Jesse Crawford

Jesse Crawford (December 2, 1895 – May 28, 1962) was an American pianist and organist. He was well known in the 1920s as a theatre organist for silent films and as a popular recording artist. In the 1930s, he switched to the Hammond organ and became a freelancer. In the 1940s, he authored instruction books on organ and taught organ lessons.

Early life He was born in Woodland, California. He next played briefly at theatres in Billings, Montana, Spokane, Washington, and Seattle. When he met Oliver Wallace, Crawford learned about the new types of theatre organ sounds. Crawford's next jobs were playing at the Strand in San Francisco and the Mission Theatre in Los Angeles.

1920s: silent movie organist In the 1920s, Crawford began forming a fan base and was dubbed the "Poet of the Organ" for his style of playing ballads in Chicago. In 1921, he was employed by the Balaban and Katz theatre chain playing its 29-rank Wurlitzer in the Chicago Theatre. Likewise, Crawford was hired to play a large Wurlitzer organ in Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, Los Angeles.

After some recordings for the small local Autograph Records label, Crawford made a series of gramophone records for the Victor Records label, which proved very popular with record buyers. He had hits such as "Rose Marie," "Valencia," and "Russian Lullaby."

Teaching and instruction book author In 1940, the self-taught Crawford undertook his first formal music study with Joseph Schillinger, whose other students included George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller and the movie score composers Leith Stevens and Nathan Van Cleave.

Crawford recorded Hammond organ LPs for Decca Records and worked and began writing and producing sheet music song arrangements for Hammond organ and instruction books. He also taught organ students, both in one-on-one lessons and in class style lessons, where he mostly lectured. Some of his students became quite well known and accomplished in their own right, probably the best example being Hal Pearl whose career stretched over 70 years. Hal became known as 'The King of the Organ.' Jesse recorded his last two LPs on the Simonton Wurlitzer organ.

Death Jesse Crawford died in Los Angeles, in May 1962, at the age of 66.