrim Travelers in California when he started recording secular blues for San Francisco entrepreneur Bob Geddins in 1948. He recorded in snatches over the next decade, often under Geddins’ auspices, mostly being associated with the West Coast blues scene, and had a No. 10 R&B hit with “Tin Pan Alley” in 1953, although he was never able to follow through in that success. He did not record again after these sessions featured here, and declined into alcoholism, dying in 1966 in his mid-‘40s. He did not record prolifically, and this 49-track 2-CD collection comprises just about all his recordings from these years on the Cava-Tone, Aladdin, Big Town, Rhythm, Irma, Goldband and Duke labels. It naturally includes his big Top 10 R&B chart success “Tin Pan Alley”. The collection features recordings produced by Bob Geddins and others, featuring musicians like guitarists Lafayette Thomas and Clarence Garlow, pianists King Solomon and Sherman Louis, saxophonist and songwriter Que Martin, and ace pianist Jimmy McCracklin. It’s about as thorough a career retrospective as we could achieve for a fine singer who promised much but who maybe did not have the opportunities to achieve his full potential.
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