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particularly noticeable in the lengthy single string runs J. B. incorporated into some
of his songs.

In the early to middle 1940s J. B. stated that he spent time in New Orleans, and

nearby Algiers, and met and played with both Elmore James and ‘Sonny Boy’
Williamson II. According to his widow, Ella Louise, he got into a bit of trouble there
with the police, thereby necessitating a fairly swift departure. However, he was

already aware that many black folks from the Deep South were heading to the
Northern cities, so he joined them around the end of the decade, and found himself
in Chicago.

He found work in the stockyards and meat packing plants, and played his music at
night, as a solo act with an acoustic guitar. Apparently, even acoustically, he was a

pretty wild performer, often attired in a zebra-skin coat, tails, and a matching
bow-tie (there are various photos of him dressed that way)! Attaching a microphone
to a harmonica harness enabled him to perform some on-stage antics, including

(apparently) the duck-walk,
which was adopted by Chuck
Berry.
Sunnyland Slim
By 1950 he had come to the
attention of Joe Brown, a local

entrepreneur who the previous
year had founded the JOB label
with blues pianist/vocalist St.

Louis Jimmy.

He recorded four songs for the

label in 1950, which were
leased to Chess, and released as
two singles (‘Korea Blues/My

Baby Told Me’ by J. B. & His
Bayou Boys, and ‘Carrie
Lee/Deep In Debt Blues’ by J. B.

Lenore & His Combo). The
songs were quite unusual,
firstly due to J. B.’s high-pitched

voice, and secondly because his
clever lyrics were not the usual
found-love/lost-love subjects,

but related to some of the social aspects of the day, particularly those relating to
black people.

On these recordings J. B. was backed by ‘Sunnyland’ Slim on piano, Leroy Foster on
electric guitar, and Alfred Wallace on drums. In fact, these musicians worked