The man was also a composer, singer, bandleader, nightclub owner, and radio, TV host.
By Matt Schudel
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Chubby Jackson, a renowned jazz bass player who was the rhythmic soul of the Woody Herman band in the 1940s, died Wednesday at his home near San Diego, Calif. He was 84 and was ill with cancer.

An irrepressible spirit as well as a groundbreaking musician, Jackson was also a composer, singer, bandleader, nightclub owner, and radio and television host during his six-decade career. He continued to perform occasionally with his son, drummer Duffy Jackson, and other groups into his 80s.

Jackson was born Oct. 25, 1918, in New York City. His given name was Greig Stewart Jackson, but because of his physique – he once weighed 263 pounds – he was universally known as “Chubby.” Both of his parents performed on Broadway and in vaudeville, and he grew up in a show-business world. While still a teenager, he worked in swing bands around New York, gaining recognition as a major force on the bass in 1941, when he joined the big band of Charlie Barnet.

In 1943, he became the bassist for Woody Herman’s famous “First Herd,” whose lineup was an all-star team of jazz musicians. Jackson recruited many of the band’s more celebrated members, including saxophonist Flip Phillips, trombonist Bill Harris, trumpeter Pete Candoli and drummer Dave Tough. In his three years with the First Herd, Jackson composed several classic songs, including “Northwest Passage,” “Caldonia” and “Lemon Drop.”

Known for his exuberant performing style, Jackson often punctuated his music with excited shouts of “Yeah!” He helped make the Herman band one of the most rhythmically dynamic groups in the history of jazz, ranked by critics on a par with the ensembles of Count Basie and Duke Ellington.

After the band briefly broke up, Jackson led his own groups before rejoining Herman’s “Second Herd” in 1948. He opened a nightclub on Long Island in 1949 and worked intermittently with Herman through the 1950s. For 10 years, he was the host of a children’s television show, first in Chicago, and later in New York, called Chubby’s Rascals, on which he led a big band and presented movies.

After moving to South Florida in the mid-1960s, Jackson was a jazz disc jockey in the 1970s, while continuing to work as a musician. He also lived in Las Vegas and Los Angeles before settling in Rancho Bernardo, Calif. Until the last two years, he occasionally appeared as a singer alongside his son, Duffy.

“It is my sincere honor to have been taught music by my father, one of the true champions of jazz,” said Duffy Jackson, who lives in Hollywood, Fla. “We were the only father-son bass-and-drum team in the history of jazz.”

A born storyteller and jokester, Jackson was popular with his fellow musicians. Among others, he recorded with Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, J.J. Johnson, Gerry Mulligan and Zoot Sims. In 1958, Jackson was one of 57 jazz musicians photographed on a Harlem street by Art Kane for Esquire magazine. The photograph became the subject of a 1994 documentary, “A Great Day in Harlem.” Jackson was interviewed for the film, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Margot; by his children, Myno, Duffy and Jaijai; by their mother and his first wife, Joan; and by one grandchild.

“He’s jamming with Woody’s band now,” said Duffy Jackson. “I’m trying to continue the legacy of the Jackson groove.”