Bob Helm was a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 clarinetist who is known for playing with Lu Watters

Lu Watters

Lucius "Lu" Watters was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in the "West Coast revival" of Dixieland music...

 and Turk Murphy

Turk Murphy

Melvin Edward Alton “Turk” Murphy was renowned as a trombonist who played traditional and dixieland jazz in San Francisco....

. Helm is noted for being a member of the Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band in the 1940's. He is most associated with Dixieland

Dixieland

Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...

 music. He led at least one band, which was Bob Helm's Riverside Roustabouts. His home tapes made in collaboration with the poet Weldon Kees were released on a limited edition CD, HOLIDAY RAG, that includes "Culture Vulture Lucy" and "They Haven't Got a Cure for That." Kees and Helm both sing with Kees on piano and Helm on clarinet and washboard.

He recorded very little music from 1957 to 1988, but started making something of a return in the 1990s. In 1998, in his 80s, he led his first album since 1954.