CHICAGO JAZZ AND THEN SOME by Jean Porter Dmytryk

Jess Stacy, an American jazz pianist during the Big Band Era, when Swing music was popular, is best known for his years with the Benny Goodman band during 1935-1939. He was also the first jazz concert pianist ever to play at Carnegie Hall in Goodman’s historic 1938 concert. The pianist you hear on the hit “Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing)” is Stacy. Stacy played with many renowned musicians and vocalists, such as Bix Beiderbecke, Eddie Condon, Bud Freeman, George Gershwin, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Gene Krupa, Jack Teagarden, and Horace Heidt. He later played with the Bob Crosby Orchestra (Bing Crosby's brother), the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and his own Jess Stacy Band that recorded with vocalist Lee Wiley, to whom he was married. In his later career, he played for Nelson Riddle on the soundtrack of The Great Gatsby (1974). This loving memoir serves as a tribute by actress Jean Porter Dmytryk, Stacy’s longtime friend and neighbor. "Jess Stacy was an exceptionally fine man, and funn