Mardi Gras Jock-A-Mo, James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, the New Orleans rhythm & blues singer who wrote and recorded the enduring Mardi Gras standard “Jock-A-Mo,” died early Saturday while under hospice care following a brief illness. He was 77. Keith I. Marszalek / NOLA.comJames “Sugar Boy” Crawford performs at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2012. “Jock-A-Mo” borrowed its lyrics from age-old Mardi Gras Indian chants. It was later remade by the Dixie Cups as “Iko Iko.” Artists as diverse as Dr. John, the Grateful Dead and Cyndi Lauper also rendered variations.
Mr. Crawford’s own career came to a premature end following a police beating in 1963. Only in recent years did he return to the stage, and then only occasionally.
Dubbed “Sugar Boy” as a child, Mr. Crawford grew up around LaSalle Street. He played trombone while attending Booker T. Washington High School. He also formed a rhythm & blues band that deejay Dr. Daddy-O dubbed the Chapaka Shawee, after one of the band’s instrumentals. The group performed in local clubs and released a single on Aladdin Records.
Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records, happened to hear the Chapaka Shawee at radio station WMRY while in New Orleans. He made what was purportedly an audition tape of the group.
“The man paid me $5, and I went and bought some wine and red beans,” Mr. Crawford recalled for The Times-Picayune’s Sheila Stroup this spring.
Keith I. Marszalek / NOLA.comJames “Sugar Boy” Crawford performs with his grandson Davell Crawford (lower-right) at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2012.
Weeks later, a disc jockey at the station presented Crawford with a 78 rpm record of “I Don’t Know What I’ll Do.” It was manufactured from the audition tape and credited to Sugar Boy & His Cane Cutters.
In November 1953, at age 19, Mr. Crawford recorded his composition “Jock-A-Mo” at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio on North Rampart Street, with a band that included Snooks Eaglin on guitar. He did not know what the lyrics meant.
“It was just a couple of Indian chants I put together and made a song out of them,” he said.
In a 2002 interview with OffBeat magazine, Mr. Crawford said he actually sang “Chock-a-Mo.” But Leonard Chess, listening to the recording in Chicago, heard “Jock-A-Mo” and designated that as the title.
Released on the Chess subsidiary Checker Records, “Jock-A-Mo” was a hit during the 1954 Carnival season and a boon to Mr. Crawford’s career. He became popular on the fraternity circuit at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and toured around the country, even though he was too young to perform in venues where alcohol was served.
“I was so young, they had to send my money home to my people,” he said. “They had to stop serving liquor when I performed.”
Over the next decade, he recorded for various labels, including Imperial Records, releasing such singles as “I Bowed on My Knees,” “You Gave Me Love,” “Morning Star” and “She’s Gotta Wobble (When She Walks).”
Mr. Crawford’s own career came to a premature end following a police beating in 1963. Only in recent years did he return to the stage, and then only occasionally.
Dubbed “Sugar Boy” as a child, Mr. Crawford grew up around LaSalle Street. He played trombone while attending Booker T. Washington High School. He also formed a rhythm & blues band that deejay Dr. Daddy-O dubbed the Chapaka Shawee, after one of the band’s instrumentals. The group performed in local clubs and released a single on Aladdin Records.
Leonard Chess, co-founder of Chess Records, happened to hear the Chapaka Shawee at radio station WMRY while in New Orleans. He made what was purportedly an audition tape of the group.
“The man paid me $5, and I went and bought some wine and red beans,” Mr. Crawford recalled for The Times-Picayune’s Sheila Stroup this spring.
Keith I. Marszalek / NOLA.comJames “Sugar Boy” Crawford performs with his grandson Davell Crawford (lower-right) at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2012.
Weeks later, a disc jockey at the station presented Crawford with a 78 rpm record of “I Don’t Know What I’ll Do.” It was manufactured from the audition tape and credited to Sugar Boy & His Cane Cutters.
In November 1953, at age 19, Mr. Crawford recorded his composition “Jock-A-Mo” at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studio on North Rampart Street, with a band that included Snooks Eaglin on guitar. He did not know what the lyrics meant.
“It was just a couple of Indian chants I put together and made a song out of them,” he said.
In a 2002 interview with OffBeat magazine, Mr. Crawford said he actually sang “Chock-a-Mo.” But Leonard Chess, listening to the recording in Chicago, heard “Jock-A-Mo” and designated that as the title.
Released on the Chess subsidiary Checker Records, “Jock-A-Mo” was a hit during the 1954 Carnival season and a boon to Mr. Crawford’s career. He became popular on the fraternity circuit at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and toured around the country, even though he was too young to perform in venues where alcohol was served.
“I was so young, they had to send my money home to my people,” he said. “They had to stop serving liquor when I performed.”
Over the next decade, he recorded for various labels, including Imperial Records, releasing such singles as “I Bowed on My Knees,” “You Gave Me Love,” “Morning Star” and “She’s Gotta Wobble (When She Walks).”
