Floyd Dixon
Pianist and singer Floyd Dixon was a key link from the big band and swing sounds
of the early twentieth century to the gospel-influenced R&B and soul that was to
follow, perhaps best embodied by the story that Dixon encouraged a young Ray
Charles to blend the sacred and the profane in his own music. Born in Marshall,
Texas, on February 8, 1929, Dixon moved to Los Angeles with his family as a
teenager and had signed his first record deal by the time he was 20. He quickly
began cutting jump blues singles as the Floyd Dixon Trio, and also as a member
of Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers ...
