Jaxyson Records was founded by Black entrepreneur Jesse Jaxyson in 1948 in Oakland, California, at 1606, 7th Street. He and his wife owned a radio repair shop in the city, where Jesse was able to set up a small recording studio. Bob Geddins took the recordings that Jesse made, mastered them and pressed the discs, so it is possible that the Jaxyson label (pronounced Jackson) was inspired by the labels that Geddins had created in 1945 and 1947 (Big Town and Down Town). It is likely that the performers who were invited to record for Jaxyson were local artists, who would not have been well-known outside the Bay Area. As a result, it is a fair assumption that the Jaxysons may have sold their production from the radio shop, without wider distribution.
Like Geddins, Jaxyson was interested in recording Blues and Gospel music. Recordings by nine different acts are known, with twenty-five tracks currently listed. The dates of most of the recordings are not known, but it is likely that the operation only lasted a year or two.
The best-known name on the roster is Johnny Fuller. He was born in Mississippi but grew up in Oakland. He made his first ever recordings at Jaxyson in 1948 at the age of nineteen. They were two Gospel tracks, “Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow” and “I Must Tell Jesus”. A third song, “From Bad To Worse”, was also recorded during the sessions but not issued by Jaxyson. It is a secular piano and guitar Blues track that gives an early indication of Fuller’s future direction.
The two Gospel tracks were released on two singles, shared with a second Gospel artist, Charles White, who was a blind street singer. He became a guitar evangelist, credited by Document Records as the Rev. Charles White.
White’s contribution to the two singles shared with Johnny Fuller are “Stand By Me” and “Well Done”. Fuller played guitar on both songs. White also recorded two further tracks, “How Long” and “Didn’t It Rain”. He probably made no more recordings anywhere.
Johnny Fuller, on the other hand, went on to build a significant career on the West Coast as a Blues singer. He recorded for Kent/ Flair (1954), Money (1954), Rhythm Recordings, Rhythm, and Hollywood (all 1954), Aladdin (1955), Imperial (1956), Irma (1956), Specialty (1958), Veltone and Art-Tone (1960), and Wax in San Francisco (1962). The recordings were all made in California except the tracks for Imperial, which were done in New Orleans. He died in Oakland in 1985.
There were two more Blues singers on the roster at Jaxyson, Joseph Butler, who recorded as Black Diamond, and Goldrush, about whom nothing is known. They shared a single in 1948, which paired Goldrush’s “All My Money Is Gone” with Black Diamond’s “Lonesome Blues”. Both tracks are excellent Country Blues. “All My Money Is Gone” has a piano backing, while “Lonesome Blues” features Joseph Butler’s guitar.
The remainder of the Jaxysons’ recordings are Gospel tracks by Sister Rita, the Rainbow Gospel Singers, the Gospel Trumpets, the Rev. R. H. Narcisse, and Susan Bennett.
In 2008, the UK label Acrobat issued a compilation of the Jaxyson tracks on CD. It contains all the singles described above, plus seven tracks by unknown artists, some secular and some Gospel. It is a mystery tour around West Coast Blues and Gospel.
