Today, Thursday Sept. 3, would have been the 105th birthday of a
Memphis-born bluesman born John Len Chatman, who blues fans know as Memphis
Slim.
According to the
Memphis Music Hall of Fame:
Chatman was exposed to the blues at a very young age by his family, whose
members were some of the earliest blues musicians in the Mississippi
Delta. His father Peter Chatman led a group called the Washboard Band,
which featured the influential blues pianist Roosevelt Sykes. Inspired by
Sykes, the young Chatman began to teach himself the piano and was soon
touring in juke joints and dancehalls throughout the Southeast.
Like the story of many many blues artists, Slim migrated from the South to
Chicago in the late '30s. He became cronies with other giants like Sonny Boy
Williams and Big Bill Broonzy and later the likes of Willie Dixon and Matt
"Guitar" Murphy.
He initially recorded under his father's name, and "Peter Chatman" was the name on his songwriting credits.
In the early 1960s, following his playing in the American Folk Blues
Festival a European tour of American blues greats organized by Dixon, Slim
decided to become a expatriate and move to Europe permanently.
Again, from the Memphis Music Hall of Fame:
In 1962, Memphis Slim decided to settle permanently in Paris, a city that
had captured his heart and imagination during his European tours. “Back
home I’d either be sitting around or hustling, but here I work all I want,
eat tons of great food, and keep on having fun,” he told a reporter during
this period. ... “I don’t think anything I’ve done would have been possible here if I had
stayed here,” he said during a 1976 trip to America.
He stayed in Paris until his death in 1988.
Below are some of my favorite Memphis Slim songs.
Here's his first hit single, called "Beer Drinking Woman," in which you can
hear the direct influence of underrated bluesman Jack Webb.
This is a song he did with Willie Dixon. It's called "Rub My Root."
In 1973, Slim collaborated with Canned Heat for a record called
Memphis Heat. That album wasn't as big as the band's work
with John Lee Hooker, Hooker 'n Heat, (or as many of us wise
asses called it "Hooker in Heat"), but it's worth hearing.
"Chicago Seven" is the very first Memphis Slim recording I ever heard as a
budding blues fan back in the early '70s. KUNM used to play it regularly.
Anyone following current events should realize the tune, despite being
topical, is no less relevant today.
But my favorite Slim tune has to this one, which basically became his
signature song. Slim went back to Mother Earth in 1988, but, at the risk of sounding corny, his music is
immortal.
