Jazz Gillum

Blues singer and harmonica player, active from 1923 until 1961.

Born: September 11, 1904 in Indianola, Mississippi
Died: March 29, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois

Gillum ran away from home at age seven and for the next few years worked and played for tips on street corners. In 1923, he moved to Chicago, 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.

His 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. He joined the United States Army in 1942 and served until 1945. His last recordings were on a couple of 1961 albums with Memphis Slim and the singer and guitarist Arbee Stidham, for Bluebird Records.

On March 29, 1966, Gillum was shot in the head during a street argument and was pronounced dead on arrival at Garfield Park Hospital, in Chicago.

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