Beloved Canadian blues artist Jackie Washington died on Saturday, June 27, 2009 following complications from a heart attack. Washington was 89 years old at the time of his death. Born in Hamilton, Ontario as the third of 15 children, Washington's grandfather was a former American slave who had escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.
Washington began performing at the young age of five, and in addition to his unique, raspy voice he taught himself guitar and piano. Through the years Washington held jobs shining shoes, working in factories, and as a railroad porter. Washington also became Canada's first black radio DJ when he went on the air with CHML Radio in Hamilton in 1948.
Washington performed in regional clubs during the 1940s and '50s, but it was with the folk-blues boom of the 1960s that he began hitting the festival circuit, where he became a popular attraction. Over the course of his lengthy career, Washington performed with a literal who's who of jazz, blues, and folk artists from Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, and Joni Mitchell to Lonnie Johnson, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Washington was also an inductee to the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame.
With a repertoire of more than 1,200 songs in the blues, folk, and jazz genres, Washington was a regular performer at the annual Mariposa Folk Festival and the Northern Lights Festival in Sudbury, where an award is named after him. Washington was also a recording artist, and released several acclaimed albums like 1995's Keeping Out Of Mischief and 1998's Midnight Choo Choo.
Although he wasn't well-known stateside, Jackie Washington was well-loved in Canada, where he received a lifetime achievement award from the Ontario Arts Council in 1995, and another at the Maple Blues Awards in 1998. Washington worked with author James Strecker to write an autobiography, More Than A Blues Singer, which was published in 1996, and he was also the subject of a documentary film. His enormous presence on the development of a thriving Canadian blues music scene will felt for years.
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