One of the Swing Era’s piano greats who isn’t as well known today as those named above was Jess Stacy. Stacy was born in Missouri in 1904 and grew up in Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi River. At 14, Stacy was captivated by the music played on riverboats arriving from New Orleans and eventually played with Bix Beiderbecke in the 1920s and other artists and bands in the 1930s. He joined Benny Goodman in the mid-1930s, playing with the band at the famed Palomar Ballroom concert in 1935 and at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Stacy, who was influenced by Hines and Wilson, left Goodman in the early 1940s, rejoined in ’42 before leaving for Tommy Dorsey. He moved to Los Angeles in the ’50s but left the music business after being heckled by a drunk in a small club. For a time, he was married to singer Lee Wiley.
