Memphis Slim - Rocks (CD)

Release Date: 02/03/23

In his lifetime, Memphis Slim was probably the best-known blues singer in the world, moving from Memphis to Chicago and finally to Paris in the early 1960s. But it's no exaggeration to say that Memphis Slim could rock with the best of them - and this CD is here to prove it!
-Memphis Slim was born Peter Chatman in Memphis in 1915. His music was based on the raucous, driving piano of the barrelhouse during the boogie-woogie era.
-The 29 rocking tracks on this Bear Family Records® CD here were all made in the USA before Slim moved to Paris.
-They were made when Slim was still an integral and influential part of the American black music scene - the days when R&B was rock and roll, recorded between 1942 and 1961.
-By the definitions of their time, tracks like Rockin' The House, Pacemaker Boogie, Midnight Jump and the rest were rock and roll.
-Memphis Slim Rocks, for sure!
-We've included here Slim's original version of Nobody Loves Me, his best-known song when renamed Every Day I Have The Blues and recorded by the giants of jazz, blues and rock.
-Cross-label compilation (Bluebird, Miracle, VeeJay, Strand, King, Premium, United, Chess).
-Compilation and liner notes by British blues and R'n'R expert Martin Hawkins.
-Full-color, illustrated 36-page booklet and careful sound restoration round out this important release.

Although we've picked Slim's rockinest tracks here, there is variety in his piano and vocal performances, and you can still hear all the elements of blues and gospel and R&B that shaped him. When he took that music to Chicago in the 1940s and formed an R&B group, The House Rockers, many of the recordings he made then were firmly in the advance guard of rock and roll. Slim always maintained a fine band of mainly Memphis musicians. These included sax players Ernest Cotton and Alex Atkins, and particularly the sensational guitar player Matt Murphy.