Memphis Slim

John Len Chatman September 3 1915 February 24 1988 known professionally as Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist singer and composer He led a series of bands that reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues included saxophones bass drums and piano A song he first cut in 1947 Every Day I Have the Blues has become a blues standard recorded by many other artists He made over 500 recordings He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989 Memphis Slim was born John Len Chatman in Memphis Tennessee For his first recordings for Okeh Records in 1940 he used the name of his father Peter Chatman who sang played piano and guitar and operated juke joints it is commonly believed that he did so to honor his father He started performing under the name Memphis Slim later that year but continued to publish songs under the name Peter Chatman He spent most of the 1930s performing in honkytonks dance halls and gambling joints in West Memphis Arkansas and southeast Missouri He settled in Chicago in 1939 and began teaming with the guitarist and singer Big Bill Broonzy in clubs soon afterwards In 1940 and 1941 he recorded two songs for Bluebird Records that became part of his repertoire for decades Beer Drinking Woman and Grinder Man Blues These were released under the name Memphis Slim given to him by Bluebirds producer Lester Melrose Slim became a regular session musician for Bluebird and his piano talents supported established stars such as John Lee Sonny Boy Williamson Washboard Sam and Jazz Gillum Many of Slims recordings and performances until the mid1940s were with Broonzy who had recruited Slim to be his piano player after the death of his accompanist Joshua Altheimer in 1940 After World War II Slim began leading bands that generally included saxophones bass drums and piano reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues With the decline of blues recording by the major labels Slim worked with emerging independent labels Starting in late 1945 he recorded with trios for the small Chicagobased HyTone Records8 With a lineup of alto saxophone tenor sax piano and string bass Willie Dixon played the instrument on the first session he signed with the Miracle label in the fall of 1946 One of the songs recorded at the first session was the ebullient boogie Rockin the House from which his band would take its name Slim and the House Rockers recorded mainly for Miracle through 1949 with some commercial success1 Among the songs they recorded were Messin Around which reached number one on the RB charts in 1948 and Harlem Bound9 In 1947 the day after producing a concert by Slim Broonzy and Williamson at New York Citys Town Hall the folklorist Alan Lomax brought the three musicians to the Decca Records studios and recorded with Slim on vocal and piano Lomax presented sections of this recording on BBC Radio in the early 1950s as a documentary The Art of the Negro and later released an expanded version as the LP Blues in the Mississippi Night Source Article Memphis Slim from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30