Bill "Jazz" Gillum

By: Terry Currier

Article Reprint from the April 1998 BluesNotes
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In the January [1998] issue of BluesNotes, I wrote about the history of Victor's Bluebird label. One of its most recorded, yet least remembered, artists was a harmonica player named Bill "Jazz" Gillum.

William McKinley Gillum was born September 11, 1904 in Indianola, Mississippi. His parents, Irving Gillum and Celia Buchanan, both died when he was still a baby. His uncle, Ed Buchanan, took Gillum and his brothers in to raise them. As a result of Ed being a church deacon, Bill had the opportunity to learn to play the harmonium, better known as a pump organ, which worked with forced air. Young Gillum picked up on it quickly and soon went on to learn the harmonica, which was basically a small and portable version of the pump organ.

Gillum and his brothers were unhappy with the way their uncle treated them and they all ran away from home before Bill was eight years old. He ended up living with relatives in Charleston, Mississippi, but he ran away from there when he was eleven. He ended up in Minter City and found work as a field hand. After working three years in the fields, Gillum found work at a drug store in nearby Greenwood. When he finished work at the drug store, he often played his harmonica on the streets for tips.

Like many others who labored hard in the fields in the South, Gillum left Mississippi (in 1923) and went to Chicago. Many new opportunities were opening up in the larger northern cities such as Detroit and Chicago. It seemed like the answer to all his problems. Over the next 10 years, Gillum worked many jobs and occasionally played in the clubs at night. One of the musicians he played with was Big Bill Broonzy Broonzy was now a studio musician and talent scout for the label and he brought Gillum to the attention of the A&R man, Lester Melrose. Bluebird was a new division of Victor Records. Victor Records formed Bluebird in order to put out less expensive recordings of Jazz and Blues records because of sliding sales during the Depression. Gillum recorded two sides for Bluebird in 1934, but since neither side generated any sales, it looked like the end of Gillum's relationship with Bluebird.

Then, in January 1936, (a year and a half after the first Bluebird session), a British A&R man named Rex Palmer asked Bluebird if Gillum could record for the Regal Zonophone label. Bluebird responded with a letter stating that they did not have Gillum under contract, nor were they going to put out recordings by him in the future. Palmer again wrote to Bluebird because he wanted Gillum to record songs from musicals, such as the type found in Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire movies.

Bluebird responded with a letter that Gillum was Black and unable to read music and this would be an impossible task. As it turned out, the interest by Palmer lit the fire under Bluebird and they again recorded Gillum two days before they sent their last letter to Palmer.

Gillum cut some sides for Vocalion in 1940 and he recorded 65 sides for Bluebird up to 1942. Then 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.

When Gillum got out of the Army, he went right back to playing and recording, but he still found it necessary to supplement his income by doing various day jobs. He recorded another 34 sides for Bluebird. In 1950, Victor ceased their Bluebird label operation because of the many new, independent labels that were entering the "race records" arena with the new sound of Blues.

In Chicago, with the new breed of musicians, such as Muddy Waters, there was no longer a demand for Gillum's playing or recordings.

During the 1950s, Gillum was like the invisible man on the Chicago music scene. Then, in 1961, Memphis Slim rediscovered Gillum and recorded him for both the Candid and Folkways labels. Even with the new, young white audiences now propelling a renaissance of the older Blues players, his career did nothing. Mike Bloomfield wrote a book about his travels with Big Joe Williams, and writes where they visited Gillum in 1962. It was 95 degrees outside and Gillum was inside his house, in front of his stove, with a coat on. His mental and physical condition declined rapidly. He managed to play a few dates at the Fickle Pickle in 1963, but that was the end of his public performing.

On March 29, 1966, during an argument, he was shot in the head and was pronounced dead on arrival at Garfield Park Hospital in Chicago. He is buried at Restvale Cemetery in Worth, Illinois.

Recently, a reissue of Gillum's early Bluebird recordings (1934-1938) was put out by RCA Records. It contains 22 tracks with Big Bill Broonzy playing guitar on all of them. In addition, Blind John Davis, Washboard Sam, and other top notch Bluebird session musicians play on various songs. It is a great documentation of Gillum. You can hear his Mississippi roots, along with his own unique and distinctive style. Hopefully, we will see a second volume to this collection soon. In the meantime, don't miss this fine collection!

Bill "Jazz" Gillum

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