Jazz Gillum
| Jazz Gillum | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | William McKinley Gillum |
| Born |
September 11, 1904 Indianola, Mississippi, United States |
| Died | March 29, 1966 (aged 61) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Chicago blues |
| Instruments | Harmonica |
| Years active | 1923–1961 |
| Labels | ARC, Bluebird, Folkways |
William McKinley "Jazz" Gillum (September 11, 1902 or 1904 – March 29, 1966) was an American blues harmonica player.
He was born in Indianola, Mississippi. He ran away from home at age seven and for the next few years lived in Charleston, Mississippi, working and playing for tips on street corners. He moved to Chicago in 1923, where he met the guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. The duo started working at nightclubs around the city. By 1934 Gillum was recording for ARC Records and Bluebird Records.
Gillum's recordings, under his own name and as a sideman, were included on many of the highly popular "Bluebird beat" recordings produced by Lester Melrose in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1940, he was the first to record the blues classic "Key to the Highway" (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 acompaniment, when the 16-year-old jazz guitarist George Barnes played on several songs on the 1938 Gillum session that produced "Reefer Headed Woman" and others.
He joined the United States Army in 1942 and served until 1945.
Gillum recorded an early version of "Look on Yonder Wall" (1946) with Big Maceo on piano, which was later popularized by Elmore James.
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