Francis Clay

Francis Clay served as a cornerstone of Chicago’s postwar blues and jazz circles, above all through his work with the Muddy Waters Band at the height of its influence in the closing years of the 1950s. Born on November 16, 1923, in Rock Island, Mississippi, he grew up in a household steeped in music: his father, who earned his living as a waiter, mastered several instruments, while his uncle maintained a professional career on drums. In his teenage years Clay built a makeshift kit and trained himself, entering a neighborhood jazz group upon reaching age 15. Orchestra jobs followed, and in 1941 he launched Francis Clay & His Syncopated Rhythm, performing at circuses and on riverboats behind such featured acts as burlesque superstar Gypsy Rose Lee.

He relocated to Chicago in 1947 and soon accompanied George “Harmonica” Smith, trumpeter King Kolax, and saxophonist Gene Ammons; for a stretch he also ran his own booking agency. Clay entered the Waters organization in 1957 when the blues legend suddenly required a drummer hours before a Cleveland engagement; saxophonist Marcus Johnson proposed his friend, who took the stage without rehearsal and muddled through the set. “It was a disaster,” he later recalled. “We stumbled through a few songs…actually, Muddy taught me how to play the blues. He sat on the drums and did it himself, and it was so simple—I guess that’s why I couldn’t get it.”

Within days Clay absorbed the band’s material and stayed four years, an interval highlighted by the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival performance that produced the landmark live album Muddy Waters at Newport. After leaving in 1961 to join harpist James Cotton, he returned in 1965 for another two-year run that included appearances on such enduring Chicago blues dates as John Lee Hooker’s Live at Cafe Au Go Go and Otis Spann’s The Blues Is Where It’s At. Once more departing Waters, Clay rejoined Cotton for West Coast dates, yet persistent health concerns led him to settle in San Francisco as the decade closed; there he recorded extensively for the regional roots label Arhoolie, supporting artists that ranged from Texas blues icon Lightnin’ Hopkins to zydeco immortal Clifton Chenier.

Activity tapered during the 1970s, and by the mid-1980s an arthritic knee permanently curtailed his playing. In 1995 the blues press noted his financial straits, prompting the Oakland jazz club Yoshi’s to stage an all-star benefit concert on his behalf. Clay continued occasional live and studio work in the years that followed, delivering his final recorded performance on guitarist Roy Rogers’ 2002 album Slideways. He died January 23, 2008, at the age of 84.