Gospel singer Jessy Dixon, toured with Paul Simon
CHICAGO - Jessy Dixon, a singer and songwriter who introduced his energetic style of gospel music to wider audiences by serving as pop-singer Paul Simon's opening act, died yesterday. He was 73.
CHICAGO
- Jessy Dixon, a singer and songwriter who introduced his energetic style of gospel music to wider audiences by serving as pop-singer Paul Simon's opening act, died yesterday. He was 73.
Miriam Dixon said her brother died at his Chicago home. She said he had been sick but declined to provide details.
During a more than 50-year career, Dixon wrote songs for several performers, including jazz and rhythm and blues singer Randy Crawford. He later wrote songs performed by Cher, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant.
But it was for his gospel singing - religious music that combined the rhythmic beat of blues, jazz and soul - that Dixon first gained attention. It was during an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 with his Jessy Dixon Singers that Dixon came to Simon's attention. For the next eight years, Dixon toured with the pop icon, collaborating on Simon's 'Live Rhymin' Simon' and 'Still Crazy' albums.
Dixon also played keyboard with Earth Wind and Fire and guitarist Phillip Upchurch.
Dixon, who began studying music at age 5, aspired to be classical pianist, but said in a 1997 interview that he always knew his talent was destined for use in the church.
Born March 12, 1938, in San Antonio, Dixon's professional compass was set by gospel music legend James Cleveland, who heard Dixon's teen group perform at a theatre in the south Texas city. Dixon said that Cleveland liked the group, but he liked Dixon more and persuaded him to move to Chicago to join his group, the Gospel Chimes, as both a singer and pianist.
Chicago's South Side was the place to be for a gospel musician, especially in the early 1960s.
"Going to church was like going to school," Dixon said. At church, he heard the likes of Mahalia Jackson and blues pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey, credited with creating modern gospel singing.
In the United States, Dixon was a longtime fixture on composer and singer Bill Gaither's Gospel Series, a video concert broadcast on religious oriented cable television stations.