The legendary Canadian blues artist Jackie Washington passed away over the weekend. At the age of 5 he began singing professionally with his brothers as The Four Washington Brothers. He would go on to work with artists like Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot and dozens of others. He became Canada’s first black disc jockey in 1948, and he would gather a repertoire of over 1200 songs. He was the subject of a documentary film and several books and received numerous honors in his native Canada.

(Note – he is not to be confused with folksinger/actor Jackie Landron who used the stage name of Jackie Washington when he performed in folk clubs and recorded for Vanguard in the early to mid-1960s.)

Here is a note we received about his passing:

To everyone,