Big Jay McNeely

Cecil James (Big Jay) McNeely (born on April 29, 1927 in Los Angeles, California), is an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist.

McNeely is known for his intense playing and his energetic and acrobatic stage performa

Cecil James (Big Jay) McNeely (born on April 29, 1927 in Los Angeles, California), is an American rhythm and blues tenor saxophonist.

McNeely is known for his intense playing and his energetic and acrobatic stage performances. For example, at a 1949 concert in the old Wrigley Field baseball stadium in Los Angeles he played while walking through the stands and then while crawling from home plate to first base on his back. At a performance at the Apollo Theater in New York City in 1999, at the age of 72, he jumped onto the stage from the audience and later, wearing fluorescent gloves, played a fluorescent saxophone while break dancing under ultraviolet light. In the early 1950s his ability to whip teenagers into a frenzy was so disturbing to civic authorities in Los Angeles that he was banned from playing in most of Los Angeles county.