Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (born Edward L. Vinson Jr.; December 18, 1917 – July 2, 1988) was an American

jump blues Jump blues is an uptempo style of blues, jazz, and boogie woogie usually played by small groups and featuring horn instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll. Appreciation of jump blues wa ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

and R&B alto

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

and

blues shouter A blues shouter is a blues singer, capable of singing unamplified with a band. Notable blues shouters include: *Big Maybelle *Big Mama Thornton *Piney Brown *Walter Brown (singer), Walter Brown, of the Jay McShann orchestra *Beulah Bryant *H-Bomb F ...

. He was nicknamed "Cleanhead" after an incident in which his hair was accidentally removed by

lye Lye is the common name of various alkaline solutions, including soda lye (a solution of sodium hydroxide) and potash lye (a solution of potassium hydroxide). Lyes are used as cleaning products, as ingredients in soapmaking, and in various other c ...

contained in a hair-straightening product, necessitating shaving it off; enamoured of the look, Vinson maintained a shaved head thereafter. Music critic

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...

has called Vinson "one of the cleanest, and nastiest, blues voices you'll ever hear."

Biography

Vinson was born in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. He started out with Milton Larkin's orchestra in the 1930s. At various times, he was with

Tom Archia Ernest Alvin Archia, Jr. (November 26, 1919 – January 16, 1977) known as Tom Archia, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Early life Archia was born in Groveton, Texas, moving with his family as a child to Rockdale and then Baytown, ...

, while other members of the band included Cedric Haywood and Wild Bill Davis. He then played for

Big Bill Broonzy Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1893 or 1903August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African-American audiences. In the 19 ...

. During the 1940s, he was with the

Cootie Williams Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams (July 10, 1911 – September 15, 1985) was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter. Biography Born in Mobile, Alabama, Williams began his professional career at the age of 14 with the Yo ...

Orchestra. He recorded such tunes as "Cherry Red". There is some controversy over who composed " Four". He died aged 70 in 1988, from a heart attack while undergoing

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

, in Los Angeles, California.

Discography

With

Oliver Nelson Oliver Edward Nelson (June 4, 1932 – October 28, 1975) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. His 1961 Impulse! album '' The Blues and the Abstract Truth'' (1961) is regarded as one of the most signi ...

* '' Swiss Suite'' (

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

, 1971 el. 1972 With

Arnett Cobb Arnett Cleophus Cobb (August 10, 1918 – March 24, 1989)
accessed July 2010. was an American tenor saxophonist, somet ...

and the Muse All Stars * '' Live at Sandy's!'' (

Muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

5191, 1978 el. 1980 * ''More Arnett Cobb and the Muse All Stars (Live at Sandy's!)'' (Muse 5236, 1978 el. 1983 With

Buddy Tate George Holmes "Buddy" Tate (February 22, 1913 – February 10, 2001) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Tate was born in Sherman, Texas, United States, and first played the alto saxophone. According to the website All Ab ...

and the Muse All Stars * '' Live at Sandy's'' (Muse 5198, 1978 el. 1980 * '' Hard Blowin' (Live at Sandy's)'' (Muse 5249, 1978 el. 1984 With Helen Humes and the Muse All Stars * ''Helen Humes and the Muse All Stars'' (Muse 5217, 1978 el. 1980 - with Arnett Cobb and Buddy Tate

References

External links

Houston's own, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson!NBR: Blues and Jazz Get Rollicking Together
*
All About Jazz: Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vinson, Eddie 1917 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American saxophonists 20th-century American singers American blues singers American jazz alto saxophonists American male jazz musicians American male saxophonists American rhythm and blues musicians Bebop saxophonists Black & Blue Records artists Black Lion Records artists Jazz musicians from Houston Jazz musicians from Texas JSP Records artists Jump blues musicians Muse Records artists Musicians from Houston New York blues musicians Pablo Records artists Rhythm and blues saxophonists West Coast blues musicians West Coast blues saxophonists