An Uptown New Orleans kid who grew up loving to sing church music, James "Sugar Boy" Crawford (1934- ) first played piano with a locally popular group called The Cha-Pake Sha-Weez. In 1952, under the name The Sha-Weez, they recorded a single with Dve Bartholomew for Aladdin Records - "One Sunday Morning." The 45 went nowhere, but a yer later Leonard Chess ... heard the band rehearsing and gave them $5 - promptly spent on red beans and rice- to record a couple of original numbers for him. ... A month later, one of yjr tunes "I Don't Know What I'll Do" was played on the radio,... The record did reasonably well, enough to justify sending the band ... back into the studio. One of the tunes they cut, "Jock-A-Mo," is quite simply one of the most important songs in the history of New Orleans R&B. (Rick Koster, Louisiana Music p. 116)
Interesting.
In the music library:
On The Cosimo Matassa Story: Jock-a-Mo (Sugar Boy & His Cane Cutters)
On Return of the Mac - In the Studio With Mac Rebennack AKA Dr.John 1959 - 61: Have a Little Mercy
Links: AllMusic James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford James 'Sugar Boy' Crawford dies at 77 James “Sugar Boy” Crawford