Big Jay McNeely made some of the biggest waves on the 1940s R&B scene with his screaming tenor sax and still reigns supreme

His mighty tenor sax squawking and bleating with wild abandon, Cecil “Big Jay” McNeely blew up a torrid R&B tornado from every conceivable position — on his knees, on his back, being wheeled down the street on an auto mechanic’s “creeper” like a modern-day pied piper. As one of the titans who made tenor sax the solo instrument of choice during rock’s primordial era in the late 1940s, McNeely could peel the paper right off the walls with his sheets of squealing, honking horn riffs.

Big Jay had been retired from full-time music for 20 years, but in 1983 he returned to performing and hasn’t looked back. He is still tearing it up at venues around the world and knows how to delight and entertain an audience of any size, from small clubs to stadium crowds. He speaks here with Linda A. Rapka about his incredible musical career.

You became known as “the king of the honkers” as much for your skill on your instrument as for your flamboyant stage presence.
“I first started playing in Clarksville, Tennessee, a small little country town down south. People didn’t respond to our music. After intermission I was trying to figure out what I could do, so I got on my knees and laid on the floor. The crowd went wild. After that I said lemme try this again. I laid down anywhere I could get the suit clean the next day. When I got to L.A. a couple sax players started copying my act.” Continue reading →