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Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1919, Jackie Washington began singing at events in the black community in his home town at age 5. He and his brothers sang four part harmony and soon were singing in nightclubs around southern Ontario. After learning to play the guitar, Jackie began to appear with visiting big bands like Duke Ellington, Glen Miller and Benny Goodman. He worked outside of music business in the 1940s and fifties, at a day job, but still made occasional appearances with jazz groups. Twenty years later Jackie was discovered by the folk music scene and was adopted as Canada’s resident blues man, a complete misnomer. He has been playing his repertoire of 1,300 or so jazz standards and novelty tunes at folk festivals and clubs ever since. This year, at the age of 89, Jackie is booked for several festivals in Canada. his 84th year in show business. His recent recordings can be found at Borealis records.

This is a clip from a bio film I Want To Be Happy made in 2006. There is a short sample of his singing and playing and Jackie tells the story of his first guitar.

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