Jimmy Collins

Location: Honolulu, HI

Challenge: Paraplegic

Website: facebook.com/JimmyCollinsIII

Jimmy Collins loved singing in church as a kid. when he was 10, he moved back to DC with his family. Jimmy adds "I was an Army brat, and my mom wanted to get me into St. Albans, a prestigious private school. She found out there were spots open for Cathedral Choir choristers, and I passed the audition into one of the best choirs in the world". Jimmy sang Soprano in the National Cathedral, and even sang on TV twice a year at Christmas and Easter, and once, in 1963, sadly, at the televised memorial service for President Kennedy.

As Jimmy's dad’s career took him overseas, he went off to boarding school for 8th grade, where he continued to sing as my voice changed to tenor and then baritone. He adds "I even took a turn on the stage playing Sky Masterson in the musical Guys and Dolls. The next day was the first time in my 5 year stay at the school that everyone seemed to regard me as a kid with real talent and real prospects. Many said they expected to see me on the Broadway stage someday".

In 1971, Jimmy survived a bad fall that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He adds "It affected my chest muscles that controlled the expansion of my lungs. I could no longer hold long notes while singing, and felt my singing career was over".

Jimmy moved out to California to escape the hold winter snow and ice would have on his wheelchair. He adds "When I got to Monterey, and found a community of Vietnam Vets attending the local junior college, and fell in with a guitar player named Jim French. He got me interested in playing guitar, and an instrument that my mom had given me for Christmas when I was 10: the harmonica".

The fact that Jimmy could breathe in and out as he played, reduced that impact of having limited lung capacity on my musical control of the instrument. He says "There’s no way I could have successfully played any other wind instrument, and I fell in love with the harmonica". Jimmy soon started jamming around the Monterey Peninsula, but Tilly Gort’s Coffee House became his musical home. He adds "Jim French and I and many others often took the stage, with coins tinkling in the tip can as we played. Those were good times, and I learned a lot about the guitar at that time". Jimmy also learned to use his diaphragm to replace his inter-costal chest muscles in controlling his lungs.

In 1975, Jimmy moved up to Mt. Shasta, where he attended the College of the Siskiyous. There, he joined the Vocal Jazz Ensemble, directed by a young Kirby Shaw. He was just starting out as an arranger of pop songs for choral groups. He took a shine to my vocal abilities, and arranged Take It Easy and Shower the People for me to sing the lead part. They took the group on the road down to the Bay Area to play high schools and an amusement park. Kirby has gone on to a long successful career, and his music continues to this day.

While living in Mt. Shasta, Jimmy joined a couple bands that no one has heard of: Cozmic Country and Room to Move, (after the John Mayall song). They played every weekend and holidays, playing bars, weddings and county fairs all over Northern California and Southern Oregon. He adds "We always got a drinking crowd that loved to dance. Getting people to dance it the key to getting them to drink more, and bar owners loved us".

Jimmy adds "I left this life as a wandering harp player, rhythm guitarist and vocalist to go back to school and get my BA in History and my teaching credential in Social Studies, English, Physics and Biology. I gradually stopped performing, and the onslaught of 5 classrooms of high school kids a day forced me to let my guitar skills and callouses wash away. The ability to teach higher order thinking skills took their place. 20 years would go by. Fortunately, harmonica playing doesn’t require callouses, and I managed to keep up those skills pretty well".

As retirement approached, Jimmy took up the ukulele. He started showing up at a kanikapila in Elk Grove, California, where transplant Hawaiians gathered to sing songs and play their ukes, or “ooks”, as they would say. He adds "I would occasionally pull out a harmonica and take a few solos during the Friday night sessions at the L&L Grill, and would always get applause. My wife, and I retired to O’ahu in 2014, and we love it here. I play regularly at a family style restaurant in Wahiawa, and I also go to open mic nights around the island. My favorite thing to do is go to Kanikapila at some of the coolest beaches. These are local invite only, and I am usually one of the few hoales (HOW-lays) there. They give me so much aloha for my harmonica playing".

Jimmy and his wife enjoy choral singing with the University of Hawai’i Chorale, directed by Jeremy Wong. He adds "It is open to members of the community, and I got to tell you, singing with the students is a kick. They are so nice and into music. It reminds of my days in Mt. Shasta singing in the Vocal Jazz Ensemble with Kirby Shaw and Ken Emerson. You should Google them, they really are famous".

Jimmy Collins