William McKinley "Jazz" Gillum (September 11, 1902
or 1904 – March 29, 1966)
was an American
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
player.
Biography
Gillum was born in
Indianola, Mississippi
Indianola is a U.S. city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta. The population was 10,683 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Sunflower County.
History
In 1891, Minnie M. Cox was appointed postmaster of Indianola, b ...
. He ran away from home at age seven and for the next few years lived in
Charleston, Mississippi
Charleston is a city in north central Mississippi and one of the two county seats of Tallahatchie County, which is located on both sides of the Tallahatchie River. This city is located east of the river and its population was 2,193 at the 2010 ce ...
, working and playing for tips on street corners. He moved to Chicago in 1923, where he met the guitarist
Big Bill Broonzy
Big Bill Broonzy (born Lee Conley Bradley; June 26, 1903 – August 14, 1958) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s, when he played country music to mostly African American audiences. In the 1930s ...
.
The
duo started working at nightclubs around the city.
By 1934 Gillum was recording for
ARC Records
American Record Corporation (ARC), also referred to as American Record Company, American Recording Corporation, or ARC Records, was an American record company.
Overview
ARC was created in January 1929 by Louis G. Sylvester, president of Scran ...
and
Bluebird Records
Bluebird Records is a record label best known for its low-cost releases, primarily of kids' music, blues and jazz in the 1930s and 1940s. It was founded in 1932 as a lower-priced RCA Victor subsidiary label of RCA Victor. Bluebird became known ...
.
Gillum's recordings, under his own name and as a
sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform live with a solo artist, or with a group in which they are not a regular band member. The term is usually used to describe musicians that play with jazz or rock artists, whether solo ...
, were included on many of the highly popular "Bluebird beat" recordings produced by
Lester Melrose
Lester Franklin Melrose (December 14, 1891 – April 12, 1968) was a talent scout who was one of the first American producers of Chicago blues records.
Career
Lester Franklin Melrose was born in Sumner, Illinois, the second of six children ...
in the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1940, he was the first to record the blues classic "
Key to the Highway
"Key to the Highway" is a blues standard that has been performed and recorded by several blues and other artists. Blues pianist Charlie Segar first recorded the song in 1940. Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy followed with recordings in 1940 an ...
" (featuring Broonzy on guitar),
utilizing the now-standard melody and eight-bar blues arrangement. (The song had first been recorded a few months earlier by Charlie Segar, with a different melody and a 12-bar blues arrangement.) Gillum's version of the song was covered by Broonzy a few months later, and his version has become the standard arrangement of this now-classic blues song.
Gillum's records were some of the earliest featuring blues with electric guitar accompaniment, when the 16-year-old jazz guitarist
George Barnes played on several songs on Gillum's 1938 session that produced "Reefer Headed Woman" and others.
He joined the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
in 1942 and served until 1945.
Gillum recorded an early version of "
Look on Yonder Wall" (1946) with
Big Maceo
Major Merriweather (March 31, 1905 – February 23, 1953), better known as Big Maceo Merriweather, was an American pianist and blues singer. He was mainly active in Chicago through the 1940s.
Career
Born in Newnan, Georgia, he was a self-tau ...
on piano, which was later popularized by
Elmore James
Elmore James ( Brooks; January 27, 1918 – May 24, 1963) was an American blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, and bandleader. Noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice, James was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fam ...
.
After the Bluebird label folded in the late 1940s, he made few recordings. His last recordings were on a couple of 1961 albums with
Memphis Slim
John Len Chatman (September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988), known professionally as Memphis Slim, was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxopho ...
and the singer and guitarist
Arbee Stidham
Arbee William Stidham (February 9, 1917 – April 26, 1988) was an American blues singer and multi-instrumentalist.
According to the authors of the book ''All Music Guide to the Blues: The Definitive Guide to the Blues'', Stidham was "exactl ...
, for
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987 and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.
History
The Folkways Records & Service ...
.
On March 29, 1966, Gillum was shot in the head during a street argument and was pronounced
dead on arrival
Dead on Scene
('' 'DOS' '')
Found dead before first responders get on scene and no medical treatment was given.
Dead on arrival (DOA), also dead in the field and brought in dead (BID), are terms which indicate that a patient was found to be ...
at Garfield Park Hospital, in Chicago.
He is buried at
Restvale Cemetery
Restvale Cemetery open 1927 is located at 11700 S. Laramie Ave. in Alsip, Illinois, United States, a suburb southwest of the city of Chicago. A number of Chicago blues musicians, educators, and notable people are buried here.
Restvale and Burr Oa ...
, in
Alsip, Illinois
Alsip is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Alsip was settled in the 1830s by German and Dutch farmers. The village is named after Frank Al ...
.
His daughter, Ardella Williams, is a blues singer in Chicago.
See also
*
List of blues musicians
Blues musicians are musical artists who are primarily recognized as writing, performing, and recording blues music. They come from different eras and include styles such as ragtime-vaudeville, Delta and country blues, and urban styles from Chicag ...
*
List of Chicago blues musicians
Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s, in which the basic instrumentation of Delta blues—acoustic guitar and harmonica—is augmented with electric guitar, amplified bass guitar, drums, piano, harmo ...
*
List of country blues musicians
The following is a list of country blues musicians.
A
* Alger "Texas" Alexander (September 12, 1900, Jewett, Texas – April 16, 1954). Singer, a forebear of Texas blues. He did not play a musical instrument but was backed by such artists as ...
*
List of harmonicists
This is a list of musicians that are notable for their harmonica playing skills.
Harmonica bands/groups
* Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica Rascals
*Morton Fraser's Harmonica Gang
*The Harmonica Gentlemen
*Jerry Murad's Harmonicats
*Johnny Pule ...
References
External links
Gillum discography on Folkways*
Document Records biography of Gillum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillum, Jazz
1900s births
1966 deaths
American blues harmonica players
Blues musicians from Mississippi
Bluebird Records artists
People from Indianola, Mississippi
Deaths by firearm in Illinois
20th-century American musicians
People from Charleston, Mississippi
20th-century African-American musicians