Jim Jacobs

Jim Jacobs (born October 7, 1942) is an American composer, lyricist, and writer for the theatre. He is known for writing the book, lyrics and music, with Warren Casey, for the stage and film musical Grease.

Biography

Career

Jacobs was born on October 7, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois to Harold, a factory foreman, and Norma (Mathison) Jacobs. Jacobs attended Taft High School, during which time he played guitar and sang with a band called DDT & the Dynamiters. When he was 11, his idol was Bill Haley, but when he was fourteen it was Elvis Presley. He also cites Buddy Holly, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis as influences.

When he was a teenager, he would imitate playing a guitar with a broomstick. He eventually convinced his parents to pay for guitar lessons. After four lessons, he quit and decided to buy a guitar book and teach himself. From this, his found a simple chord structure: C, A minor, F, G7—this would later be Those Magic Changes featured in Grease.

In 1963, he became involved with a local theatre group that included Warren Casey, The Chicago Playwrights Center (at that time it was called Hull House Playwrights Center)run by artistic director Robert Sickinger.

Jimmy Jacobs (handballer)

James Leslie 'Jimmy' Jacobs (February 18, 1930 – March 23, 1988) was an American handball player, boxing manager, Academy Award nominee and comic book and fight film collector.

Handball

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Jacobs grew up in a single-parent family in Los Angeles. He dropped out of high school before completing his education but excelled at numerous sports, including baseball, basketball, football and handball. He was credited with running 100 yards (91 m) in under ten seconds, winning a skeet shooting championship and shooting rounds of golf in the low 70s. Jacobs was offered the chance to try out for the US Olympic basketball team but declined in order to focus on handball. Jacobs was drafted into the army during the Korean War and was awarded a Purple Heart.

In four-wall handball, Jacobs won his first American singles championship in 1955, defeating Vic Hershkowitz in the final. In total, he won six American singles championships and six doubles championships (partnering Marty Decatur). He was additionally a three time national champion in three-wall handball. Between 1955 and 1969, he won every national handball competition match he played in. In 1966, Robert H. Boyle of Sports Illustrated wrote: "Jacobs is generally hailed as the finest player of all time. Indeed, there are those who say Jacobs is the best athlete, regardless of sport, in the country." In 1970, he was recognised by the US Handball Association as the "Greatest Handball Player of the Generation."

Hand jive

The hand jive is a dance particularly associated with music of the 1950s, rhythm and blues in particular. It involves a complicated pattern of hand moves and claps at various parts of the body, following and/or imitating the percussion instruments. It resembles a highly elaborate version of pat-a-cake. Hand moves include thigh slapping, cross-wrist slapping, fist pounding, hand clapping, and hitch hike moves.

In 1957 when filmmaker Ken Russell was a freelance photographer, he recorded the teenagers of Soho, London hand-jiving in the basement of The Cat's Whisker coffee bar, where the hand-jive was invented. According to an article in the Daily Mirror, "it's so crowded the girls hand-jive to the band as there's no room for dancing." Russell told interviewer Leo Benedictus of The Guardian that "the place was crowded with young kids... the atmosphere was very jolly. Wholesome... everyone jiving with their hands because there was precious little room to do it with their feet... a bizarre sight. The craze fascinated me. It seemed like a strange novelty; I used to join in."

Hand Jive (album)

Hand Jive is a studio album by jazz musician John Scofield.

Track listing

All compositions written by John Scofield.

Personnel

References