Slim Gaillard

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Slim Gaillard (1982)

Bulee "Slim" Gaillard (born January 4, 1916 in Detroit ; † February 26, 1991 in London ) was an American jazz singer , pianist and guitarist, best known as part of the duo Slim & Slam .

life and work

He was born the son of the German immigrant Theopolous Rothschild and the African American Liza Gaillard and grew up in Detroit . His father worked as a steward on a cruise ship and sometimes took Gaillard with him (according to his stories he is said to have "forgotten" him once in Crete). Gaillard played the piano ( boogie-woogie style), guitar and vibraphone. In Detroit he worked - according to his own statements - for a time as a mortician, tried his hand at boxing and during prohibition as an alcohol smuggler for the "Purple Gang". Then he performed a number in which he tapped and played guitar at the same time, which he intended to perform in New York City in the 1930s in vaudeville .

From 1936 to 1942 he had great success there as part of the duo Slim and Slam with bassist Slam Stewart . In 1938 they had the hit Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy) , which was followed by others such as Laughin in Rhythm and Tutti Frutti (no identity with Little Richards Tutti Frutti , but composed by Doris Fisher ), which the improvisation artist Gaillard often performed varied greatly. With the humorously presented Dada- like nonsense texts, in which Gaillard likes to speak Spanish, Chinese or other gibberish and culinary topics play a major role, the duo enjoyed cult status at the time (as described in Jack Kerouac 's On the road from 1957) . In 1941 they were hired for the Hollywood comedy Hellzapoppin ' (directed by Henry Codman Potter ). Gaillard's draft for military service in the US Air Force during the war led to the end of the partnership as Slim & Slam .

After his release in 1944, Gaillard went to Los Angeles , where he appeared with bassist Bam Brown in a similar formation as with Stewart in Billy Berg's Hollywood Boulevard Club ( Slim and Bam ). In 1945 they had the hit Cement Mixer (Puti Puti) which reached # 5 on the "Race Record" charts . In 1946 Gaillard's longer play The Groove Juice special (Opera in Vout) premiered in Los Angeles (Gaillard called his nonsense language "Vout"). In 1945 he was in a bebop session with u. a. Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker ( Slim's Jam ) heard. They played his hit Flat Foot Floogie as a typical bop number interrupted by scat singing, and they recorded Slim's Jam , Dizzy Boogie and Popity Pop .

Gaillard also played with Miles Davis , Percy Heath and John Lewis . In Los Angeles he recorded in a combo with Zutty Singleton , Dodo Marmarosa and Brown. Other hits were Down by the station from 1948 and Yep Roc's Heresay from 1951. At the height of its popularity in the late 1940s / early 1950s it was coveted as the opening number in Birdland , toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1953 and also recorded for Verve on. In the late 1950s he was on tour with Stan Kenton .

From the 1960s on, he worked in a variety of professions as a hatter, motel manager in San Diego, electrician, and even a fruit farmer in Tacoma . From the late 1960s, he appeared more often in television films. As an actor he appeared in the second season of the television series Roots in 1979.

In 1970 he played again at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Slam Stewart and in the 1970s with Gillespie, who persuaded him in 1982 to be active again in jazz. In the 1980s he made a comeback, toured European jazz festivals (with his main residence in London), but also with Daniel Huck with great success in Japan and released the album Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere , on which u. a. Buddy Tate , Jay McShann , Peter Ind and Digby Fairweather participated. In the 1986 musical film Absolute Beginners (director: Julien Temple ) he sings Selling out at a party . The BBC made a multi-part film about him in 1989, The World of Slim Gaillard . In 1991 Slim Gaillard died of cancer in London.

His daughter Janis Hunter was the wife of Marvin Gaye between 1977 and 1981 and is the mother of actress and singer Nona Gaye (born 1974).

Discography (selection)

Slim Gaillard's work is documented on Classics - 1937–38, 1939–40, 1940–42, 1945 Vol. 1 & 2, 1946 and 1947–1951. On Slim Gaillard 1945 Vol. 2 he plays with Slam Stewart , Charlie Parker , Dizzy Gillespie and Dodo Marmarosa ( Slim's Jam ). In addition to Flat Foot Floogie, BeBop's Heartbeat also includes the numbers Dizzy Boogie , Popity Pop and Slim's Jam, also written by Gaillard .

collection

Other editions are:

  • Slim's Jam (Topaz, 1938-46)
  • The Absolute Voutest, '46 ( Hep Records , 1946)
  • BeBop's Heartbeat (Rec. 1945 & 1947), with Slim Gaillard, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Al McKibbon, Joe Harris and Zutty Singleton
  • Laughing In Rhythm: The Best Of The Verve Years (Properbox, $ -Cd-Edition, 1946–1954)
  • The Legendary McVouty (Hep, 1946)
  • Cement Mixer, Putti Putti (President, 1945–49)
  • Slim Gaillard Rides Again (Verve, 1959)
  • Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere (Hep, 1982)
  • Groove Juice: The Norman Granz Recordings + More (ed. 2018)

literature

Web links

Commons : Slim Gaillard  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ January 1, 1916 is also given (e.g. Kunzler Jazz-Lexikon 2002, Bohländer Reclams Jazzführer 1989) and sometimes Pensacola in Florida as the place of birth. He himself occasionally claimed to come from Santa Clara in Cuba.
  2. ↑ floogie is a slang expression for 'girl'. Townley Tell your story , Storyville
personal data
SURNAME Gaillard, Slim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaillard, Bulee
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1991
Place of death London