JIMMY BURNS with The SOUL MESSAGE Band – Delmark Records CD release party!!
“Curtis Mayfield meets Jimmy McGriff” at the Green Mill!!
Sunday November 23
8:00pm – 12:00am, $10 COVER
Special guest – Jimmy Burns – vocals, guitar
Soul Message featuring:
Chris Foreman – Hammond B-3 organ
Greg Jung – alto sax
Greg Rockingham – drums
EXCITING NEWS FROM DELMARK!!
Much anticipated special new release from JIMMY BURNS & SOUL MESSAGE BAND!
We’re so excited about this unique collaboration featuring the warm timeless Chicago soul/blues vocals from Jimmy Burns and the hard groovin’ B3 Blues/jazz organ from Chris Foreman and Greg Rockinham‘s SOUL MESSAGE BAND!! Curtis Mayfield meets Jimmy McGriff at the Crossroads!
This concept inspired Delmark to explore the historical recordings made by JIMMY BURNS when he was very young. The records were originally released as 45 rpm vinyl split singles, at the time so popular among music fans and venues with jukeboxes.
Jimmy also proposed a list of songs he always liked; songs that brought back nice warm memories, such as the two blues: Big Joe Turner’s World of Trouble, and Lil’ Son Jackson’s Rock Me Mama, as well as Express Yourself, a powerful tune by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band, who was also–like Jimmy–a Clarksdale, Mississippi area native. That’s how JIMMY BURNS has come FULL CIRCLE.
Jimmy Burns & The Soul Message Band
Full Circle (CD and digital download)
Delmark 891, 2025
1 Express Yourself 4:19
2 World of Trouble 6:28
3 I Really Love You 4:28
4 Ain’t That Funk for You 5:41
5 Too Much Lovin’ 4:26
6 Give Her To Me 4:38
7 It Use To Be 4:32
8 Since I Fell for You 6:46
9 Rock Me Mama 4:29
10 Where Does That Leave Me? 4:55
Jimmy Burns – vocals (all tracks) & guitar (9)
with SOUL MESSAGE BAND:
Chris Foreman – Hammond B3 organ
Greg Rockingham – drums
Lee Rothenberg – guitar
Geof Bradfield – tenor sax
Greg Jung – alto sax
with special guests:
Typhanie Monique – vocals (3, 5, 6, 7)
Steve Eisen – baritone sax (1, 5, 6) & tenor sax (1, 6)
1) EXPRESS YOURSELF (4:19) (Charles W. Wright)
(Music Power, Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Group Corp, BMI)
2) WORLD OF TROUBLE (6:28) (Big Joe Turner) (BMI)
3) I REALLY LOVE YOU (4:28) (Robert Newsome)
(Moo-Lah Publ. Co., BMI)
4) AIN’T THAT FUNK FOR YOU (5:41) (Albert Grey)
(Second Floor Music, BMI)
5) TOO MUCH LOVIN’ (4:26) (Lowman Pauling)
(Fort Knox Music Inc, Trio Music Company, BMI)
6) GIVE HER TO ME (4:38) (Charles Colbert)
(Author Music, Inc., BMI)
7) IT USED TO BE (4:32) (James Olin Burns)
(Silver Fox Productions Inc, BMI)
8) SINCE I FELL FOR YOU (6:46)
(Woodrow Buddy Johnson) (Warner Bros. Inc, ASCAP)
9) ROCK ME MAMA (4:29) (Melvin “Lil’ Son” Jackson)
(EMI Unart Catalogue Inc, BMI)
10) WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE ME? (4:55)
(Barry George Despenza & Gregory C. Washington)
(Despen Music Co, BMI)
CD STREET DATE: September 19, 2025
executive production and supervision by Julia A. Miller and Elbio Barilari, produced by Elbio Barilari
Recorded at Delmark Records Riverside Studio on July 28-29, 2023 and May 12, 2025
engineered and mastered by Julia A. Miller at Delmark Records’ Riverside Studio
mixed by Elbio Barilari and Julia A. Miller
Jimmy Burns (born February 27, 1943) is an American soul blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although he was born in the Mississippi Delta, Burns has spent nearly all his life in Chicago. His elder brother, Eddie “Guitar” Burns, was a Detroit blues musician.
Jimmy Burns Bio
Jimmy Burns was born in Dublin, Mississippi, and raised on the Hilliard Cotton Plantation where he learned to play one-string and 12-string guitar. He was the youngest of eleven children. He sang in a church choir when he still lived in the Delta and he was influenced by the blues he heard on the streets. His favorite blues musician was Lightnin’ Hopkins. Burns’s father was a sharecropper who performed as a singer in medicine shows. At the age of 12, Jimmy Burns moved with his family to Chicago and four years later joined The Medallionaires who recorded a couple of doo-**** tracks. Recording mostly solo in the 1960s, Burns issued singles for the USA, Minit, Tip Top and Erica labels. He toured the Midwest with his backing group, the Fantastic Epics, and with another outfit called Jimmy Burns and the Gas Company into the early 1970s. Burn’s 1972 single, “I Really Love You” was named in the top 500 singles of Northern soul in 2000 and it is sought by collectors. Burns took a long break from the music industry after the early 1970s to raise his family and run a barbecue stand.
He performed infrequently until the early part of the 1990s, when he started a long residency at Chicago’s Smokedaddy Club. It was there that Delmark Records boss Bob Koester first heard Burns perform and agreed to record him after hearing only one set of music. His debut album for Delmark in 1996, Leaving Here Walking, was produced by Scott Dirks, and was awarded the ‘Best Blues Record of the Year’ title by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors, and received two W.C. Handy Award nominations. Burns then began touring internationally.
Discography
Leaving Here Walking (1996) – Delmark
Night Time Again (1999) – Delmark
Back to the Delta (2003) – Delmark
Stuck In The Middle (2011) – Velrone
It Ain’t Right (2015) – Delmark
Live at B.L.U.E.S. (2007) – Delmark
Singles
“Forget It” (1964) – USA Records
“Give Her To Me” (1965) – Tip Top Records
“You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” (1966) – Tip Top Records
“I Don’t Need (Your Help)” (1966) – Tip Top Records
“I Tried” (1970) – Minit Records
“I Really Love You” (1972) – Erica Records
“Can’t Get Over” (1980) – Dispo Records EP
https://www.wirz.de/music/burns.htm
Fascinating article on Jimmy Burns with mini bio and story on “I REALLY LOVE YOU”
https://web.archive.org/…/www…/JimmyBurnsPage.htm
SOUL MESSAGE BAND
“A soulful and infectious style crafted around classic organ grooves and rooted in the tradition of great Hammond B3 organists like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, and “Groove” Holmes.”
Soul Message Band is founded on the enduring partnership of Chris Foreman, the Chicago-based and nationally celebrated Hammond B3 Jazz Organist, and award-winning solid swinging drummer, Greg Rockingham, aka “The Rock.” Greg and Chris have a 38-year history of collaboration, including groups like the award winning Deep Blue Organ Trio. Mr. Rockingham and Mr. Foreman have an unmistakable chemistry that has taken them from Chicago to Jazz Clubs and Arenas around the world as both headliners (Umbria Jazz Festival Italy) and opening group for Steely Dan for 8 years. Soul Message band featuring Chris & Greg were inducted into the Hammond B3 Hall of Fame. Soul Message can be seen in a worldwide attraction at Navy Pier, called Fly Over Chicago. The band adds the captivating alto saxophonist, Greg Jung. Greg Jung is the trio’s newest and youngest member. He is a wonderful human being and educator. He also is a world class musician. The powerful trio is not to be missed.
CHRIS FOREMAN
Chris Foreman is a masterful musician and heir to the throne occupied by the soulful, bluesy jazz organ legends who were once his influence. Blind at birth, Foreman started playing piano at age five and began formal training at seven. As a teenager he was attracted to the organ sounds of Jack McDuff, Groove Holmes, Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff. This attraction led Chris to pursue playing jazz on the organ, which he undertook through intensive study of recordings. Unlike many African- American musicians whose musical knowledge begins and is established through the church, Chris didn’t start his apprenticeship as a church organist until he was almost twenty years old – well after his jazz roots were established. He has arrived at a most exciting blend of blues-gospel and jazz and has developed a stunning command and range on the instrument. The blend of his sound is evident in his professional experience, which has included work with Hank Crawford, Albert Collins, Bernard Purdie, The Mighty Blue Kings and Deep Blue Organ Trio.
GREG ROCKINGHAM
Drummer Greg Rockingham began playing when he was just three years old and debuted as a professional musician at age five in his father’s jazz ensemble. An alumnus of the famed Interlochen Arts Academy and Northeastern University, he has won numerous musical awards from the Notre Dame Jazz Festival. Greg has performed or recorded with a wide range of famous names, including the orchestras of Glenn Miller and Guy Lombardo, vocalists Freddie Cole, Patty Page and Jerry Vale and instrumentalists Nat Adderley, Kenny Burrell, Charles Earland, Irene Reid, Ellis Marsalis, Nancy Wilson, and Deep Blue Organ Trio.
GREG JUNG
Greg Jung is a Chicago based alto saxophonist, originally from Albany, NY. He earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Purchase where he studied with Jon Gordon, Ralph Lalama, Gary Smulyan, Mark Vinci, Steve Wilson, Todd Coolman, Jon Faddis, Hal Galper, Charles Blenzig and others. In 2014 Greg won the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition, and traveled to perform that year in Paris, France. He spent three years in NYC before deciding to travel the country, performing in clubs and on the street in many of America’s great cities and small towns. It was in this way that he ended up in Chicago, where he has performed at venues like the Green Mill, Andy’s, Winters, Hungry Brain and the Chicago Jazz Festival. Since emerging onto the scene, he has shared the stage with many of the world class musicians that reside in the city. Greg received the Chicago Luminarts Cultural Foundation Fellowship in 2023.
https://www.soulmessageband.com
Jimmy Burns & Soul Message Band “Full Circle”
The Soul Message Band has long been co-led by organist Chris Foreman and drummer Greg “The Rock” Rockingham. Foreman and Rockingham were part of the Deep Blue Organ Trio along with guitarist Bobby Broom, and they also recorded together with guitarist Henry Johnson and saxophonist Red Holloway. Long-time fixtures in Chicago, they opened for Steely Dan for eight years and were inducted into the Hammond B3 Hall of Fame.
The Soul Message Band previously recorded such albums as Soulful Days, Live At The Blue Llama, and People. On Full Circle, in addition to its co-leaders, The Soul Message Band features its newest member altoist Greg Jung on two songs and has appearances by guitarist Lee Rothenberg, tenor-saxophonist Geof Bradfield, and Steve Eisen on baritone and tenor with Typhanie Monique contributing background vocals on four numbers.
Jimmy Burns, who turned 82 in 2025, was born in the Mississippi Delta as the youngest of 11 children. When he was 12, he moved with his family to Chicago where he has lived ever since. He recorded a series of singles starting in 1964, took some time off to raise his family, and in the early 1990s became active again, leading six albums for the Delmark label during 1996-2007.
“Full Circle” teams Jimmy Burns with the Soul Message Band and is a joyful listening experience. With the instrumentalists playing in the tradition of such classic 1960s soul jazz groups as those of Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, and Jimmy Smith, Burns sounds quite comfortable, contributing soulful and expressive vocals on eight of the ten songs. He particularly excels on the blues “World Of Trouble,” over the funky groove of “I Really Love You,” the rollicking “Too Much Lovin’,” and “Rock Me Mama,” playing a bit of guitar on the latter.
The Soul Message Band takes “Ain’t That Funk For You” and “Since I Fell For You” as instrumental features for altoist Greg Jung, Chris Foreman is a major force throughout the date both as an accompanist to the singer and as a soloist, and Greg Rockingham keeps the music grooving.
“Full Circle” is a fine showcase for Jimmy Burns and the Soul Message Band and is easily recommended for fans of high-quality blues, soul jazz, blues ballads, and soulful music.
Scott Yanow, jazz journalist/historian
https://delmark.com/…/09/jimmyburnssoulmessage-newrelease
https://www.chicagobluesguide.com/post/jimmy-burns-interview
Jimmy Burns Interview
Delta/Chicago blues veteran joins with Chicago jazz giants to come Full Circle and revisit his early hits
Story and Photos: Peter M. Hurley
Photo: Peter Hurley
Jimmy Burns Comes Full Circle
By Peter Hurley
Veteran Bluesman Jimmy Burns slipped into the booth at the Italian restaurant chain, the one with the free breadsticks, where he had arranged to meet for lunch. His beard was fuller and snowier than when last seen, his almond shaped eyes alive and dark with amber-tinged whites behind yellow-lensed specs. He adjusted the Kazakh cap that has become his signature look, a quilted patterned cloth with finely embroidered paisley and medallion shapes. “I’ve got four of these, gifts from when I played in the Kazakhstan region. A shopkeeper asked me to pick out ones I liked. Some people think I’m Muslim because I wear them, but they don’t understand that these are traditionally worn by Kazakhstani men. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Christian Baptist,” he insisted. At 82, Jimmy Burns is nimble of mind and body, full of wit, charm and grace.
A month earlier, Delmark Records had released Jimmy’s long-waited new CD, Full Circle, with virtuoso Chris Foreman on the Hammond B3, Greg Rockingham on drums, Lee Rothenberg on guitar, Geof Bradfield on tenor sax and Greg Jung on alto sax, who make up the Soul Message Band. Guest musicians include Steve Eisen on baritone and tenor sax, and Typhanie Monique on vocals. He was in a chipper mood about its positive reception. “I was just over at the Delmark office yesterday. They tell me it’s doing well on the charts,” he said quietly. Some of Jimmy’s collector-coveted single releases from 1966 through 1972 were revisited during these recording sessions.
Pre-production conversations with Delmark Records’ CEO Julia Miller and A & R man Elbio Barilari had set the stage. It was a matter of Jimmy’s choosing numbers he wanted to recut. “You know, these songs go way back with me and I’ve often thought about what it would sound like to update a few.” It was Barilari’s idea to pair him with the Soul Message Band to reignite the feeling on the old 45s. “We put a new spin on some tried-and-true material,” said Burns. “Rockingham’s a great drummer and really got into the groove. This is a little different approach from the early discs and I’m glad people are responding so well to it.” Dubbed Northern Soul in the U.K. to distinguish it from the Soul music from Memphis and the other American Southern cities in the ‘60s, the music is much prized by many Brits. “To me it’s just the music I always played up here in Chicago. Northern Soul was happening in Detroit, Philly and N.Y. too.” Burns’s “I Really Love You” was voted among the top 500 Northern Soul discs and an original pressing was valued by collectors for as much as $1,200 at the height of the genre’s popularity. “Not that I get any of that money,” Jimmy lamented. “In fact, I never saw a dime after I recorded it. Went into the studio, laid my vocal down and that’s the last connection I had with the record company at that time.” But now, with this new release, remuneration from sales to a whole new audience is promising.
Well-loved and respected by musicians and fans alike, Jimmy Burns has been a figure of mentorship and inspiration to a younger generation in Chicago for as long as anyone can remember. Though born in Dublin, Mississippi in 1943 and raised on the Hilliard Cotton Plantation where he learned to play both one-string and 12-string guitars, Jimmy has spent his entire adult life in Chicago pursuing a musical career. A brief excerpt from Burns’s mini bio bears reviewing:
“The youngest of eleven children, Burns sang in a church choir and was influenced by the Delta blues he heard on the streets. Burns’s father was a sharecropper who performed as a singer at house parties. At the age of 12 he moved with his family to the Windy City in 1956. Recording mostly solo in the 1960s, Burns issued singles for the USA, Minit, Tip Top and Erica labels. He toured the Midwest with his backing group, the Fantastic Epics, and with another outfit called Jimmy Burns and the Gas Company into the early 1970s. After a long hiatus to operate his bbq restaurant Uncle Mickey’s, he later returned to performing in the mid ‘90’s with a residency at Smokedaddy. There, he was “re-discovered” by Delmark founder Bob Koester, commencing an album recording career that continues to this day.”
Jimmy Burns & brother Eddie Burns
“As I tell everyone, my roots go back to hearing the Blues from my Mississippi home. Lightnin’ Hopkins is one of my first influences.” His musical past is rich. “I got started on the diddley bow, but my daddy just called it a guitar. One string stretched up on the porch – he took it off a broom, those were the strongest wires. He taught me how to play it; it just had that Delta sound, the thing that gets in your blood. Then I got my own guitar around 9 or 10 years old. But when we moved to Chicago in my teen years, singing on the street corners was the thing. Since I had come up singing gospel music in the church, it came natural to me to harmonize with other voices – I was 2nd tenor.“
A group of older cats were impressed enough to take the younger boy into their fold. ‘’The Medallionaires brought me in; they were 19, I was 16. They had records out at the time, some good ones. They played ‘em at sock hops and parties. I never recorded with them, though, but you can still find their Mercury singles on YouTube and in collections.’’
When asked if he’ll be playing with the Soul Message Band to promote Full Circle, Burns gave a philosophical spin. “I pretty much live in the present now; I like where I am at this age,” he confessed. “If they want me to do that, I’ll be more than happy to. Otherwise, I’ll continue to take things day-to-day.” Jimmy’s day-to-day includes holding down an every-other-Wednesday-night spot at Buddy Guy’s Legends with bandmates Anthony Palmer or Carlos Showers on second guitar, E.G. McDaniel on bass and James Carter on drums. He also schedules frequent bookings at Rosa’s Lounge.
But Jimmy’s future is not without new musical ideas. “I’m practicing more guitar lately,” he offered. “Being primarily a singer, a melodic player, I play by ear. I play simply and leave the solos to my other guitarist. But increasingly, I’m thinking of performing on my own because there are so many songs I know and don’t have time to teach the band. So, I’ve been inventing ways that I can accompany myself; searching for chords that will complement my interpretation of a song.” Burns emphasized that he’s known some of these songs for so long. “See, a vocalist knows the material from the inside out, the lyrics have a depth of meaning that sometimes only he or she can explore in a band setting. And my own repertoire includes years of songs that might not resonate with my instrumentalists without a great deal of extra work. You see, band time is so difficult to schedule. My idea is to play solo material drawn from the many sources I’ve been influenced by over the decades: Doo-wop, Gospel, Pop, Folk, you name it – and of course, the Blues.”
Conversation wound through a myriad of recollections. He recalled some of the Blues clubs that were around back in the day. “I lived in the Rush St. area in the ‘50s when we first moved to Chicago. A friend and I used to shine shoes over near where Blue Chicago is now. The streets were full of burlesque houses back then, but I didn’t know anything about that at that time,’’ he laughed. Another club on the North Side, sparked more memories. “Yeah, the Fickle Pickle in Old Town –Mike Bloomfield played there. He told me he was putting a blues band together and I’d never heard of a white guy doing that. I kind of regret I didn’t take him up on the offer to do some of that with him.”
A later gig at the old Arie Crown Theater precipitated a meeting with a certain member of the British Blues invasion. “The Fantastic Epics and I opened for the Yardbirds,” he said matter-of-factly. “Jeff Beck was interested in the Chicago Blues scene, so we went out to a club afterwards near Lincoln Park. Years later, he came to see me at Buddy Guy’s; he remembered that time we had spent together all those years before.” Concerning another guitar luminary from that era, Burns had his doubts at first listen. “When I heard Jimi Hendrix in the beginning, I wasn’t so sure,” he asserted. “But right before he died, I could hear who his influences were on his double album, Electric Ladyland. I heard John Lee Hooker in “Voodoo Child” and Curtis Mayfield in “Electric Ladyland”. He even covered an old Earl King number, “Come On.” It was with that material I could hear where he was coming from and felt a kinship.” When pointed out that he would have been about the same age as Hendrix, Jimmy underscored it. “We were the same age.” A later fact-check revealed they were born a mere three months apart.
The man knows his history. And geography. And social science. Conversations with Jimmy Burns seamlessly segue from his extensive travels as a performing artist to the socio-political situation of the countries visited. He discussed tribal conflicts between the people of Georgia and native Russians. Soviet leaders were identified by their region of birth. “Khrushchev spent his youth in the Ukraine. Stalin was Georgian,” Burns mentioned. He went on to address the ancient enmity between Greece and Turkey. Blues players from Latvia were compared to those from South America and the accent differences heard in Manchester and London were identified. “Outside of England, the Scottish accent is the hardest English for me to understand. The rest at least make some sense,” he laughed.
A memory for details is anchored by personal circumstance. “I saw David Ruffin perform at the Regal Theater before he joined the Temptations. That would be November 15, 1961. I recall that distinctly because the next day my daughter was born.”
The chat invariably circled back to music. Jimmy’s music, Blues music, world music. “I have this notion that we’re all playing the same things, we just don’t know it,” he mused. “Now, I’m not saying there aren’t distinctions. Even urban blues and Delta Blues are different. Some more modern Blues even uses the major scale, unlike Mississippi Blues. It’s just that I hear commonalities across the globe. I can’t help it; I just hear it. Perhaps the soul of mankind and womenkind is most evident in the expression of music.”
Burns’s tone turned more serious and his eyes became more focused when he delineated the difference between country and city blues. “Delta Blues? It goes deep. It’s deeper—much deeper.” Born on Delta soil, Jimmy Burns draws from this reserve of deepness for his own musical expression. And it’s been his stated goal to combine his native Mississippian Delta Blues with the sounds of Chicago urban Blues ever since he returned to playing the Blues after his long hiatus from performing. “You can’t play what you don’t know, so I go to what I know. Simplicity is the key, tapping into what you feel. My feelings for the original Blues are always with me, deep in me from my childhood.” And deepness is the common denominator in all of Jimmy Burns’s recorded material, Full Circle included.
Jimmy Burns and Soul Message Band’s new album, Full Circle, is available for downloads and streaming on Spotify, Apple, iTunes, Amazon and other platforms. The physical CD can be purchased at his live shows or HERE
About the Author: Peter M. Hurley is a photographer/writer/artist whose interest in Blues began as a young boy upon first hearing the distinctive and haunting Chess Records sound of Bo Diddley. Exposure to Little Walter, Junior Wells and Howlin’ Wolf in later years led him to further discover more Blues originators. After many years as an artist, Mr. Hurley shifted his visual focus, bringing his painterly sensibilities to the art of photographing musicians in the throes of performance on Chicago Blues stages. Combining music and visual art goes to the heart of what he had felt growing up with rock ‘n roll and then discovering its source: the Blues.
https://www.chicagobluesguide.com/post/jimmy-burns-interview
A walk through memory lane
by Matteo Bossi
We still remember the first time Jimmy Burns came to play in Italy, it was in 2003 at the Castel San Pietro In Blues Festival and so does he, “I remember quite well when I was in Italy with my brother Eddie…it’s been a while”. Back then we had the chance to talk to him for an interview published on issue n. 84 of Il Blues, as he was about to put out his third studio album for Delmark, “Back To The Delta”. We talked to him again now he is back the same label, with a new record, “Full Circle”, accompanied by Chris Foreman’s Soul Message Band. At 82 Jimmy still enjoys making music, singing and performing live and his memory is ever sharp.
This “Full Circle” album is unlike anything you’ve done before, you worked with Chris Foreman Soul Message Band and you cut songs that maybe you don’t perform that often anymore.
It’s true, I very seldom do that stuff. Basically I do a lot of stuff from my Delmark recordings, more so than my R&B days. You know the thing with the R&B stuff is I’ve never performed it live until 2018. But these sessions were great, I really loved working with those guys. It was not a problem, of course we had to rehearse the tunes, but they’re strict professionals so it makes it much easier when you’re trying to accomplish something. I knew them before but I had never performed with them.
In the liner notes you write that “Where Does That Leave Me” had Donny Hathaway arranging and playing piano and the voice of the late Bill Howl’N-Madd Perry.
I only met Donny once in 1970 down at Chess Records, it was him and Philip Upchurch at a session for Little Milton recording a tune called “Many Rivers To Cross” and I was with a friend of mine, Odell Brown. I don’t know if you remember Odell Brown & The Organ-Izers, he ended up playing with Marvin Gaye and he’s one of the co-writers of “Sexual Healing”. But yes, I remember all of those sessions, every one of them, from the very first I did in 1959. But anyway Donnie played on “Where Does That Leave Me” and “Can’t Get Over You” but they never gave credit to him, they pushed somebody else’s name on that. Me and Bill go way back and I talked to him before he passed, he was down in Mississippi. A lot of people don’t realize that he was actually the one who taught Kingfish how to play. Him and I go back fifty years when he was living in Chicago, then he moved back to Mississippi and I used to see him when I go down there. When I first knew him he was Billy Perry. Then he picked up the Howl’N Madd name. As Billy Easton he had a song “I Was A Fool” and he was recording here, he hooked up with Barry Despenza when Barry and Carl Wolfolk went their separate ways.
You have been living in Chicago since 1955, and you’ve been part the doo wop scene with the Medalllionaires, the folk scene and the R&B scene of the Sixties. You met people like Barbara Dane or Curtis Mayfield.
Well, I love all music. I love blues but I’m not a purist…I just like good music and to me there is only one music, good music. God gifted me to do music and I enjoy doing it. I like anything from Frank Sinatra to Muddy Waters, not that I do that, but it’s my range and I like it all. It depends on the song, if I won’t feel it I won’t sing it. You mentioned Barbara Dane, I talked to her in 1960, I was seventeen years old…I remember talking to her at a place in Chicago called The Gate Of Horn, because at that time she did something with Muddy Waters. She just passed away, I think she was ninety something years old. She was a real nice lady and she played acoustic guitar too.
While on the R&B scene you met people like Tyrone Davis, Otis Clay or Harold Burrage. Can you tell us something about all of that?
Oh yes, I knew all of them. Otis I met him in 1965 in Chicago Heights, Illinois, it was a Sunday night and I had a record out. It was me Otis and Tyrone. Otis had a record out at the time, “Tired Of Falling In And Out Of Love” and Tyrone had a song called “You Made Me Suffer” on Four Brothers Records. It was before he got big. And there was another guy, Johnny Sayles he was there too, he was on a show, they were just hanging out. But that’s when I met them. Otis and Tyrone had a day job together. Tyrone Davis back then he was Tyrone The Wonder Boy, he wasn’t using Tyrone Davis, which is his name. The guy who was producing him was a guy by the name of Harold Burrage.
And what about Curtis Mayfield?
Well, we went to the same school but I didn’t go with him. I first met Curtis when Jerry Butler left the group, because we’re from the same neighborhood. I ended up hanging out at this house and that’s where I met the rest of the Impressions, like Fred Cash. I didn’t realize that Fred was one of the originals, he rejoined the group when Jerry Left, but I didn’t know it at the time. The guy I used to talk all the time was Richard Brooks. Him and his brother Arthur they wrote “For Your Precious Love” with Jerry, Curtis played on it but he didn’t write it. I remember Richard telling me they had a record coming out on ABC and it was “Gypsy Woman”. I used to see him a lot he was a real good brother. He passed away. But then they became a trio, Curtis, Fred and Sam Gooden, but they started out as five. I know Curtis did some auditions and at the time we did a lot of auditions, with my group The Medallionaires too.
With your group you backed up Jimmy Lee Robinson at that time.
Yes, “Twist It Baby”! That’s my group on that…Got a little girl doo… It was on the Bandera label. I think The Impressions ended up on Bandera after Vee-Jay but they had some problem and did another recording contract. They recorded a lot of stuff and I remember when Curtis started to be the lead singer, the last thing with Jerry was “At The County Fair”.
You’ve said that seeing Billy Branch or Lurrie Bell ignited your will to play the blues, how and when adid that happen?
You’re absolutely right! It was 1978, Willie Dixon took my nephew Larry Taylor, Demetria Taylor’s older brother, Freddie Dixon, Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch to Berlin for a gig called Next Generation Of The Blues. When they came back to Chicago we were hanging out and I we went to see Billy Branch, he was a young guy and I was amazed at him playing blues like that, it was quite was exceptional at the time. And Billy is still a good friend of mine and he’s now one of the ambassadors of the blues. He even worked with my brother Eddie and Little Joe Blue in Europe. When I heard them play… I remember I told that to my wife, they were playing Chicago blues and I love Chicago blues, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers…They were doing stuff like “Can’t Hold Out Much Longer” o “Crazy About You Baby”, I still love that, it’s some of my favorite music.
It’s been nearly 30 years since your first album on Delmark, “Leaving Here Walking”, came out. You worked a lot with Rockin Johnny Burgin in those days.
Oh yes it was in the Nineties, down at the Smoke Daddy, they invited me and it was not about the money, because at the time I was making maybe a thousand dollars a week with my job. I think they gave us twenty dollars plus food and drink but I didn’t care since I was doing it for the music. It turned out good and that’s why I ended up with Delmark. Bob (Koester) came down, Scott Dirks told him about us. When we recorded “Leaving Here Walking” I had years of accumulation of original songs. We had a good band.
Where you friends with Jimmy Johnson?
Oh Jimmy I first heard him in 1964 at the time I had a record out called “Give Her To Me”, at a place in Maxwell Street. have been a fan of Jimmy Johnson ever since I heard him because he was always polished. When I heard him play blues in the Eighties I was surprised, he was pretty much R&B when I first heard him, I remember him he was singing a tune by William Bell that was popluar at the time, “Any Other Way”. He was real sharp. And I got to know him, he was quite a guy.
When did you start to play with your late brother Eddie? I was lucky enough to see you together in Italy in 2003, you had recorded together “Snake Eyes” a couple of years earlier.
Let me explain something to you. I’m the youngest and Eddie was the oldest, he was fifteen years older than me. We were not raised together, even if we have the same mother and father. My grandmother raised him, just like with my baby sister Rosie. I didn’t really get to know good Eddie until later on. Seventy years ago we came to Chicago, me, my sister, my stepfather and my mom. In 1962 he was the one who introduced me to Albert King, it was Little Milton and his company in East St. Louis called Bobbin…Milton had “Lonely Man” and Albert “Don’t Throw Your Love On Me So Strong”. I met them because they were doing things for Big Bill Hill on the West Side of Chicago. When Eddie and I finally had a chance to do something together it was in 1998 or ’99 in Sweden with a polish guy that became a naturalized canadian citizen up in Toronto. And then we went to Japan, it was my first trip to Japan. But we didn’t do a lot. Sometimes I would sit in when I would visit him in Detroit, he played a lot up there. I actually got to know him good starting in 1971 when we traveled on vacation to see him, me and my family, my wife and my kids. Because I wanted my kids to know their cousins. So that’s how we ended up being closer.
What about the “Snake Eyes” album?
Oh I remember it quite well, because it was the exact same time of 9/11. I never will forget. We were supposed to come in on Monday but when that happened they canceled the session and we did it on Tuesday. Eddie was staying at my house with his wife. I remember that my sister in law and my wife Dorothy they were watching the TV and they didn’t think it was real at first.
You sing two numbers, “Beast Of Burden” and “Dead Flowers” on Chicago Plays The Stones. What do you remember about that project?
Oh that was Larry Skoller’s project, Matthew Skoller’s brother. I did two of the Stones tunes and I think John Primer and myself were the only one who did two tunes. Billy Branch was on that record and Keith Richards was on guitar on one of the tunes. You know I met even Jeff Beck, it was in 1965, we were on the same show.
You did some touring in Europe over the years with italian guitarist Luca Giordano and you also worked with Dave Herrero, what are some of your memories about those experiences?
I played with Luca a lot in Spain and Italy, he used to come here with Quique Gomez out of Madrid. I talked to him not long ago, he plays a lot down there in Brazil, he’s a great guitarist. I work a lot with Dave too, later on this month we will be opening for ZZ Top. I see Dave all the time we get together for lunch usually down in Chinatown. We go way back, he remembers my wife and I know his brother and his girlfriend, I even met his mom, they would come over to my house when I have barbecue, Christmas or Thanksgiving or stuff like that…the year before last, me, Dave with my niece Demetria we went down to Mexico City.
It surely is a learning experience for them to play with you.
Oh I never think about people learning from me, I just try to do what I’m supposed to be doing…keep my shit right! I’ve never looked at it that way, but if it is so it’s a big compliment.
https://www.ilblues.org/jimmy-burns-interview/
JIMMY BURNS – A HAPPY BLUES PERSON
Jimmy: “My people were sharecroppers. My childhood was just typical. You went to school, you worked. I don’t have any complaints about my childhood. I enjoyed myself as a kid, and I’ve been a happy person for most of my life.”
Jimmy is by far the leading star in this column, but at the very end there are cameo appearances by our two old friends –
Graziano Uliani – the director of Porretta Soul Festival in Italy, and
Dylann DeAnna – the Blues Critic, the moderator of https://www.soulbluesmusic.com, and the head of CDS Records, which specialized in southern soul.
James Olin Burns, better known as Jimmy Burns, is a rhythm & blues and blues hero out of Chicago. He was born in Dublin, Mississippi, on February 27 in 1943. Dublin is situated about 9 miles southeast of Clarksdale, and incidentally a blues harmonicist named Little Willie Foster was born in Dublin as well, only 21 years earlier. Jimmy: “Before I was seven years old, I moved a few miles away from Dublin to Lyons, Mississippi, which I left when I was about ten years old.” Jimmy’s next residence was in Shelby, MS, where he moved with his mother and two brothers. “In 1953 I moved from Shelby to Clarksdale and from Clarksdale to Chicago on a Labor Day in 1955. I’ve been in Chicago for 70 years now.”
On September 19, Delmark Records (https://www.delmark.com) released a CD by Jimmy Burns & Soul Message Band titled Full Circle (Delmark 891), and together with Jimmy we’ll have a closer look at that record at the end of this article. The title of the CD – Full Circle – describes Jimmy’s musical journey and actually the 82-year-old Jimmy has been quite a journeyman also geographically. He has performed all over the world. “I’ve been to France and Italy a lot, to the U.K. and Spain, to Russia and Turkey twice, to Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia and Kazakhstan, also to Canada. I’ve been to South Africa and in South America to Brazil and Argentina and Chile, also to Japan three times, to Poland, to Sweden, Denmark, Norway – and I’ve been to your country, Finland. I played at Savoy in 2014 in the same show with Tommy Hunt. I played with a Danish group from Copenhagen, Fried Okra Band.
ONE OF DELMARK’S MAINSTAYS
Full Circleis Jimmy’s 7th album on Delmark in thirty years, if we include Snake Eyes, which he recorded with his brother, Eddie Burns. “Eddie was in music before me. There were nine of us in the family. Eddie was my eldest brother (1928-2012). He was fifteen years older than me. I’m the youngest. Eddie was raised by my grandmother and my grandfather. I didn’t really get to know him until my late teens. I went to see him in Detroit in 1955. He left Mississippi, I think, in 1947, the year that my second oldest brother passed.”
Jimmy and Eddie
Delmark Records is an independent jazz and blues label, which was established in 1953 by Bob Koester. Bob passed in 2021, and he had retired from Delmark three years earlier.
Julia A. Miller
Today Julia A. Miller is thethe CEO and the President of Delmark and a musician herself, and Elbio Banilari is the Vice President and Artistic Director. Julia: “We bought the assets and our new business started in 2018. It’s consistent, but it’s different business than Bob’s. We’ve done almost 70 new releases since 2018. We do blues and jazz, we do re-releases, we do a lot of LPs and we do CDs as well. We have about 160 000 CDs here in the warehouse. We have a studio here. We do sessions all the time. The Jimmy Burns record was recorded here. I actually tracked that record, engineered the masters and my partner Elbio was the producer.”
Elbio Barilari at Ground Zero, Clarksdale, MS
On Full Circle Jimmy plays with the Soul Message Band (https://www.soulmessageband.com), consisting of jazz organist Chris Foreman, drummer Greg Rockinham and guitarist Lee Rothenberg. Alongside those core members, on this CD they have three saxophone players – Greg Jung (alto), Geof Bradfield (tenor) and Steve Eisen (baritone and tenor) – and one backup vocalist, Typhanie Monique. Julia: “We had a previous release on Soul Message Band, Soulful Days (in 2019). We’ve been working on combining blues and jazz overlap in the live shows that we’ve produced. Elbio went deep into Jimmy’s early hits, then combined them with Soul Message Band, which is a great organ trio. That’s Elbio’s concept.” After Soulful Days, Soul Message Band has released two more CDs – Live at the Blue Llama (2020) and People (2021) – prior to this new one.
THE MEDALLIONAIRES
Jimmy: “What I first learned from my father was to play diddley bow, a one-string instrument. He didn’t show me a lot, but he showed me some of the more stuff on a regular guitar. And I remember him talking about Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Boy Fuller and all of those guys. Actually, it was my mom, who let me play a guitar that a church lady had loaned to her. I first learned to play in open tunes.” Among Jimmy’s biggest blues favourites there are Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters.
“When I was over in Chicago, I was still doing gospel. I was with a group called the Gay Lites, but only about a year or two. We didn’t make any records. I was 13 or 14 years old, around ’56 – ’57. We performed at various churches. We used to do a tune called So Many Years. We were primarily an a cappella group.”
“I didn’t really get into secular music until early 1959, when I joined a vocal group, the Medallionaires. I was not with the group, when they recorded Magic Moonlight (on Mercury in 1958). That was before my time. I met the lead singer Willie Wright and Ronald Anderson and David Anderson, who were cousins, and Ernest Montgomery, because we all lived in the same neighbourhood. The manager of the Medallionaires was Wood Tate Anderson.”
Eventually Jimmy did go into the studio with the group, but Allan Records out of Chicago didn’t release those recordings. “That was in 1959, when I was 16 years old. The song was Two Months out of School. It was doowop. Then the group ended up recording with somebody else after I left. They changed the name of the group to the Sadly Mistaken and they recorded Golden Earrings.” Golden Earrings was released in 1966 on Marc and subsequently on Challenge, and the up-tempo arrangement was created by none other than H.B. Barnum.
Those days Jimmy became friends also with Curtis Mayfield. “Curtis and I were from the same neighbourhood. I went to school with his sister Carolynfor a while. She was my girlfriend. I used to hang out in Curtis’ house and I also went to school with his first wife, Helen.”
To somewhat unexpectedly, Jimmy performed folk music in the early 1960s in local coffee houses and bars. “There was a lot of going on at the time. Folk music was really popular then. This was during the beatnik era. I was just a youngster. To me some of that folk music was blues.”
TIP TOP
“I went to solo after meeting Charles Colbert, Sr., on the southside of Chicago. I met the Colberts right around 1963 through a guitar player, who wanted to introduce me to them. I had some tunes I had composed and they recorded them.” Charles Sr. was a musician and he was in restaurant business, plus he owned record labels as well, such as Nike and its subsidiaries Tip Top and Jive.
Jimmy’s first solo single was released in August 1964 on the U.S.A. label, although he was a Tip Top Records artist. “I was signed to Tip Top, which was owned by Charles Colbert Senior. What was common with an independent label was that they would lease records to another company. Charles was the one that put the record with Paul Glass at U.S.A. I never had any deals with them.”
Arranged by a jazz trumpeter/composer/band director Burgess Gardner (1936-2021), both songs on Jimmy’s debut release – Through All Your Faults and Forget It (U.S.A. 771) – are performed in a lively uptown style. These catchy and poppy mid-tempo ditties were composed by Jimmy Burns and Mangui, aka Margaret Andrea Ruby.
Jimmy’s next three singles were all released on Tip Top, and Charles Colbert’s son, Charles,Jr., – Chuck Colbert from now on – stepped in not only as a songwriter but also as Jimmy’s producer. Jimmy: “The Daylighters was a group that Chuck was with. They came from Alabama.” Chuck was born in 1939 in Argo, Illinois, and after a stint with the Junior Ambassadors he joined a local group called the Trinidads. The Birmingham, Alabama, based Daylighters moved to Chicago in 1958, worked and recorded with Betty Everett on C.J., recorded as a group for Nike Records and had releases also on Tip Top, such as Cool Breeze and Bottomless Pit. Those days the line-up of the group was Tony Gideon, Eddie Thomas, Dorsey Wood, George Wood and Gerald Sims. Chuck Colbert replaced Tony Gideon in 1961. Dorsey Wood or Gerald Sims are mostly on lead on the released singles by the Daylighters. Tony rejoined the group in 1963, but that very same year two original members, the Wood Brothers, left. Jimmy: “Tony is still around. Eddie Thomas is dead now (died in 1986). Willie Henderson was one of the musicians in our sessions at that time. I didn’t know those musicians that well, because I was like twenty years old in 1964.” After the Daylighters, Chuck Colbert went on to work in Gary and the Knight Lites, which morphed into the American Breed – remember Bend Me, Shape Me from 1967?
GIVE HER TO ME
The first of Jimmy’s Tip Top singles – Give Her to Me/Powerful Love (Tip Top 2012) – was released in 1965, and now Chuck wrote and produced both poppy dancers. Especially the stomping Powerful Love has a Motown feel to it. Jimmy: “Everybody was chasing Motown and sing like they were trying to sound like Chuck Jackson.” Actually, Jimmy revives Give Her to Me on his recent Full Circle CD. “I love the tune. I never performed it live. All the 45s I did, I never performed any of those tunes live. The only time I’ve performed a live tune was after I recorded blues.”
You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone (Tip Top 2013) was released in 1966, and this pleasant dancer was composed by three Daylighters members – Chuck Colbert, Eddie Thomas and Tony Gideon. Jimmy is backed by the Fantastic Epics, a group consisting of Bob Symek (keys), Martin Dumas (g), Bruce Butler (b) and Lamont Turner (d). Jimmy: “I’m still in touch with one of them now. With the Epics we toured parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana. We did show with the Yardbirds – that’s when I met Jeff Beck – New Colony Six, the Buckinhams and groups like that. The Epics later changed their name to Rasputin’s Stash. They worked with Curtis Mayfield, too.” Jimmy wrote the beat-ballad on the flip called It Use to Be, which also appears on his new CD.
The plug side of Jimmy’s third Tip Top single in 1966 is a soft and easily flowing, light dancer named I Didn’t Need (Your Help), which was written and produced by Chuck and arranged by Reggie Boyd, a famous blues guitarist, who passed in2010. Jimmy is backed by a vocal group called the LA-Casics “They were from Chicago.” Already on Nike Records in 1961 they had released a single by Billy Danfair & the LA-Casics – called (Your Love) Something’s Got a Hold on Me. The B-side to Jimmy’s single is Chuck’s tune titled R & B. It’s a party shuffle, which in its musical structure bears a resemblance to Shake a Tail Feather. Burgess Gardner was the arranger.
I TRIED
“The Gas Company was a group that I hooked up with in ’66 or ’67. We did a lot of local stuff. We didn’t make any recordings. We just did like top-40 tunes. I don’t know what happened to them.” Joe Kleszczynski played Hammond and piano in the Gas Company with Jimmy and he fondly reminisces, how they mostly performed popular r&b songs by Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett and Marvin Gaye at the time. The Gas Company was one of the groups Jimmy was touring with between his last Tip Top single in 1966 and his 1970s recordings.
The 5th released single in Jimmy’s career came out in early 1970 on Minit Records (32085). Minit was founded by Joe Banashak in New Orleans in 1959, and among many distinguished soul artists that have recorded for the label there are Irma Thomas, Aaron Neville, Bobby Womack, Jimmy Holiday and Ike & Tina Turner. In 1970 Minit was a division of Liberty Records out of Los Angeles, California.
I Tried was produced by Barry Despenza, Carl Wolfolk and Monk Higgins. Monk also arranged the song that Barry and Carl had written called I Tried, and to me it is the peak performance among Jimmy’s singles between 1964 and 1971. Rich in instrumentation, this irresistible up-tempo number brings Tyrone Davis and his hits of the day to your mind, which is only natural if you look at the names behind the song. Add to that still that it was produced for Wally Roker & Associates.
The funkier and stormier Did It Ever Cross Your Mind by the same collective is on the flip. “Did It Ever Cross Your Mind was written only for me. Wally Roker is Lenny Kravitz’s uncle.” Wally passed in 2015.https://www.youtube.com/embed/0EG80tXRV60?si=5dcZS0O5wO-qjG3S
I REALLY LOVE YOU
Robert Newsome aka Bobby “Slim” James wrote and recorded a stomper titled I Really Love You for Karol Records in 1969. His original recording was produced by Christopher Bernard Allen and arranged by Johnny Cameron, and then one year later on William Bagsby’sErica Records they released Jimmy’s version of the song, arranged by Johnny Cameron but produced by Bill Watkiss. The track is the same, and Jimmy’s record has since turned into a northern soul favourite. Jimmy: “The guys, who also sang on it were Clarence Johnson of the Chi-Lites and Eddie Sullivan. Marshall Thompson’s cousin Terry Thompson played drums on it. We all go way back, but now Clarence and Eddie are dead.” I Really Love You was later re-released on Grapevine in 1979 and Inferno in 2012, and now Jimmy has re-recorded it for his latest CD.
I Love You Girl on the flip is a melodic and gentle toe-tapper, written by C.B. Allen, and it’s another very enjoyable performance from Jimmy. Actually, I Love You Girl was probably meant to be the plug side, as on the label it reads “Erica 02-A.”
In 1971 they released Jimmy’s 7th single on Dispo Records (H1071), Can’t Get Over (Cause I Can’t Get Over You), which is an easily flowing and enjoyable mid-tempo song that was written by Barry Despenza, Dee Irwin and Gene Easton. “Dispo comes out of Barry’s name. Barry was with ABC, but I ended up on his independent label.”
The B-side, Where Does That Leave Me?, is one of those songs that is revived for Jimmy’s new CD. Written by Barry, Billy Easton and Gregory Washington, according to Jimmy “Donny Hathaway did the arrangement and played piano on it. Barry didn’t credit Donny but gave credit to Gregory Washington.”
INTO CHICAGO BLUES
“I got a regular job at the Michael Reese Hospital in 1970, and I stayed there until 1999. There I started out as doing janitorial work. I also went to carpentry school after I got that job.” Additionally, Jimmy and his wife opened a barbeque restaurant, Uncle Mickey’s. “We bought the place around ’89, and I sold it in 2004. My nickname is Mickey. Beverly gave me that name, and all my nieces and nephews called me Mickey. They still do.”
Jimmy didn’t forsake music altogether. “With my nephew Larry Taylor on drums and my brother Louis Burns on bass, we played in various clubs on and off, not continuously. I got into blues in the late 1970s, when I met Lurrie Bell and Billy Branch. They were playing Chicago blues, and I love Chicago blues.”
“In 1994 I met Rockin’ Johnny Burgin and his Lazy Boys, as they were called at that time. They played Chicago blues and they played it right. That’s what impressed me about them. Scott Dirks is a harmonica player, who worked at Delmark back in the day, and through him Delmark’s Bob Koester came down to Smoke Daddy to hear me and Rockin’ Johnny and his band. Bob decided to record me, and the rest is history.”
LEAVING HERE WALKING
Jimmy’s debut album on Delmark in 1996, Leaving Here Walking (DE 694), turned right off into an award-winning record. “It made quite a splash.” Produced by Scott Dirks and recorded at Riverside Studios in Chicago, National Association of Independent Recording Distributors chose it the “Best Blues Record of the Year.” Not only can we listen to tender versions of such familiar songs as Gypsy Woman and Talk to Me, but Jimmy himself wrote five out of the fourteen songs on display.
“I haven’t been writing anything lately. Instead, I pretty much choose to re-arrange standard songs. I’m not what they call ‘a deep blues man.’ I grew up with the music and my thing is that I just like music, no matter what kind it is. If it sounds good, I’ll do it. If I don’t feel it, I won’t mess with it.”
The follow-up album, Night Time Again (DE 730), three years later is a more varied set, which includes the funky You Say You Need Lovin’, Lowman Pauling’s r&b belter Baby Don’t Do It, Willie Dixon’s quick-tempo Shake It for Me and catchy toe-tappers named Spend Some Time with Me and Wait a Minute.
The concluding song on the album, 1959 Revisited: A Tribute, is a throwback to doowop. “The reason why I call it 1959 Revisited is because that’s the first song I recorded for Allan Records in 1959, Two Months out of School. I did all the voices on it, because I’m the last guy that’s left from that group. They let me do it, and I enjoyed doing it.” Although the Medallionaires’ single went unreleased, that very same song came out one year later, in April 1960, on an Impala EP (C-T4/2123) and on a single (Impala 2121) sung and written by Carl Bonafede, who owned the label and is another Chicago, Illinois, artist. Jimmy wasn’t aware of this Carl’s release.
On Night Time Again there’s also Jimmy’s cover of Monkey Time, a big hit in 1963. “I remember, when that tune was popular. I’m a big fan of Major Lance, and I went to school with him. We lived in the same neighbourhood. Major lived right around the corner from Curtis Mayfield, who wrote that song. Curtis also wrote Major’s first record in 1959 on Mercury called I’ve Got a Girl.”
BACK TO THE DELTA
Snake Eyes (758) in 2002 offers a mixture of blues, rocking r&b and even laid-back songs. The main artist is Jimmy’s brother, Eddie Burns, and Jimmy appears here in the capacity of a co-producer and guitarist. “It was Eddie’s CD. I just enjoyed playing on it. I think I sing on Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ but Trash”, best known by the Clovers on Atlanticin 1954. “Eddie ended up in Detroit in 1948, and that’s when he met John Lee Hooker.” As a singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player, Eddie turned into a blues celebrity in the Detroit area, and in 1998 the Detroit Blues Society presented him with Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jimmy’s next solo album on Delmark titled Back to the Delta (DE 770) was released one year later and Jimmy dedicated this record “to all the great Delta musicians, past and present, starting with my late father Albert Burns Sr.” Jimmy himself composed as many as 13 out of the 16 tracks on the CD. The title song is autobiographical, unlike a slow blues called Stranded in Clarksdale. “Clarksdale was a main town, when I was a boy. We were going to Clarksdale on Saturdays and Sundays. Only my sister and brother Eddie lived in Clarksdale, and that’s how I ended up staying in Clarksdale before I came to Chicago in 1955. Stranded in Clarksdale is a fictitious story, but I remember seeing prisoners and stuff like that there.”
The energetic and dynamic Live at B.L.U.E.S. (DE 789) was cut in 2007 at a Chicago club, and among six Jimmy’s own songs there’s the driving closing number named Stop the Train. “I just did what they asked me to do, like repeating some of my previous recordings. Co-producer Steve Wagner said ‘we’re gonna record you live, so do what your normally do.’ The CD succeeds in conveying good-spirited and excited atmosphere in the club that evening.
Stuck in the Middle (VR 001) was released four years later, but not on Delmark but on Jimmy’s own label, Velrone, which was named after his two children, Velvet and Tyrone. “At that time, I wasn’t doing anything with the company, and I wanted to try something different. I’ve always liked the song Stuck in the Middle.” In his version Jimmy adds extra punch to that title song, which is best remembered as a 1972 hit by Stealers Wheel.
Mostly stuck in blues or rolling r&b, Jimmy covers many outside songs like the Beatles’ Get Back, John Hiatt’sFeels Like Rain and Foreigner’s Cold as Ice. “Cold as Ice is not like Foreigner, because I can never duplicate that big sound. I loved the way they did it. I’m not trying to compete with them. I’m just trying to do what Jimmy Burns would do with it.” There are also such melodic ditties as Felix Reyes’ Reach for the Sky and Richard Hamersma’sHow Close (Is Your Love). Although the material is to a degree based on pop-rock, Jimmy adds strong blues flavour to it.
IT AIN’T RIGHT
Bob Koester and Dick Shurman produced Jimmy’s comeback set on Delmark in 2015 named It Ain’t Right (DE 841). No original songs this time, instead Jimmy interprets tunes by Bobby Rush, Percy Mayfield, (brother) Eddie Burns, Larry Williams, Lowman Pauling etc. Among highlights there are Billy Flynn’s poignant Will I Ever Find Somebody?, Goree Carter’s boogie-woogie Rock Awhile and Jimmy Reed’s swayer, harmonica-led A String to Your Heart.
Many listeners are attracted to Jimmy’s sped-up interpretation of Stand by Me. “That’s a favourite song. I’ve played that all over the world. People know that tune. I’ve played it in Japan, South America, Russia, South Africa, Canada – they all like it. Mine is a little bit faster than the original. For me it was too slow.”
The closing song is Wade in the Water. “That’s one of my favourite songs. I’m going back to my gospel roots now. I love Sam Cooke and I love his group, the Soul Stirrers. I listened to Sam before he went secular, when he was still with the Soul Stirrers in the early 50s. Wade was a tune that Sam wrote and I liked the way the second lead in the Soul Stirrers, Paul Foster, did Wade in the Water” (in 1960).
Besides his solo albums on Delmark, Jimmy has participated in many joint projects with other artists. The Chicago Sessions (2020) introduces seven tracks recorded in Copenhagen and Chicago, where Jimmy laid down his vocals. “That’s the Danish group, Fried Okra. Their bass player, Laust “Krudtmejer” Nielson produced it. I worked a lot with them in Copenhagen and Norway.” Their second joint project, Live in Copenhagen, was released in 2021. It’s compiled from two Copenhagen concerts, when – besides the irresistible Stand by Me – they also performed a ten-minute version of Whole Lot a Lovin’.
Jimmy Burns & Guitar Mark Play Blues Chords (MW Home Studios) came out in Poland in 2020. “That was when I went over there with my buddy Mark. That was something he wanted to do, and I played with him.” On Chris Shutters’ Good Gone Bad (Third Street Cigar Records in 2019), Jimmy appears as a special guest star. “He’s from Toledo, Ohio, and he wanted me to record with him, and I did it. He’s a very good musician and he plays a lot of the English stuff.” The material on this album leans heavily on rock-blues.
FULL CIRCLE
In 2020 the pandemic hit us. “It was a very, very strange and different time. When it started, I was out in South America, in Brazil. I had to cancel the tour and come back. Not a lot was happening in clubs over here, because everybody was afraid of catching the virus. So, I didn’t do a lot. I didn’t suffer, but it was a strange time. I don’t want to see that time again.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSrHOQ_g_uE?si=82Toxv8e_UsC8Ajv
On the recording front we had to wait for Jimmy’s new album until this year, but in August we were finally rewarded with Full Circle (Delmark 891) by Jimmy Burns & Soul Message Band. “We started recording it about a year ago roughly.”
The opening track is a funky cover of the song called Express Yourself, which Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band took to # 3-soul and # 12-pop on Billboard’s charts in 1970. “I like that band and I like Charles Wright’s voice – plus he’s from my home. He’s from Clarksdale, although he lives in California now.”
Next Jimmy tackles Big Joe Turner’s 1956 recording on Atlantic called World of Trouble, and this slow jazz & blues jam features high-quality sax, organ and guitar solos. “I’ve always been a big fan of Big Joe from the early 50s, like in the Shake, Rattle and Roll and Honey Hush days. I like the big band sound that he had.”
I Really Love You is Bobby James’ fast dancer that Jimmy recorded on Erica in 1970. “When you redo those songs, you try to make them a little bit different from what you originally did. You don’t want to be repetitive.” Indeed, on this take there’s a lot of improvisation, although the groove still remains irresistible.
Ain’t That Funk for You is the first of two instrumentals on this CD that Jimmy is not involved with. The trombonist Al Grey (1925-2000) first cut this swinging jam in 1977. The other non-Jimmy instrumental is an atmospheric, almost late-night variation of Buddy Johnson’s Since I Fell for You, with the running time closing on seven minutes.
TOO MUCH LOVIN’
A swinging rhythm & blues belter called Too Much Lovin’ was written by Lowman Pauling (1926-73) of the “5” Royales. “When my mom and dad separated in 1953, that was a popular song, and the “5” Royales was like the top rhythm & blues group at that time. I was just a boy, but I remember them playing in cafes in Shelby, Mississippi. The “5” Royales came from a gospel group, too“ (Royal Sons Quintet). “On my album Night Time Again I recorded two of their tunes, Baby Don’t Do It and Too Much Loving for the first time.”
A catchy, poppy ditty titled Give Her to Me is Jimmy’s redesigned update of his 1965 Tip Top single side, as is It Use to Be, although in this latter case he offers a different approach, more laid-back in the beginning but growing almost big-voiced towards the end. Jimmy’s duetting partner is Typhanie Monique. “It’s different, because we had a different group and I don’t believe in doing it exactly the same way as earlier.”
Lil’ Son Jackson recorded Rock Me Mama on Imperial in 1951 – although the song actually goes back to Curtis Jones’ Roll Me Mama in 1939 – and now Jimmy offers his slightly faster version of this swinging boogie-woogie blues. “I first heard it in 1951. I’ve always liked that tune.” The closing song on the set is a remake of the slow, melancholy and touching Where Does That Leave Me?, which Jimmy had released on Dispo in 1971.
“I’ve worked all my life. I lost my wife Carol for cancer fifteen years ago, and she’s still the love of my life. I have three daughters and one son. Now I’m just waiting to see where we go from here. I’m 82 years old, and I’m not in a big hurry to do anything (laughing). I’m a very happy man, and I’m ready to come to Europe in 2026.”
(Interview conducted on October 4 in 2025; acknowledgements to Jimmy Burns, Julia A. Miller Elbio Barilari and Kevin Johnson; sources: Robert Pruter’s Doowop – The Chicago Scene and The Chicago Soul and Bob McGarth’s Soul Discography).
