Biography
Jesse "Babyface" Thomas, the brother of Texas bluesman Willard "Ramblin'" Thomas, attained far less recognition than his sibling. Born in 1911 in the small settlement of Logansport, Louisiana, near the Texas border, he remained close to his brother throughout childhood, sharing fieldwork and mutual musical ambitions that led them to perform together. He arrived in Dallas in 1929 during the height of popularity for Blind Lemon Jefferson and Lonnie Johnson. That year, at age eighteen, Thomas completed his first recordings for Victor, issuing four sides that brought little commercial response. He deliberately avoided his brother’s slide guitar approach and instead adopted a fingerpicking style modeled on Blind Blake, Lonnie Johnson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
In the early 1940s Thomas moved to Los Angeles, breaking contact with his sibling and leaving behind the traveling musician’s existence of the previous decade. There he encountered and performed alongside players shaped by jazz and the more urbane forms of blues then flourishing in major cities. When he resumed recording in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, these influences surfaced clearly, along with a growing command of songwriting. He favored upbeat and romantic themes over his brother’s material and delivered a strongly rhythmic, animated guitar style. The track “Double Do Love You” recalled T-Bone Walker at his best and anticipated Chuck Berry by six or seven years. Thomas also thrived in band settings, pitting his guitar against piano work by Lonnie Lyons and Lloyd Glenn and saxophone contributions from Sam Williams and Conrad Johnson. Between 1948 and 1958 he recorded for Milltone, Freedom, Modern, Swing Time, Hollywood, Specialty, and Elko, and briefly ran his own Club Records label at the close of the 1940s.
His very versatility may have limited his recording career commercially. Unlike his brother, who stayed rooted in rural traditions, Thomas kept expanding his range, so that by the late 1940s he was producing R&B rather than pure blues as both singer and guitarist, shifting his sound with nearly every release and working across varied group contexts, each effective yet distinct. He was already performing what would later be called rock & roll years before the term existed and was cutting solid Chess Records-style rock & roll in the mid-1950s. Returning to Shreveport in 1957, he cut sides for Hollywood Records. He remained active at least through the 1970s and 1980s, founding another label, Red River. His final session took place in 1992, at age eighty-one, again in a country-blues format with a small group, his playing skills undiminished. Thomas died in 1995 at the age of eighty-four after a sixty-year career in music.
In the early 1940s Thomas moved to Los Angeles, breaking contact with his sibling and leaving behind the traveling musician’s existence of the previous decade. There he encountered and performed alongside players shaped by jazz and the more urbane forms of blues then flourishing in major cities. When he resumed recording in Los Angeles in the late 1940s, these influences surfaced clearly, along with a growing command of songwriting. He favored upbeat and romantic themes over his brother’s material and delivered a strongly rhythmic, animated guitar style. The track “Double Do Love You” recalled T-Bone Walker at his best and anticipated Chuck Berry by six or seven years. Thomas also thrived in band settings, pitting his guitar against piano work by Lonnie Lyons and Lloyd Glenn and saxophone contributions from Sam Williams and Conrad Johnson. Between 1948 and 1958 he recorded for Milltone, Freedom, Modern, Swing Time, Hollywood, Specialty, and Elko, and briefly ran his own Club Records label at the close of the 1940s.
His very versatility may have limited his recording career commercially. Unlike his brother, who stayed rooted in rural traditions, Thomas kept expanding his range, so that by the late 1940s he was producing R&B rather than pure blues as both singer and guitarist, shifting his sound with nearly every release and working across varied group contexts, each effective yet distinct. He was already performing what would later be called rock & roll years before the term existed and was cutting solid Chess Records-style rock & roll in the mid-1950s. Returning to Shreveport in 1957, he cut sides for Hollywood Records. He remained active at least through the 1970s and 1980s, founding another label, Red River. His final session took place in 1992, at age eighty-one, again in a country-blues format with a small group, his playing skills undiminished. Thomas died in 1995 at the age of eighty-four after a sixty-year career in music.
Albums
Elko Blues, Vol. 2
2015
Burn The Boats
2014
War Dancer
2014
Hazel
2010
Easy in the Apple
2004
Blues is a Feeling
2001
Christmas Celebration
1951
Singles
