Jess Stacy, 90; Jazz Pianist Played With Goodman

Jess Stacy, jazz and swing pianist who achieved his highest recognition playing with Benny Goodman’s band, has died at age 90.

Stacy died Sunday of heart failure at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles.

Largely self-taught, the Missouri-born Stacy began his career playing on riverboats. He worked as a pianist in Goodman’s orchestra from 1935 to 1939.

Stacy’s most famous performance came in 1938, when he played with Goodman’s band in the first jazz concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Stacy’s improvisation on the famed performance of “Sing, Sing, Sing” is considered one of the great piano solos in jazz.

In 1940, Stacy was named best pianist by the Down Beat poll.

In the 1940s, he worked with big bands including those led by Bob Crosby, Horace Heidt and Tommy Dorsey, and in 1945, formed his own orchestra.

Stacy was a prolific recording artist, releasing solo albums and appearing on records by Goodman, Crosby, Eddie Condon, Ziggy Elman, Lionel Hampton and many others.

He worked in Chicago before joining Goodman’s band and in 1947 moved to Los Angeles, where he mainly worked in bars. He ceased appearances as a professional musician in the late 1950s, but came out of retirement for a few public performances, including the 1974 Newport Jazz Festival.

In addition to his wife, Pat, Stacy is survived by a son, Fred; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.