Jay Dee R.I.P.
I met Jay Dee last year while record shopping in LA at the Amoeba
Records on Sunset Blvd. I noticed a very frail, skinny, and slow-moving
brother standing next to me browsing through the soul records. Without
immediately knowing exactly who he was, since he was holding a cane,
and looking very meek, I thought to myself that he might be Jay Dee,
since I had heard he was recently in a car accident, which I’m still
not sure is true or not. He was with an older woman, Maureen Yancey,
his mother, who was helping him carry his basket and cane, and
PeanutButter Wolf, the StonesThrow records dude. Anyway, I knew for
sure it was him, after an Amoeba employee approached him and spoke to
him for a while. I overheard the employee, obviously a fan, introduce
himself in a respectful tone to Jay Dee and his mother. After the
employee left, Jay Dee went back to looking through the records with
his mom. He would pull out one every so often and look at the credits
on the back, or show his mother the cover and make a joke about the
artist, like “Look at your Girl!”, and him and his mother would share a
chuckle. Not wanting to disturb him, after a while I simply introduced
myself to him and told him I was a big fan, and appreciated his work. I
remember telling him I appreciated all of his music, and was still
pumping “Let’s Ride” by Q-Tip on my iPod. He was humble and seemed to
genuinely value the respect. I am still not very familiar with his
whole catalogue, and I’m just beginning to become concious of his
wealth of work. Indeed, the list of his production credits
is truly impressive.
It was good to meet the brother one time, and share that moment. I will
definitely miss the contributions that his artistry made to music and
life, but I look forward to going back and discovering the bounty that
he left for us. Rest in Peace James Yancey.