Bull Moose Jackson

Blues/R&B singer and saxophonist Bull Moose Jackson was born Benjamin Jackson in Cleveland, OH, in 1919. Taking an interest in music at an early age, he formed a band called The Harlem Hotshots in the 1930s while he was still in high school. In 1943 he joined Lucky Millinder and His Band as a singer, replacing Wynonie Harris. He stayed with Milliner's band throughout the war years, but in 1946 he released a solo record, "I Love You, Yes I Do", which was a smash hit. Encouraged by the record's success, Jackson left Millinder's band and struck out on his own. He had a string of hits over the next few years, but by 1949 the market for R&B records was pretty much drying up. He continued to perform with touring R&B shows, but by the mid-'50s he retired from the music business. He went to work for prestigious Howard University in Washington, DC. In the early 1980s a Pittsburgh (PA) bar band called The Flashcats persuaded Jackson to get back in the music business, and from 1983-1986 he worked with the band. He recorded an album with them, "Moosemania!". He died in 1989 in his hometown of Cleveland, OH.