![]() ![]() Fellow musicians and singers were universal in their praise of Jackson, most calling him “the greatest”, and even the far-from-modest Jelly Roll Morton ranked Jackson as the only musician better than Morton himself. His singing voice was also exceptional, and he was said to be able to sing operatic parts from baritone to soprano range. His repertory included ragtime, cakewalks (one of his show stopping tricks was to dance a high kicking cakewalk while playing the piano), popular songs of the day from the United States and various nations of Europe and Latin America, blues, and light classics. He was said to be able to remember and play any tune he had heard once, and was hardly ever stumped by obscure requests. Jackson became the most popular and sought after entertainer in Storyville. ![]() By age 15 was already considered by many musicians the best pianist in town. Jackson got his first musical job at age 13, when he began playing piano during off hours at a Tonk run by bandleader Adam Olivier. On this contraption young Tony was able to reproduce hymns he heard in church news of this accomplishment soon spread around the neighborhood and he was offered use of neighbors’ pianos and reed organs to practice on. At about the age of 10 he reportedly constructed a type of crude but working and properly tuned harpsichord out of junk in his back yard, since his family lacked the money to buy or rent a piano. Tony showed musical talents at a young age. The 1900 Federal census further reinforces the year and month of birth as October 1882, and his 1918 draft record shows a birth date of October 25, although the year reads 1884. He was born a twin, along with Prince Albert Jackson, who died in New Orleans on January 5, 1884, at fourteen months of age, further reinforcing the October 1882 birth date as correct. Tony did not appear in the 1880 Federal census unlike his older sisters. While some sources claim birth dates back to 1876, and a June 5 date, this was likely an error made by his sister Louvina in a later interview, when she appears to have quoted her own birth information. Jackson was born to a poor African American family in Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana on October 25, 1882. Antonio Junius Jackson, best known as Tony Jackson (OctoApril 20, 1921) was an American pianist, singer, and composer. ![]()
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