Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim (born John Len Chatman, September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988) 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.

Memphis Slim
Birth name	John Len Chatman
Also known as	Peter Chatman
Born	(1915-09-03)September 3, 1915 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	February 24, 1988(1988-02-24) (aged 72) Paris, France
Genres	Blues
Occupation(s)	Musician songwriter
Instruments	Piano vocals
Years active	1930s–1980s
Labels	Bluebird Hy-Tone Miracle Premium Mercury United Vee-Jay Folkways Antone's

He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.[1]

Biography

Memphis Slim historic home in Memphis

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);[2] 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 honky-tonks, dance halls, and gambling joints in West Memphis, Arkansas, and southeast Missouri.[3] 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[4] that became part of his repertoire for decades, "Beer Drinking Woman"[5] and "Grinder Man Blues". These were released under the name "Memphis Slim," given to him by Bluebird's producer, Lester Melrose.[6] 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 Slim's recordings and performances until the mid-1940s 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 Chicago-based Hy-Tone Records.[7] 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 success. Among the songs they recorded were "Messin' Around" (which reached number one on the R&B charts in 1948) and "Harlem Bound".[8] In 1947, the day after producing a concert by Slim, Broonzy, and Williamson at New York City's 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. In 1949, Slim expanded his combo to a quintet by adding a drummer; the group was now spending most of its time on tour, leading to off-contract recording sessions for King Records in Cincinnati and Peacock Records in Houston.

One of Slim's 1947 recordings for Miracle, released in 1949, was originally titled "Nobody Loves Me". It has become famous as "Every Day I Have the Blues." The song was recorded in 1950 by Lowell Fulson and subsequently by numerous other artists, including B. B. King, Elmore James, T-Bone Walker, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Carlos Santana, John Mayer and Lou Rawls.[9] Joe Williams recorded it in 1952 for Checker Records; his remake from 1956 (included on the album Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings) was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1992.[10]

Early in 1950, Miracle succumbed to financial troubles, but its owners regrouped to form the Premium label, and Slim remained on board until the successor company faltered in the summer of 1951. His February 1951 session for Premium saw two changes in the House Rockers' lineup: Slim started using two tenor saxophones instead of the alto and tenor combination, and he made a trial of adding the guitarist Ike Perkins. His last session for Premium kept the two-tenor lineup but dispensed with the guitar. During his time with Premium, Slim first recorded his song "Mother Earth".[11]

Slim made just one session for King, but the company bought his Hy-Tone sides in 1948 and acquired his Miracle masters after that company failed in 1950. He was never a Chess artist, but Leonard Chess bought most of the Premium masters after the demise of Premium.

After a year with Mercury Records, Slim signed with United Records in Chicago;[12] the A&R man, Lew Simpkins, knew him from Miracle and Premium. The timing was propitious, because he had just added the guitarist Matt "Guitar" Murphy to his group. He remained with United through the end of 1954, when the company began to cut back on blues recording.[13]

After 1954, Slim did not have a steady relationship with a record company until 1958, when he signed with Vee-Jay Records. In 1959 his band, still featuring Murphy, recorded the album Memphis Slim at the Gate of the Horn, which featured a lineup of his best-known songs, including "Mother Earth", "Gotta Find My Baby", "Rockin' the Blues", "Steppin' Out", and "Slim's Blues".[14] In December 1959, Willie Dixon's debut album, Willie's Blues, was released.[15] Memphis Slim was given almost equal credit on the album as Dixon's piano accompanist. Memphis Slim played on all of the tracks, and wrote the two numbers that were not penned by Dixon.[16]

Slim first appeared outside the United States in 1960, touring with Willie Dixon, with whom he returned to Europe in 1962 as a featured artist in the first of the series of American Folk Festival concerts organized by Dixon, which brought many notable blues artists to Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. The duo released several albums together on Folkways Records, including Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon at the Village Gate with Pete Seeger (1962).[17]

In 1962, Slim moved permanently to Paris, and his engaging personality and well-honed presentation of playing, singing, and storytelling about the blues secured his position as one of the most prominent blues artists for nearly three decades. He appeared on television in numerous European countries, acted in several French films and wrote the score for À nous deux France (1970), and performed regularly in Paris, throughout Europe, and on return visits to the United States. In the last years of his life, he teamed up with the respected jazz drummer George Collier. The two toured Europe together and became friends. After Collier died in August 1987, Slim rarely appeared in public, although he reunited with Matt "Guitar" Murphy for a gig at Antone's in Austin, Texas, in 1987.

Two years before his death, Slim was named a Commander in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France. In addition, the U.S. Senate honored Slim with the title of Ambassador-at-Large of Good Will.[18]

Grave of Memphis Slim

Memphis Slim died of renal failure on February 24, 1988, in Paris, at the age of 72.[19][20][21][22][23] He is buried at Galilee Memorial Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee.[24]

He was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1989.[1] He was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Memphis Slim among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[25]

Discography

Charting singles

List of charting singles with year, title, label, and chart peak

Year	Title A-side / B-side	Label	Chart peak U.S. R&B [26]
1948	"Messin' Around" / "Midnight Jump"	Miracle 125	1
1949	"Frisco Bay" / "Timsy's Whimsy"	Miracle 132	11
	"Blue and Lonesome" /	Miracle 135	2
	"Help Me Some"		9
	"Angel Child" / "Nobody Loves Me"	Miracle 145	6
1951	"Mother Earth" / "Really Got the Blues"	Premium 867	7
1953	"The Come Back" / "Five O'Clock Blues"	United 156	3

Albums

Year	Title	Label
1959	Memphis Slim at the Gate of Horn	Vee-Jay
1959	Memphis Slim and the Real Boogie-Woogie	Folways
1960	Memphis Slim and the Honky-Tonk Sound	Folkways
1960	Travelling with the Blues	Storyville
1960	Blue This Evening	Black Lion
1960	Pete Seeger at the Village Gate with Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon, Vol. 1	Folkways
1960	Songs of Memphis Slim and "Wee Willie" Dixon	Folkways
1961	Tribute to Big Bill Broonzy	Candid
1961	Steady Rollin' Blues: The Blues of Memphis Slim	OBC
1961	Memphis Slim U.S.A.	Candid
1961	Broken Soul Blues	Beat Goes On
1961	Chicago Blues: Boogie Woogie and Blues Played and Sung by Memphis Slim	Folkways
1961	Blues by Jazz Gillum Singing and Playing His Harmonica, with Arbee Stidham and Memphis Slim	Folkways
1961	Just Blues	Bluesville
1961	No Strain	Bluesville
1962	Sonny Boy Williamson and Memphis Slim, In Paris	GNP Crescendo
1962	Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon at the Village Gate with Pete Seeger	Folkways
1962	Pete Seeger at the Village Gate with Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon, Vol. 2	Folkways
1962	All Kinds of Blues	Bluesville
1963	Alone with My Friends	Battle
1963	Jazz in Paris: Aux Trois Mailletz	Polygram
1964	Clap Your Hands	Maison De Blues
1967	Legend of the Blues Vol. 1	Jubilee
1967	Bluesingly Yours	Maison De Blues
1968	Lord Have Mercy on Me	Maison De Blues
1969	The Bluesman (released 1975)	Maison De Blues
1969	Mother Earth	One Way Records
1970	The Blue Memphis Suite	Maison de Blues
1970	Messin' Around with the Blues	King
1971	Boogie Woogie	Maison de Blues
1971	Born with the Blues	Fuel 2000
1971	Blue Memphis	Wounded Bird
1972	South Side Reunion, with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells	Sunny Side
1972	Old Times, New Times with Roosevelt Sykes, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells	Barclay
1973	The Legacy of the Blues Vol. 7	Sonet
1973	Memphis Slim	Storyville
1973	Soul Blues	Acrobat
1973	Raining the Blues	Fantasy
1973	Favorite Blues Singers	Folkways
1973	Very Much Alive and in Montreux	Universal International
1974	Memphis Heat, with Canned Heat (recorded 1973)	Blue Star
1975	Going Back to Tennessee	Maison de Blues
1981	Rockin' the Blues	Charly
1981	I'll Just Keep on Singin' the Blues	SLG
1982	Can A White Man Play And Sing The Blues ?	Milan
1982	Fip Fil and Fim	Milan
1990	Steppin' Out: Live at Ronnie Scotts	Castle Music UK
1990	Together Again One More Time, with Matt Murphy (two-CD set including Eddie Taylor, Still Not Ready for Eddie)	Texas Music Group
1990	Parisian Blues	Polygram
1990	The Real Folk Blues	MCA
1992	Blues Masters Vol 9: Memphis Slim	Storyville
1992	Pinetop's Boogie Woogie	Antone's
1993	London Sessions 1960	Sequel Records UK
1994	The Blues Collection Vol 13: Beer Drinkin' Woman	ADD
1994	Lonesome	Legacy International
1994	Live at the Hot Club	BMG International
1995	Boogie After Midnight	Chicago Music
1995	Jazz & Blues collection	Edition Atlas
1996	The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1: 1940–1941 (Peter Chatman as Memphis Slim)	EPM Musique
1996	Come Back & Other Classics	Masters Intercontinental
1996	The Bluebird Recordings, 1940–1941	RCA
1997	Dialogue in Boogie, with Philippe Lejeune	Happy Bird
1998	Lonely Nights	Catfish
1998	Very Best of Memphis Slim: The Blues Is Everywhere	Collectables
1999	Life Is Like That	Charly UK
2000	The Folkways Years, 1959–1973	Smithsonian Folkways
2000	Blues at Midnight	Catfish
2000	Memphis Slim at the Gate of the Horn	Vee-Jay
2000	Live at Antone's Vol. 1	Antone's
2001	The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2: 1946–1948	EPM Musique
2001	Essential Masters	Cleopatra
2001	Blue and Lonesome	Arpeggio Blues
2001	Ambassador of the Blues	Indigo UK
2002	The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3: 1948–1950	EPM Musique
2002	I Am the Blues	Prestige Elite
2002	Kansas City	Classic World
2002	Boogie for My Friends	Black & Blue France
2002	The Come Back	Delmark
2002	Blues Legends: Memphis Slim	Lead
2003	Three Women Blues	Time Wind (Germany)
2003	The Complete Recordings, Vol 4: 1951–1952	EPM Musique
2004	Worried Life Blues	Quadromania Klassik (Germany)
2004	Grinder Man Blues	Snapper UK
2004	The Best of Memphis Slim	Liquid 8
2005	Boogie for Two Pianos, Vol. 1, with Jean-Paul Amouroux
2005	Paris Mississippi Blues	Sunny Side
2005	Double-Barreled Boogie, with Roosevelt Sykes	Sunny Side
2006	Forty Years of More	Passport Audio
2006	Memphis Suite	Sunny Side
2006	Rockin' This House: Chicago Blues Piano 1946–1953	JSP Records
2006	The Sonet Blues Story	Verve Records
2006	An Introduction to Memphis Slim	Fuel 2000
2007	The Ultimate Jazz Archive 14 1940–41	Carinco AG
2007	Sings the Blues	Wnts
2007	Chicago Blues Masters Vol. 1, with Muddy Waters	Capitol
2007	Cold Blooded Woman	Collectables Records
2008	Greatest Moments	Stardust
2008	Four Walls	Jukebox Entertainment
2008	Born to Boogie	Unlimited Media

References

1. "MEMPHIS SLIM". Rockabilly.nl. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
2. Charters, Samuel Barclay. The Legacy of the Blues, Da Capo Press (1977), p. 165. ISBN 0-306-80054-3.
3. Palmer 1982, p. 174.
4. Palmer 1982, p. 154.
5. Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 13. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
6. Komara, Edward M. Encyclopedia of the Blues, Routledge (2006), p. 689. ISBN 0-415-92699-8.
7. "The Hy-Tone Label". Campber.people.clemson.edu. Archived from the original on November 23, 2009.
8. "Miracle Records". Campber.people.clemson.edu. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009.
9. "AllMusic | Record Reviews, Streaming Songs, Genres & Bands". AllMusic.
10. "Grammy Hall of Fame". Grammy.org. Archived from the original on July 7, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
11. "Premium Records". Campber.people.clemson.edu. Archived from the original on March 10, 2009.
12. "The United and States Labels Part I (1951-1953)". Campber.people.clemson.edu. Archived from the original on July 31, 2009.
13. Archived May 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
14. Wynn, Ron. "Memphis Slim, At the Gate of the Horn: Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic.com. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
15. Stephen Cook (December 3, 1959). "Willie's Blues - Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
16. Liner notes from BVLP-1003 - original vinyl album
17. "Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon at the Village Gate with Pete Seeger". Folkways.si.edu. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
18. "All About Jazz". AllAboutJazz.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
19. "Memphis Slim". Howlfromtheembers.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
20. "Memphis Slim: One of the Greatest Blues Pianist, Singers & Composers of All-Time [Video]". Blackthen.com. May 10, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
21. "Memphis Slim - Boogie For My Friends (2002)". Theblues-thatjazz.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
22. Shannon, Rebecca (September 3, 2013). "Blondie Cuts a Rug: Memphis Slim". Blondiecutsarug.blogspot.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
23. "Memphis Slim". Themusicsover.wordpress.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
24. "Memphis Slim | Memphis Music Hall of Fame". Memphismusichalloffame.com. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
25. Rosen, Jody (June 25, 2019). "Here Are Hundreds More Artists Whose Tapes Were Destroyed in the UMG Fire". The New York Times. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
26. Whitburn 1988, pp. 286–287.

Bibliography

• Herzhaft, Gerard (1992). "Memphis Slim". Encyclopedia of the Blues. Fayetteville, Arkansas: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1-55728-252-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Palmer, Robert (1982). Deep Blues. New York City: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14006-223-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Whitburn, Joel (1988). "Memphis Slim". Top R&B Singles 1942–1988. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research. ISBN 0-89820-068-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Music Match Memphis Slim
• Memphis Slim biography and discography at AllMusic website
• Memphis Slim discography on Folkways Records
• Memphis Slim obituary from The New York Times