Jazz Gillum is usually treated with indifference among blues critics, looked upon as a rather generic performer who typified the mainstream Chicago blues style of the 1930's and 40's. While there's some truth to this, Gillum's recordings were consistently entertaining throughout his sixteen year recording career punctuated with a fair number of exceptional sides. Gillum was by no means a harmonica virtuoso - he had a kind of wheezy high-pitched sound - he was certainly no Sonny Boy Williamson I and certainly no "Harmonica King" as he boasts in "Gillum’s Windy Blues." Yet he was a very expressive, easygoing singer who penned a number of evocative songs backed by some of the era's best blues musicians. Hopefully this article will raise Gillum's stature a bit and encourage blues fans to rediscover this often overlooked and maligned artist.

 Gillum recorded 100 sides between 1934-49 as a leader in addition to session work with Big Bill Broonzy, Curtis Jones and the State Street Boys. Neal Slaven put Gillum's contributions this way: "Never during the whole sixteen years ...would Gillum called a major blues singer. He was a man of average ability, both as a singer and harmonicist, who was really only as good as his accompanists. This is most evident on the many sides he made with Big Bill Broonzy. ...Broonzy had a galvanizing, even catalytic, effect on Gillum, which made the latter give just that little bit more of himself to a song..." Paul Oliver gave a similar assessment: "Jazz Gillum is not a major artist but he is very typical of the blues singers who formulated the Chicago music of the period. He played harmonica, not especially well, but with a shrill, often piercing tone which struck out above the rhythm background of his records. His voice, a little like Washboard Sam’s, had a "corrugated" quality with a marked vibrato and clear texture. Many of his records were characterized by strongly rhythmic support, credit for which must go largely to Big Bill Broonzy, undoubtedly one of the formative musicians of the Chicago blues. His guitar is to be heard on nearly every track, except the couple of instances where his disciple, Willie Lacey, takes over, and much of the impetus is due to him."

 William McKinley Gillum was born in Indianola, Mississippi (B.B. King's birthplace as well) on September 11, 1904. He was one of several children born to Irving Gillum and Celia Buchanan and was raised by an uncle, Ed Buchanan, following the deaths of his parents. A church deacon, Buchanan, encouraged Gillum's musical talent on the harmonium, or "pump organ", a relative of the harmonica. He soon learned to play the harmonica, and this instrument's association with blues and other "sinful music" may have led to friction with Gillum's uncle. He ran away from home before he was ten to live with relatives in Charleston, Mississippi. Not long after that he ran away to Minter City, Mississippi where he worked as a field hand. By 1918 he had a job in a drugstore in Greenwood, Mississippi and could often been seen on the streets playing music for tips. Five years later he migrated to Chicago. There he met guitarist Big Bill Broonzy and the two started working club dates around the city as a duo and would soon form an enduring recording partnership.

 Gillum made his recording debut for the Bluebird label in 1934 with "Early In The Morning" b/w "Harmonica Stomp" accompanied by Big Bill Broonzy on guitar and Black Bob on piano, both sides allowing plenty of room for Gillum's high pitched, labored harmonica playing. The records evidently didn't sell and Gillum didn't record again for two years. Interestingly correspondence has been unearthed between Victor's Eli Oberstein and Rex Palmer of HMV's Artiste's Department. Palmer apparently had written Oberstein expressing interest in recording Gillum, whose sole release, however poorly it sold, at least made an impression on one influential listener in England. On January 13, 1936, Oberstein wrote: "We do not have a contract with Bill Gillum, nor do we intend to make any further recordings by this artist." He went on to say that further Gillum recordings were possible if Palmer were interested. He was, specifically, for Regal Zonophone, an English budget line comparable to Bluebird. On January 31 Palmer wrote: "The question of titles we will leave to your discretion but we would add that it is fairly safe to make hits from forthcoming films of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers type, or numbers which promise to become big hits. As an example we quote 'The Music Goes Round and Around.'" On April 6, 1936 Oberstein wrote his reply:

Gentlemen,
BILL GILLUM
The artist as you know is a negro and unable to read music. I spent the better part of two days with him on a trip to Chicago to try to teach him to play some popular numbers. It is absolutely impossible for him to play correctly any popular tunes. I am sorry that we cannot be of further assistance to you with this artist.

 Something must have changed Oberstein's mind as he cut two more sessions with Gillum for Bluebird in 1936. He would go on record steadily every year after until a lapse in the war years when he went unrecorded in 1943 and 1944 (he served in the Army from 1942 until 1945).

 As Paul Oliver notes, "...his earliest recordings like "Sarah Jane" - "my darlin' consumptive Sarah Jane" - still had a country dance swing." Soon Gillum, like Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Washboard Sam and Sonny Boy Williamson, were "playing in the brash, confident manner of Chicago which had been developing through the 'thirties." Sam Charters characterized the sound as the "Bluebird Beat" or more unkindly as the "Melrose Mess" by Mike Rowe in his pioneering book "Chicago Blues." As Rowe notes "it was a white businessman, Lester Melrose, who was really responsible for shaping the Chicago sound of the late 30's and 40's." Melrose had said "From March 1934 to February 1951 I recorded at least 90 percent of all rhythm-and-blues talent for RCA Victor and Columbia Records..." As Rowe further explains: "But Melrose had more than a large stable of blues artists under his control. Since only a few of them had regular accompanists most of them would play on each other's records and thus Melrose has a completely self-contained unit... ...Whereas the major companies had clumsily sought to record artists who sounded like each other the Melrose machine provided them with artists who were each other! The final stage of this musical incest was completed when they started recording each other's songs." The result was a consistent, sometime cookie cutter sound, although the best artists like Tampa Red, Sonny Boy Williamson I and Lonnie Johnson would consistently transcend these limitations.

 Gillum's recordings were very much in the Bluebird mold yet he often rose above the production line sound to record a fair number of high quality blues. Between 1934-1942 Gillum recorded 70 sides, every session featuring the fret work of Big Bill Broonzy. "Don't Scandalize My Name" from 1936 is one of his most memorable early numbers, a breezy, gently swinging good time tune that still retains a countrified feel. The Chicago sound emerges in a fine session cut March 14, 1938 where Gillum is aided by the remarkable electric guitar of George Barnes. George Barnes was one of the first to record on electric guitar and his single-note lines predated Charlie Christian, although he had much less of an impact. Although white, Barnes got his start backing blues singers like Washboard Sam, Blind John Davis, Merline Johnson and others. Highlights from this session include the good time stomp of "Gillum's Windy Blues" and "Boar Hog Blues" both feature bold, modern sounding electric guitar work from Barnes.

 Gillum's most celebrated song during this period was "Key To The Highway" which he cut on May 9, 1940. Both Broonzy and Gillum claimed authorship of the song which was an enduring source of bitterness for Gillum. The song was first recorded February 23, 1940 by Charlie Segar. Other early highlights from this period include the topical "War Time Blues" cut on December 4, 1941 (a cover of Doctor Clayton's "'41 Blues" who cut it in July of that year), "You Drink Too Much Whiskey ("The graveyard is lonely/You better put grace on yourself/'Cause that's just where you going if I catch you with anyone else/It's a hard pill to swallow/When the neighbors all bring me the news/They say you drinks in the alley, on corners or any place you choose"), "You're Tearing Your Playhouse Down" featuring a menacing vocal by Gillum and the forceful "I Couldn't Help It", the latter two featuring strong piano support by Blind John Davis.

 During World War II, there was a shortage of shellac and J.C. Patrillo, President of the American Federation of Musicians ordered a ban on all recordings. Gillum joined the Army in 1942 and served until 1945. About a year later, Bluebird came back to life anticipating that the Patrillo Ban would be lifted. However, it was another year before that happened. Gillum resumed recording with a session on February 26, 1945 with Roosevelt Sykes on piano, Big Bill Broonzy (his final session with Gillum) and Ransom Knowling on bass. Gillum sounds none the worse for his layoff on cuts like the wistful Peetie Wheatstraw inspired "Go Back to the Country" and the paranoid, ominous "Afraid To Trust Them" with some bold piano from Sykes ("I'm in the forks of the road/I've been looking north and south/Trusting everybody, but I've got to cut it out/Got me 'fraid to trust them/I studied too much evil myself/Since the last two weeks/They have wrecked my nerve/Things they have seen, nothing they have heard"). Also from the same session was "Whiskey Head Buddies" a fine down and out tale with superb support from Broonzy and Sykes ("Can't see why my whiskey head buddies/They All thinks I'm Santa Claus/'Cause I'm too young to grow white whiskers/And don't wear red suits at all").

 Gillum's next session on February 18, 1946 featured the distinctive piano work of Big Maceo and included "Look On Yonder Wall" one of his most famous recordings. The song was credited to James Clark who recorded it as "Get Ready To Meet Your Man" some four months earlier but it was Gillum's version that everybody copied. Also notable during this session was "Fast Woman" ("Pretty woman and fast ponies/As thrilling as can be/But slow ponies and fast woman/Ooh baby, have made a fool out of me"). Starting in 1946 the brilliant William Lacey took over the guitar chores and his terrific electric work really adds a spark to Gillum's later recordings. Lacey added his distinctive guitar work to recordings by Sonny Boy Williamson I, Roosevelt Sykes, Tampa Red among others and was a member of the popular Brown Buddies (1944-1955). Gillum also had first rate piano support during this period from Bob Call and a young Eddie Boyd. Gillum cut some inspired sides during this period including: "Roll Dem Bones", "Can't Trust Myself" ("I'm gonna buy myself a pistol/I'm gonna hang it to my side/I'm going to join the gangsters/People I'm gonna live a reckless life"), "You Got to Run Me Down", "The Blues What I Am" where Gillum delivers a breathless litany of hoodoo superstitions and the violent "Gonna Be Some Shooting" featuring Pete Franklin on guitar. Violence is a recurring theme in the blues and figures prominently in Gillum's songs, none more so than the graphic "Gonna Take My Rap", which is worth quoting in it's entirety:

 Gillum made his last issued recordings as leader on January 25, 1949. He recorded one more session in 1950 but these have never been issued. As Neil Slaven noted: "…Gillum’s last session, on March 21st 1950, was never issued, although the quality of the performances might also have had some influence on the decision. By now the whole process of Gillum's recordings had become mechanical, with hardly a trace of conviction to be found. Moreover, since his last session, Gillum’s voice had deteriorated into a pale shadow of its former power. ...Altogether, this was an ignominious end to a long and successful recording career..." Gillum would record once more on a 1961 date with Memphis Slim and Arbee Stidham for the record "Memphis Slim: U.S.A" on Candid which was reissued on CBS in 1972 as part of "Bad Luck & Trouble." He managed to play a few dates at Chicago's Fickle Pickle in 1963, but that was the end of his public performing.

  His last years found his mental and physical condition declining rapidly. Mike Bloomfield described a 1962 visit to Gillum in his book "Me and Big Joe": "And there was Jazz Gillum, who was just about the craziest man I'd ever met. Joe took me to see him on a very uncomfortable summer day, with both the temperature and humidity up in the nineties... We drove out to the West Side and stopped in front of a tiny frame house, just a shanty, really. When we walked into the place I thought I'd hit Hell City within. All the windows were shut down tight. Clad in a huge brown overcoat and sweating profusely, Gillum stood beside a woodstove, stoking a raging fire. He was extremely paranoid. He'd written the very successful "Key To The Highway" and had never gotten the publishing money for it, and was afraid I'd come to steal his other tunes. We didn't stay long enough to change his mind." On March 29, 1966, during an argument, Gillum was shot in the head and was pronounced dead on arrival at Garfield Park Hospital in Chicago.

Essential Listening

Complete Recorded Works (1936-1949) (Document): Everything Gillum cut between 1936-1949 spread across four volumes. For some reason his very first pairing "Early In The Morning" b/w "Harmonica Stomp" is absent but does appear on the Bluebird (below).

The Bluebird Recordings 1934-1938 (Bluebird/RCA): A strong retrospective of Gillum's early recordings boasting excellent sound and notes. Early gems like "Don't You Scandalize My Name", "Gillum's Windy Blues" and "Boar Hog Blues" are all on board. This one appears to be out of print but is worth tracking down.

Roll Dem Bones 1938-1949 (Wolf): A bit short at only 17 songs, this is still a good collection that focuses on Gillum's later output. Highlights include "Roll Dem Bones", "Gonna Take My Rap" and "You Got to Run Me Down."

Jazz Gillum: The Essential (Classic Blues): A solid 36 song, budget priced 2-CD career anthology of Gillum's sides.

-Komara, Ed. Encyclopedia of the Blues vol. 1 A-K, Routledge, New York, 2006.

-Komara, Ed. Encyclopedia of the Blues vol. 2 K-Z, Routledge, New York, 2006.

-Oliver, Paul. The Story of the Blues, Northeastern University Press, Boston 1997.

-Humphrey, Mark. Notes accompanying The Bluebird Recordings 1934-1938, 1997, Bluebird/RCA.

-Dixon, Robert M.W., John Godrich, Howard W. Rye. Blues & Gospel Records 1890-1943. 4th edition. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997.

-Leadbetter, Mike, Neil Slaven, Les Fancourt, Paul Pelletieir. Blues Records 1943-1970. A Selective Discography: vol. 1: A-K. Record Information services, London, 1987.

-Rowe, Mike. Chicago Blues, Da Capo Press, New York, 1975.

-Bloomfield, Mike. Me And Big Joe, Re/Search Publications; New Ed edition, 1999.

-Oliver, Paul. The Blues What I Am, SPIN. vol 4 no 5, Autumn 1966 (p 23-4).

-Slaven, Neil. An Intimation of R&B Jazz Gillum: The Post War Records Part Two, R&B Monthly, Nov 22 1965 (p. 7-9).

Special thanks to Alan Balfour.