American jazz singer-songwriter and musician
Slim Gaillard
|
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|
|
Birth name
| Bulee Gaillard
|
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Born
| (
1911-01-09
)
January 9, 1911
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Died
| February 26, 1991
(1991-02-26)
(aged 80)
London
, England
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Genres
| Jazz
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Occupations
| Musician, songwriter
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Instruments
| Vocals, guitar, piano,
vibraphone
, tenor saxophone
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Years active
| 1930s?1989
|
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Labels
| Savoy
,
Dial
,
Verve
|
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Musical artist
Bulee
"
Slim
"
Gaillard
(January 9, 1911
[1]
– February 26, 1991), also known as
McVouty
, was an American
jazz
singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar,
vibraphone
, and tenor saxophone.
Gaillard was noted for his comedic
vocalese
singing and word play in his own
constructed language
called "Vout-o-Reenee", for which he wrote a dictionary. In addition to English, he spoke five languages (Spanish, German, Greek, Arabic, and Armenian) with varying degrees of fluency.
[2]
: 676
He rose to prominence in the late 1930s with hits such as "
Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)
" and "Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)" after forming
Slim and Slam
with
Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart
. During World War II, Gaillard served as a bomber pilot in the Pacific. In 1944, he resumed his music career and performed with such notable jazz musicians as
Charlie Parker
,
Dizzy Gillespie
, and
Dodo Marmarosa
.
In the 1960s and 1970s, he acted in films—sometimes as himself—and also appeared in bit parts in television series such as
Roots: The Next Generations
.
In the 1980s, Gaillard resumed touring the circuit of European jazz festivals. He followed Dizzy Gillespie's advice to move to Europe and, in 1983, settled in
London
, where he died of cancer on February 26, 1991, after a long career in music, film and television, spanning nearly six decades.
[2]
: 679
[3]
Early life
[
edit
]
Along with Gaillard's date of birth, his lineage and place of birth are disputed. Many sources state that he was born in Detroit, Michigan, though he said that he was born in
Santa Clara, Cuba
,
[4]
of an Afro-Cuban mother called Maria (Mary Gaillard)
[5]
and a German-Jewish father called Theophilus (Theophilus Rothschild)
[5]
who worked as a ship's steward.
[2]
: 674
During an interview in 1989, Gaillard added: "They all think I was born in Detroit because that was the first place I got into when I got to America." However, the
1920 census
lists one "Beuler Gillard" [
sic
] as living in
Pensacola, Florida
, having been born in April 1918 in
Alabama
. Researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc have concluded that he was born in June 1918 in
Claiborne
, Alabama,
[6]
where a "Theophilus Rothchild" [
sic
] had been raised the son of a successful merchant in the small town of
Burnt Corn
; other documents give his name as Wilson, Bulee, or Beuler Gillard or Gaillard.
[6]
At the age of twelve, he accompanied his father on a world voyage and was accidentally left behind on the island of
Crete
.
[2]
: 674
[7]
[8]
On a television documentary in 1989, he said, "When I was stranded in Crete, I was only twelve years old. I stayed there for four years. I traveled on the boats to Beirut and Syria and I learned to speak the language and the people's way of life."
[9]
After learning a few words of Greek, he worked on the island "making shoes and hats".
[2]
: 674
He then joined a ship working the eastern Mediterranean ports, mainly
Beirut
, where he picked up some knowledge of Arabic.
[2]
: 674
When he was about 15, he re-crossed the Atlantic, hoping the ship would take him home to Cuba, but it was bound for the U.S. and he ended up in Detroit. He never saw either of his parents again.
[2]
: 674
Alone and unable to speak English, he tried to get a job at Ford Motor Company but was rejected because of his age.
[9]
He worked at a general store owned by an Armenian family, with whom he lived for some time, then tried to become a boxer. During
Prohibition
in 1931 or 1932, he drove a hearse with a coffin that was packed with whiskey for
the Purple Gang
.
[2]
: 675
He attended evening classes in music and taught himself to play guitar and piano.
[2]
: 675
When
Duke Ellington
came to Detroit, he went backstage and met his hero. Determined to become a musical entertainer, he moved to New York City and entered the world of show business as a "professional amateur".
[2]
: 675
As Gaillard recalled much later:
The MC would say, "Here they come, all the hopefuls!" Well, we may have been hopefuls but we weren't amateurs. Of course, you had to be a little bad in spots. If you were too good you'd lose the amateur image. I would be a tap dancer this week, next week I'd play guitar, two weeks later some boogie-woogie piano. They paid us $16 a show. I did one with Frank Sinatra, I got $16 and he got $16. Every time I see him I say, "Got a raise yet, Frank?"
?Tony Russell, Jazz Greats, Issue #57.[2]
Career
[
edit
]
Gaillard first rose to prominence in the late 1930s as part of
Slim & Slam
, a jazz novelty act he formed with bassist
Slam Stewart
.
[10]
: 2
[8]
[7]
Their hits included "
Flat Foot Floogie (with a Floy Floy)
" and "Cement Mixer (Put-Ti-Put-Ti)". The duo performs in the 1941 movie
Hellzapoppin'
.
Gaillard's appeal was similar to
Cab Calloway
's and
Louis Jordan
's in that he presented a hip style with broad appeal (for example in his children's song "
Down by the Station
").
[
citation needed
]
Unlike them, he was a master improviser whose
stream of consciousness
vocals ranged far from the original lyrics. He sang wild interpolations of nonsense syllables, such as "MacVoutie O-reeney". One such performance is celebrated in the 1957 novel
On the Road
by
Jack Kerouac
.
[11]
Gaillard, with
Dodo Marmarosa
on piano, appeared as a guest several times on
Command Performance
, recorded at KNX radio studios in Hollywood in the 1940s and distributed on transcription discs to American troops in World War II.
In 1943,
[12]
: 4
Gaillard was drafted in the
United States Army Air Forces
and "qualified as a pilot flying [...] B-26 bombers in the Pacific"
[13]
and resumed his music career on his release from the draft in 1944.
[14]
Upon his return he released the song
"Atomic Cocktail"
, which featured seemingly lighthearted lyrics laced with symbolism about nuclear war.
[15]
Gaillard later teamed with bassist Bam Brown, and their successes included the
hipster
anthem "Opera in Vout (Groove Juice Symphony)".
[16]
They can be seen in a 1947 motion picture featurette
O'Voutie O'Rooney
filmed live at one of their nightclub performances.
[17]
[18]
Slim and Bam was featured at the first Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at
Wrigley Field
in Los Angeles that was produced by
Leon Hefflin Sr.
on September 23, 1945, along with
Count Basie
. Gaillard also played for the 2nd Cavalcade of Jazz held at
Wrigley Field
on October 12, 1946,
[19]
and played for the 3rd Cavalcade of Jazz held also at
Wrigley Field
on September 7, 1947.
[20]
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Gaillard frequently opened at
Birdland
for
Charlie Parker
,
Flip Phillips
, and
Coleman Hawkins
. His December 1945 session with Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie
is notable, both musically and for its relaxed convivial air. "Slim's Jam", from that session, is one of the earliest known recordings of Parker's speaking voice.
[21]
In 1949 he was playing in San Francisco. Near the end of Part Two of
Jack Kerouac
's book
On the Road
is an account of meeting him at a performance there.
Gaillard could play several instruments and managed to turn the performance from jazz to comedy. He would play the guitar with his left hand fretting with fingers pointing down over the fingerboard (instead of the usual way up from under it), or would play credible piano solos with his palms facing up. Gaillard wrote the theme song to the Peter Potter radio show. In addition, in 1950 he wrote and recorded the "Don Pitts On the Air" theme for San Francisco DJ Don Pitts. On March 27, 2008, the Pitts theme song entered the archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in
Cleveland, Ohio
.
[
citation needed
]
In the early 1960s, Gaillard lived in
San Diego
,
California
. During that time he recorded several singles and performed with local bands. Under the name Slim Delgado, he recorded a rock and roll single for the Xavier label titled "Frank Rhoads Round"
[22]
The B-side is a song called "Dr. Free".
Gaillard appeared in several shows in the 1960s and 1970s, including
Marcus Welby, M.D.
,
Charlie's Angels
,
Mission: Impossible
,
Medical Center
,
The Flip Wilson Show
, and
Then Came Bronson
. He also appeared in the 1970s TV series
Roots: The Next Generations
and reprised some of his old hits on the NBC prime-time variety program
The Chuck Barris Rah Rah Show
.
[
citation needed
]
By the early 1980s Gaillard was touring the European jazz festival circuit, playing with such musicians as
Arnett Cobb
. He also played with
George Melly
and
John Chilton
's Feetwarmers, appearing on their BBC television series and also occasionally deputising for Melly when he was unwell. Gaillard's behavior on stage was often erratic and nerve-wracking for the accompanying musicians. He made a guest appearance on Show 106 of the 1980s music program
Night Music
, an NBC late-night music series hosted by
David Sanborn
.
Around Christmas 1985, Gaillard recorded the album
Siboney
at Gateway Studios in
Battersea
, London, produced by
Joe Massot
.
[13]
As Massot recalled later:
I was introduced as Cuban. "Rooney! I am Cuban too." [...] Slim said how much he wanted to make a Latin record and talked about his friend the great Cuban leader Machito. This was 1985. I had been flying between Angola, where Cuban troops were fighting and Miami where one million exiled Cubans live. We talked of all those Cubans who wanted to go back to Cuba but couldn't. [...] In his inimitable, enthusiastic way Slim was trying to sell me, a movie maker, the idea of recording an album.
?Joe Massot,
Siboney
.
[13]
In 1986, Gaillard appeared in the musical film
Absolute Beginners
, singing "Selling Out". In the autumn of 1989, the BBC aired director
Anthony Wall
's four-part documentary on Gaillard entitled
Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
.
Languages used in songs
[
edit
]
Gaillard used
Yiddish
in at least two of his songs, "Dunkin' Bagels", and "Matzo Balls", where he refers to numerous
Jewish
ethnic dishes eaten by
Ashkenazi
Jews.
[23]
[24]
The songs were issued by the Slim Gaillard Quartet in 1945 on the Melodisc label, featuring Gaillard on guitar,
Zutty Singleton
on drums, "Tiny" Brown on bass and
Dodo Marmarosa
on piano. "Dunkin Bagels" was later included in the 2010 compilation CD
Black Sabbath: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations
, issued by the
Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation
.
[25]
He made a cover version of a Greek folk song called "Tee say malee" ("Why Do You Care"). Arabic is used in some of Gaillard's songs, for example "Yep-Roc-Heresy" and "Arabian Boogie". Irish is present in the name
O'Voutie O'Rooney
, the title of his 1947 movie and reminiscent of Vout-o-Reenee, the name he used for his invented language.
Discography
[
edit
]
- Mish Mash
(Mercury, 1953)
- Opera in Vout/Boogie Woogie at the Philharmonic
with Meade Lux Lewis (Clef, 1953)
- Slim Gaillard Cavorts
(Clef, 1953)
- Smorgasbord...Help Your Self
(Verve, 1956)
- Slim Gaillard with Dizzie Gillespie and Orchestra
(Halo, 1957)
- Slim Gaillard Rides Again!
(Dot, 1959)
- Central Avenue Breakdown Volume 2
with Teddy Edwards, Barney Kessel (Onyx, 1974)
- At Birdland
(Hep, 1979)
- The Voutest!
(Hep, 1982)
- Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere!
with Buddy Tate, Jay McShann (Hep, 1983)
- Roots of Vouty
(Putti Putti Music, 1983)
- Steve Allen's Hip Fables
with Al Jazzbeaux Collins (Doctor Jazz, 1983)
- Cement Mixer Put-Ti Put-Ti
(Folklyric, 1984)
- Live at Ronnie Scott's London
(DRG, 1986)
- Siboney
(Trojan World, 1991)
Filmography
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Documentary
[
edit
]
- "A Traveller's Tale" (52:51), on October 22, 1989
[29]
- "How High the Moon" (60:50), on October 29, 1989
[30]
- "My Dinner with Dizzy" (59:59), on November 5, 1989
[31]
- "Everything's OK in the UK" (54:40), on November 12, 1989
[32]
- The Small Black Groups
(2003)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Social Security Death Master File info for Bulee Gaillard #125-01-1591"
. 2014
. Retrieved
December 7,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Russell, Tony (1998). "Slim Gaillard".
Jazz Greats
.
57
. Marshall Cavendish: 674?684.
- ^
"Jazz Pianist, Guitarist Slim Gaillard Dies at 74"
.
Washington Post
. February 27, 1991.
- ^
Larkin, Colin, ed. (1992).
The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music
. London: Guinness. pp. 934?935.
ISBN
0-85112-939-0
.
- ^
a
b
Moore, James Ross (February 2000).
"Gaillard, Slim"
.
oxfordindex.oup.com
. Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1802970
. Retrieved
October 19,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
LeBlanc, Eric; Eagle, Bob (2013).
Blues: A Regional Experience
. Santa Barbara: Praeger. pp. 90, 429.
ISBN
978-0-313-34423-7
.
- ^
a
b
Huey, Steve.
"Slim Gaillard"
.
AllMusic
. Retrieved
August 22,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
Yanow, Scott (2013).
The Great Jazz Guitarists
. San Francisco: Backbeat. p. 77.
ISBN
978-1-61713-023-6
.
- ^
a
b
Wall, Anthony (Director) (1989).
Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
(Documentary). UK.
- ^
Britt, Stan; Kernfeld, Barry (2002). "Gaillard, Slim". In Barry Kernfeld (ed.).
The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 2
(2 ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries.
ISBN
1-56159-284-6
.
- ^
Kerouac, Jack (2003) [1st pub. 1957].
On the Road
. Penguin Books. pp.
176?177
.
ISBN
9780142437254
.
- ^
Slim Gaillard Laughing in Rhythm: The Best of the Verve Years
(Media notes). Slim Gaillard. 1994.
{{
cite AV media notes
}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (
link
)
- ^
a
b
c
Siboney
(Media notes). Slim Gaillard. Indigo. 1997.
{{
cite AV media notes
}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (
link
)
- ^
Slim Gaillard 1945/Tuitti-Fruitti
(Media notes). Slim Gaillard. Swing Time. 1988.
{{
cite AV media notes
}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (
link
)
- ^
"Atomic Cocktail"
.
esquire.com
. November 5, 2007
. Retrieved
February 25,
2019
.
- ^
"Opera in Vout (Groove Juice Symphony", Internet Archive
. Retrieved 19 September 2023
- ^
a
b
"
O'Voutie O'Rooney
"
.
weirdwildrealm.com
. Paghat the Ratgirl
. Retrieved
March 25,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Lewis, David (2010).
"
O'Voutie O'Rooney
"
. Movies & TV Dept.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
March 25,
2016
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
"SHOW TIME". Review by Wendell Green,
Los Angeles Sentinel
, September 26, 1946.
- ^
"Woody Herman, 3 Blazers, T-Bone, Others on Program". Review by Eddie Burbridge,
The California Eagle
, September 4, 1947.
- ^
Sutherland, Allan J. (January 9, 2003).
"Charlie Parker Sessionography"
.
kyushu-ns.ac.jp
. Archived from
the original
on August 22, 2015
. Retrieved
December 11,
2014
.
- ^
"
"Slim Gaillard"
"
.
San Diego Reader
.
- ^
"Slim Gaillard and His Trio - Dunkin' Bagels"
on
YouTube
. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^
"Slim Gaillard - Matzo Balls"
on
YouTube
. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
- ^
"Black Sabbath"
.
idelsohnsociety.com
. Retrieved
October 19,
2018
.
- ^
Massingberd, Hugh M. (1998).
The Daily Telegraph Third Book of Obituaries: Entertainers
. Pan. pp. 162?.
ISBN
978-0-330-36775-2
.
Gaillard also appeared, usually as himself, in numerous films including
Too Late Blues
(1961), directed by John Cassavetes,
Planet of the Apes
(1968), and
Absolute Beginners
(1986).
- ^
"Mission: Impossible"
.
loc.gov
. Library of Congress
. Retrieved
February 28,
2016
.
Slim Gaillard appeared in one segment.
- ^
"
Charlie's Angels (1976/81)
"
.
loc.gov
. Library of Congress
. Retrieved
February 28,
2016
.
Slim Gaillard appeared in one segment.
- ^
Wall, Anthony (October 22, 1989).
"A Traveller's Tale"
.
An Arena Special:Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
. Episode 1.
BBC Two
. Retrieved
December 10,
2015
.
- ^
Wall, Anthony (October 29, 1989).
"How High the Moon"
.
An Arena Special:Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
. Episode 2. BBC Two
. Retrieved
December 10,
2015
.
- ^
Wall, Anthony (November 5, 1989).
"My Dinner with Dizzy"
.
An Arena Special:Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
. Episode 3. BBC Two
. Retrieved
December 10,
2015
.
- ^
Wall, Anthony (November 12, 1989).
"Everything's OK in the UK"
.
An Arena Special:Slim Gaillard's Civilisation
. Episode 4. BBC Two
. Retrieved
December 10,
2015
.
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