He’s Got a Name

1/18/2024 12AM

A.J. Croce, son of the late Jim Croce, took up the piano after losing his vision at age 4. He later regained sight in one eye and was a regularly gigging musician by age 15..

How A.J. Croce came to embrace his father’s legacy

 

By Scott Hall

 

In the annals of pop music glory and tragedy, Jim Croce’s story is as dramatic as any.

 

After working in relative obscurity for several years as a folk singer-songwriter, Croce hit it big in the early 1970s, releasing three albums in 18 months that launched a barrage of hit singles: “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “You Don't Mess Around With Jim,” “Operator,” “I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song,” “Time in a Bottle” and “I’ve Got a Name,” to name a few.

 

The promise ended Sept. 20, 1973, when the 30-year-old rising star and several associates died in the crash of a small charter plane. Left behind were Croce’s wife, Ingrid, and their son, not quite 2 years old, Adrian James.

 

Although A.J. Croce had little chance to know his father, he has spent much of his life coming to terms with Jim Croce’s legacy and how it relates to his own successful but less meteoric career as a musician and songwriter. For many years, he declined to perform or associate himself with his father’s songs, other than running the publishing company that licenses their work for TV, movies and other uses. In recent years, for example, Jim Croce’s tunes have been heard on TV’s Stranger Things and in the X-Men and Fast and Furious film franchises.

 

By phone recently from a tour stop in Florida, A.J. Croce explained why he, as a performer, shied away from those songs for so long.

 

“I’ve been working with my father's music catalog for almost 30 years now, and I thought that was the best way that I could help celebrate his musical legacy – behind the scenes,” he said. “Obviously, from a very young age, I was asked to perform his music and record it and so forth, and it didn't feel right. I didn't feel like there was integrity in me performing it or using his name to gain recognition.”

 

A.J. relaxed that rule over the years, but not until 2019 did he undertake a “Croce Plays Croce” tour, interpreting his father’s hits alongside his own tunes as well as obscurities of American roots music that both men loved, which is a crucial part of the concept. The combination has connected with audiences, selling out two shows last March in the Center’s Tarkington theater with a set list focusing on the elder Croce’s 1972 breakthrough album, You Don’t Mess Around with Jim.

 

The current edition of the tour, booked this time at the larger Palladium on March 30, will mark the 50^th anniversary of Jim’s passing and the release of his final, chart-topping studio albums, Life and Times and I Got a Name. The production features a new multimedia presentation with vintage film clips. The band, expanded from four to six members, includes drummer Gary Mallaber (Van Morrison, Steve Miller Band), bassist/singer David Barard (Dr. John), guitarist/violinist James Pennebaker (Delbert McClinton), and backing singers Jackie Wilson and Katrice Donaldson. 

 

“It’s a much bigger production and an expanded experience,” said A.J., now 52. “Every night it changes, not just because I open the request lines and ask people to request a song they want to hear – and completely deviate from the set every evening to do that – but also because I'm throwing in different songs of mine, and I replace them regularly, and the songs by other artists are changed all the time, so it stays really fresh. The band is always on their toes, and we're always practicing the deeper cuts, because we never know when someone's going to ask for one of the songs that may be popular among fans but may not have been in the Top 10.”

 

So why the change of heart?

 

“A number of events took place in a really natural way that encouraged me to do this, to actually perform his music, and in a kind of unique way,” he said.

 

To understand the evolution, some history is helpful.

 

A child prodigy

After his father’s death, A.J. lost his vision at age 4 as a result of physical abuse by a family acquaintance. He began regaining sight in one eye at age 10, but it was during those six intervening years that he fell in love with music and began playing the piano. He was encouraged by his late father’s friends and by his mother, a musician and entrepreneur who came to own a popular restaurant and music club in San Diego. And there was no shortage of inspiration in his father’s record collection, most notably the work of Ray Charles, whom A.J. considers “my gateway drug.”

 

He went on to discover early jazz and blues artists like Fats Waller and Bessie Smith; the great bandleaders Duke Ellington and Count Basie; the jump blues of Louis Jordan; pioneering rock ‘n’ roll pianists such as Little Richard and Fats Domino; and especially important, New Orleans R&B traditions represented by artists like Allen Toussaint.

 

A.J. Croce proved to be a prodigy on the piano. By age 15, he was gigging several nights a week, and he soon began touring Southern California. At 17, he was called to Nashville for his first recording session, backing “Cowboy” Jack Clements with members of Elvis Presley’s band. At 18, just as he entered college, B.B. King heard him play and hired him for a tour. Before long, he’d be on the road with his idol, Ray Charles.

 

Since 1993, A.J. has released 10 studio albums as a bandleader, incorporating his love of jazz, blues and roots music as well as rock and soul. He has performed with such artists as Willie Nelson and the Neville Brothers. He has co-written with Leon Russell, Dan Penn and other esteemed songsmiths.

 

Meanwhile, over the years, he has been archiving his father’s recordings, including hundreds of homemade tapes that document songs under development, casual jams with friends, and preparations for performances. At one point, he found a tape of Jim playing a series of little-known songs by early 20^th century artists that A.J. himself had discovered and played, independently of his father’s record collection and public repertoire.

 

“It was really eerie,” recalled A.J., who was in his 30s at the time. “These were songs that I had performed since I was 13, 14, 15 years old, old blues songs that were really obscure, jazz, blues, old rock ’n’ roll, old country. Stuff like ‘You're Not the Only Oyster in the Stew’ by Fats Waller. It wasn't just the same artists – it was the same, exact songs. So I was really blown away by this connection. … That is part of this musical legacy of my family, this love of music. It's not just about us. It's about sharing a tradition of great music, and that was when (Croce Plays Croce) all started to make sense.”

Coinciding with the current tour – and with what would have been Jim’s 80^th birthday – BMG has released The Definitive Croce, a three-disc CD or LP box set of Jim’s three best-selling albums. Each is also available individually in vinyl, CD and Dolby Atmos format.

 

For A.J., the new releases are a long-awaited corrective after 50 years of Jim Croce compilation albums – more than 380 in the U.S. alone – put out by various labels that licensed and repackaged the same songs in countless different forms without the family’s involvement.

 

“This is just a wonderful collection of the three albums, and the vinyl sounds so good,” he said. “I listened to it along the way with the acetates, making sure that everything really sounded right, and they did a wonderful job with it.”