Product Details:

• Format:                    Hardback
• Publication Date:     November 2023
• Price:                       €35 / €40 CD Included
• Publisher:                 Agram Blues Books

William McKinley “Jazz” Gillum’s recording debut  preceded John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson’s by three years. Williamson’s playing would become much more influential, but Gillum was the next most extensively recorded blues harmonica player of the thirties and forties, made popular by his virtuoso playing in the higher registers and his knack for catchy songs. His extensive discography, accompanied by the small bands that record companies favored, among other reasons because they came over well on jukeboxes, is evidence of his popularity with African-American listeners.

            Like Washboard Sam, Gillum was an associate of Big Bill Broonzy, who wrote songs for him, and often accompanied him. This makes it remarkable that Jazz Gillum only appears in “Big Bill Blues” in a snapshot of five musicians (and a dog), probably because Broonzy and Gillum had fallen out over the composer credits of “Key To The Highway.”

            Changes in musical fashions and RCA Victor’s failure to market their older blues artists effectively meant that Jazz Gillum was dropped after 1950, and largely forgotten. The time is right for a thorough consideration of his artistry and his significance in the history of the blues and blues harmonica. It will serve, in the words of Mark Humphrey, as “a memorial to a once-popular artist who mixed rural and urban blues in 1930s Chicago and left us music that still vividly reflects the unique cultural crossroads of his time and place.”

            The book will be accompanied by a Jazz Gillum CD on Agram Blues ABCD 2030 from the great Dave Williams and Paul Swinton collections. It has no duplication with RCA 07863 66717, “The Bluebird recordings 1934-1938.”

            As usual in the Agran series of blues biographies there will be chapters with a biography, the complete lyrics, analysis of the lyrics, the musical influences on and from Jazz Gillum and a chapter about his musical associates and a musical analysis. The hardback book will be in full colour, on quality paper with a dust cover.

AGRAM BLUES ABCD 2030 – THE CHICAGO BLUES OF JAZZ GILLUM

1          C-88-2             Crazy About You                               OK 8964

2          C-1415-1         She Keeps On Rickin’                       Melotone 6-11-57

3          C-1416-1         I Went To The Gypsy                        Melotone 6-11-57

4          044971-1         Key To The Highway                        Bluebird B-8505

5          059433-1         I’m Still Walking The Highway        Bluebird B-8778

6          059345-1         Muddy Pond Blues                            Bluebird B-8739

7          064737-1         Riley Springs Blues                           Bluebird B-8846

8          064740-1         Maybe You’ll Love Me Too              Bluebird B-8846

9          064742-1         Me And My Buddy                           Bluebird B-8872

11        074653-1         Tell Me, Mama                                  Bluebird 34-0707

12        D5-AB-315     Whiskey Head Buddies                     Bluebird 34-0741

13        D6-AB-1816   Reckless Rider Blues                         RCA Victor 20-1974

14        D6-AB-1820   Look On Yonder Wall                       RCA Victor 20-1974

15        D6-VB-1951   Can’t Trust Myself                             RCA Victor 20-2232

16        D6-VB-1952   I’m Not The Lad                                RCA Victor 20-2120

17        D7-VB-1057   Country Woman Blues                      RCA Victor 22-0005

18        D7-VB-1059   Take A Little Walk With Me             RCA Victor 20-3250

19        D7-VB-1059   Take A Little Walk With Me             RCA Victor 50-0004

20        D7-VB-1145   What A Gal                                        RCA Victor 20-3118

21        D7-VB-1146   Signifying Woman                             RCA Victor 20-3250

22        D7-VB-1147   The Devil Blues                                 RCA Victor 20-3118

23        D9-V-B345     Look What You Are Today               RCA Victor 22-0033

24                                Harmonica Boogie                         Folkways LP FS 3826

25                                Gillum Blues-1                               Folkways LP FS 3826