Today I worked all day on a thread: was Jimmy Forrest or was he not a member of the Jay McShann band when they recorded at the Savoy Ballroom (NYC) in 1942? In the process, I stumbled across a JET article from late 1953 stating that he had been sentenced to two years in prison. I'm not after salacious information, only the truth. I did manage to pin down that Jimmy Forrest was in the McShann band from 1940 until the AFM ban or when he joined Andy Kirk and that he was in fact roommates with the Bird.
So, it seems that, after Forrest left the Andy Kirk Orchestra in 1950, he returned to St. Louis and took a day job. He then worked around the Mound City area, recorded with Miles at the Barrelhouse (not the Barrel!), re-united with the Bird in 1953 at the Glass Bar, recorded some hit tunes in Chicago along the way, only to get busted.
Again, I'm trying to document all this stuff, conclusively, as so much information is simply copied from Allmusic.com second and third hand. Tomorrow, I will post this information with sources.
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