Jimmy Beck and his Orchestra

Also credited as Jimmy Beck and His Band, they were the house band for the Champion Records label run by the Bubis cousins, Alan and Reynold, Their single "Pipe Dreams" proved to be the only hit for Champion, with writing credit given to label owner Alan Bubis.

History[edit | edit source]

When Calvert became Champion, the name changed to Jimmy Beck and His Orchestra. At Champion, the house band backed up local R&B greats Gene Allison, Larry Birdsong, and Earl Gaines, as well as producing their own material. Many Champion Records releases included Johnny Jones on guitar.The final release, "Carnival / Arabian Blues," an instrumental came out in 1960 on the Zil Records label, a subsidiary of Nashboro. Their work on Champion included songwriting from Ted Jarrett.

A package tour, featuring Champion Records acts, in 1958 included Christine Kittrell, Earl Gaines, and Gene Allison. Marv Goldberg notes: "She was at the Manhattan Casino (St. Petersburg, Florida), along with Gene Allison and Earl Gaines. On July 4, the same three, plus Jimmy Beck's Orchestra, were at O.J.'s Half Acre in Huntsville, Alabama. (I suppose Beck was at the Manhattan Casino too, but his name wasn't mentioned in the write-up.) This group must have been touring, since all four acts turned up at the Zebra Room of the Municipal Auditorium in Oklahoma City on October 11. However, there were no advertisements between July 4 and that date. On October 24, they were all at the Macon Auditorium in Macon, Georgia."

Champion Records tour in 1958.

Jimmy Beck[edit | edit source]

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1929, Jimmy Beck worked as a saxophone player and bandleader. In Nashville, he started working at Calvert Records in 1956 under the name Jimmy Beck and His Band.

In 1960, Jimmy Beck began playing with Bobby "Blue" Bland and is credited on the "I Pity The Fool" 7" as alto and tenor saxophonist. The single released by Duke Records, cat# 332, out of Houston, Texas was on R&B charts as #1 for one week in February 1961. in 1962, Jimmy Beck appears on the Bobby Bland single "That's the Way Love Is" which was recorded in Nashville. Beck shared tenor sax credits with Johnny Board on that release.

In the biography "Soul of the Man: Bobby Blue Bland," author Charles Farley notes: "Tenor saxophonists came and went with the band. When Bobby took over the Blue Flames in early 1961, L.A. Hill and Robert Skinner were playing, but they were soon replaced by Jimmy Beck on tenor and Johnny Board on alto, with Bobby Forte on tenor joining later in the year. Jimmy Beck, originally from Cleveland, continued with the band until 1967, when he left to play tenor sax for and lead the Earl Gaines Band. He continued in the music business, later recording "Pipe Dreams" among others, for Excello Records in Nashville and as a producer and engineer." While the author mis-identifies the year of the "Pipe Dreams" release, the mention of the Earl Gaines Band indicates more involvement with Ted Jarrett. The Earl Gaines Band also recorded as the Little Rock Brotherhood doing compositions by Robert Holmes, a frequent collaborator of Ted Jarrett, in the R&B and Soul scenes in Nashville.

Jimmy Beck died May 2, 1977 in Houston.