Jim Dickinson, Pianist and Player in Memphis Music Scene, Dies at 67 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
Jim Dickinson, Pianist and Player in Memphis Music Scene, Dies at 67 Jim Dickinson, a pianist, singer and producer who helped make Memphis a hot spot for recording artists and who played as a session musician with Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder, died on Saturday in Memphis. He was 67 and lived near Coldwater, Miss.
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The cause was complications of heart surgery, said his wife, Mary Lindsay Dickinson.
Mr. Dickinson spanned several rock ’n’ roll eras. He sang and played piano on one of the Sun label’s last great records, the 1966 song “Cadillac Man” by the Jesters, and, as one of the Dixie Flyers, an Atlantic Records house band, he backed up Aretha Franklin on her 1970 album “Spirit in the Dark.” His piano is heard on the Rolling Stones hit “Wild Horses,” and his producing work with Alex Chilton and Big Star put him in demand as a producer for younger acts like Willy DeVille, the Replacements and Mojo Nixon.
In 1997 he played keyboards on Bob Dylan’s album “Time Out of Mind,” which was named album of the year at the 1998 Grammy Awards.
James Luther Dickinson was born in Little Rock, Ark., and grew up in Chicago and Memphis. Although his mother played piano in the local Baptist church, he learned his most enduring musical lessons from a local bluesman known as Dish Rag, who promised to teach him “the secret of the code,” or so young Jim thought. Actually, the word was “chord.”
After graduating from Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), Mr. Dickinson worked as a session musician at several Memphis studios. At the Sound of Memphis studio in the late 1960s, he and other session players formed the Dixie Flyers, which backed up Atlantic artists like Ms. Franklin, Sam and Dave, Carmen McRae and Jerry Jeff Walker.
During an interview with swampland.com, Mr. Dickinson described his involvement with the Rolling Stones as an accident. At a recording session in 1969 at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, Ian Stewart, the Stones pianist, abruptly left when it came time to record “Wild Horses.” Mr. Dickinson sat down and filled in.
“After we’re doing it for about 45 minutes, Jagger’s in the control room, listening, and he says to Keith, ‘What do you think about the piano?’ ” Mr. Dickinson recalled, referring to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. “I thought: ‘Well here goes. I’m going home now.’ And Keith says, ‘It’s the only thing I like so far.’ ”
Ten years later Mr. Stewart told Mr. Dickinson he left that day because he did not play minor chords.
One of his most productive collaborations was with Ry Cooder, with whom he produced several albums, including “Into the Purple Valley,” and collaborated on music for “Paris, Texas,” “The Long Riders” and other films.
Mr. Dickinson recorded several solo albums, beginning with “Dixie Fried” in 1972. After performing with and producing for the Memphis group Mudboy and the Neutrons in the 1970s and 1980s, he began producing records for groups including Green on Red, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns and Mudhoney.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his two sons, Luther, of Cochran, Miss., and Cody, of Southhaven, Miss. Both are members of the North Mississippi Allstars, a blues-rock band. Mr. Dickinson played keyboards on many of their records, some of which he also produced and recorded at Zebra Ranch, a studio he set up at his home.
