Early life Roddy Jackson was born in
Fresno, California, moving to
Merced as a child. His father was a singer and pianist who toured with
The Sons of the Pioneers. Jackson learned to play drums and piano, forming his first group, The Dreamers, when aged 12 in 1954, and began performing on radio station
KYOS. He also learned to play clarinet, trumpet and trombone, but concentrated on the
alto saxophone and later
tenor sax. In 1956, after becoming influenced by
Fats Domino and
Little Richard, he formed a new multi-racial rock and roll band, the Blue Notes, from among his friends at
high school. They quickly became popular around Merced, and were mentored by local fire chief George Coolures, who helped win them an audition at
Specialty Records with the label's
A&R man,
Sonny Bono. Bono convinced label owner
Art Rupe to sign Jackson as a solo artist, but not the rest of the Blue Notes. However, the record failed to chart, a fate also suffered by his third Specialty single, "Any Old Town" / "Gloria", recorded in March 1959 with Hall, Palmer, and saxophonist
Lee Allen.
Later life and death Jackson continued to make occasional local performances. He re-emerged more publicly in the 1990s, and started making regular festival appearances in the United Kingdom, France, and elsewhere. A compilation album,
Central Valley Fireball, comprising his Specialty singles together with unreleased recordings, was issued by
Ace Records in 2007. Jackson died on December 7, 2022, at the age of 80. ==Discography==