Obie Jessie -Exclusive Interview - Tues, Jan, 13th 2015 at 7:00 pm PST

Born Obediah Don bell Jessie, 28 December 1936, Lincoln Manor, Texas, Young Jessie embodies the primal blend of R & B and rock 'n' roll. Though he never scored a national hit, he has succeeded in making a living out of music for the past 55 years and is still active today. Obie, as he likes to be called, was born in a suburb of Dallas. His father, James Jessie, was a cook and had no musical accomplishments, while his mother, Melinda Harris (nicknamed Plunky) was a housewife who confined her piano playing to home and church. She taught Obie how to play ukelele and piano. In 1946, the Jessie family relocated to Los Angeles, where Melinda exposed Obie to jazz concerts by the greats of the day (Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton a.o.). After Obie's grandmother became ill in 1950, he and his mother returned to Dallas, where he began his study of music (piano and sax) and joined the high school band. He completed his education at Jefferson High in Los Angeles where he met Johnny Watson and Richard Berry. With the latter and three others, Jessie formed a vocal group, as yet unnamed, who auditioned for John Dolphin. They recorded their first single ("I Had A Love", written by Jessie) in 1953 for Dolphin's Recorded In Hollywood label. Dolphin credited them as The Hollywood Blue Jays, a name he had previously used for another gospel-oriented group. "We were pretty dissatisfied and thought We gotta get ourselves a real record company", says Obie. That company was Modern/RPM Records, run by the Bihari brothers. Their first record for the label was a remake of "I Had A Love". The Biharis dubbed the group The Flairs and put them on their new subsidiary label Flair.