R&B great Jackie Shane gets a Heritage Toronto plaque

Black trans trailblazer Jackie Shane is getting a plaque near the site of the Sapphire Tavern at Richmond & Victoria at 9:30 am. 

Celebrating Jackie Shane with a commemorative plaque

Jackie Shane with Frank Motley

It's long overdue, but the groundbreaking work of black transgender R&B belter Jackie Shane is finally being acknowledged in Toronto on Friday (June 23) with a Heritage Toronto plaque near the site of the old Sapphire Tavern. Formerly housed on the ground floor of the Confederation Life building on the north west corner Richmond & Victoria, The Sapphire Tavern is where the classic Jackie Shane Live album was recorded with twin trumpet-blowing bandleader Frank Motley along with pianist Curley Bridges and released in 1967. Jackie Shane left Toronto and left the music business in 1971 to care for her ailing mother in Nashville. 

While Jackie Shane's electrifying performances and house-rockin' 45s were well-known within the record collecting community all through the 80s and 90s, whether the hugely popular Toronto entertainer was still alive wasn't clear. I'd heard rumours that Jackie was dead while others insisted she was now  living a quite life in the southern U.S. but there were no solid leads. In 2009, when I interviewed Curley Bridges – who convinced Frank Motley to hire the singer for the Motley Crew after seeing a spellbinding Montreal performance – he had fond memories of working with Jackie but had zero contact for decades   (read a brief excerpt from the interview here). The CBC audio-documentary I Got Mine: The Jackie Shane Story (listen to it here) produced and presented by Elaine Banks in 2010 got  more of the general public wondering "what happened to this amazing performer I've never heard of?" 

The Jackie Shane Live album was recirculated on CD as Live At The Sapphire Tavern in 2011. Then, in 2015, the Polaris Music Prize instituted their Heritage Award to recognize historically important Canadian album releases and the Jackie Shane Live album was surprisingly shortlisted for the honour. As you might expect, it didn't make the grade. Perhaps 2025 then? But as interest in Jackie Shane seemed to be building it wasn't clear where the singer was, if indeed she was still alive. With a good bit of detective work, Douglas McGowan, an A&R rep from Chicago's Numero Group, eventually found her still residing in Nashville which led to the first artist-sanctioned release of a career-spanning retrospective in 2017. The double LP/CD collection Jackie Shane – Any Other Way (check it out right here) received wide critical acclaim and was even nominated for a 2019 Grammy in the "Best Historical Album" category. Of course, that went to the Voices of Mississippi anthology instead.

Just as the captivating comeback tale of the forgotten trailblazer returning from the depths of obscurity was reaching the general public while trans-related issues were making headlines around the globe, sadly, Jackie Shane passed away at the age 78 at her Nashville home where she lived with her cat Sweetie. But the incredible story of Jackie Shane didn't end with a funeral in February, 2019. 

In 2022, a new Heritage Minute was also created to celebrate the Nashville-born singer whose electrifying performances were a main attraction on the emerging Toronto R&B club scene of the early 60s. A new documentary film, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story is also currently in the works with plans for a theatrical release in 2024. Hopefully it will include more Jackie Shane performance footage than just the one known 1965 clip of "Walking The Dog" from Night Train. Now would be a good time to conduct a more rigorous search of the tape archives held by CBC-TV in Toronto and Montreal as well as Hamilton's CHCH-TV to find any footage of Jackie Shane in action with the Motley Crew during the 60s. The creative team behind the movie is led by producer Amanda Burt of Toronto's Banger Films who launched a crowd-funding campaign to raise funds towards the creation of a plaque honouring Jackie Shane in Toronto. 

 

Well-timed to coincide with this weekend's Pride Toronto celebrations, we're happy to report that thanks in part to Amanda Burt's advocacy, Friday (June 23) will be proclaimed Jackie Shane Day in Toronto and a Heritage Toronto plaque will be erected at Richmond and Victoria! The plaque commemoration ceremony begins on site at 9 am EST and will be streamed on Instagram starting at 9:30 am right here: https://www.instagram.com/thejackieshaneplaque/ 

DJ Nico spoke to Amanda Burt and Toronto-based music historian Rob Bowman – who penned the extensive liner notes accompanying the Numero Group anthology – about Jackie Shane for her Girl About Town show on  Totally Wired Radio which is archived right here.

Check out Jackie Shane's Heritage Minute along with an interview with Ravyn Wingz who portrays Jackie Shane followed by the 1965 performance of "Walking The Dog" from Night Train and Jackie Shane's Live album below. 

Here's the Jackie Shane plaque at the corner of Richmond and Victoria in Toronto.