Graham Washington Jackson Sr. (1903-1983)

Graham Washington Jackson Sr. was an African American musician best known as the favorite musician of President Franklin Roosevelt. Jackson performed for six presidents and was affectionately known as “The Ambassador of Good Will” during his six-decade career. Jackson was born in Norfolk Va. on February 22, 1903. As a child, he was recognized as a musical prodigy who could play hymns on the piano before he could write. After his father lost his arm in a hunting accident, his mother was committed to Central State Hospital in Petersburg Va. suffering from severe depression. He was raised in poverty by his aunt. By his teenage years as a student at I.C. Norcom High School, he was proficient at several instruments and was also composing his own music. After graduation in 1924, Jackson moved to Atlanta Georgia to attend Morehouse College. Within months, he formed a jazz band called the Seminole Syncopaters. In April 1924 Jackson’s Seminole Syncopators’ first record, “Blue Grass Blues” (OK 40228A), was recorded in New York. The B side, “Sailing on Lake Pontchartrain” (OK 40228B), was recorded August 30, 1924, in Atlanta, likely at 152 Nassau St., the same location that the first Country music record was recorded in 1923.1 He was also the house pianist at Bailey’s “81” Theatre, performing with many important jazz and blues artists such as Count Basie and Bessie Smit