Blue Memphis

Memphis Slim | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 1971
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Wounded Bird Records
• ASIN: B0007G97OM
• Also Available in: Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,645 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Born in Memphis Tennessee

2. Chicago

3. Me and My Piano

4. Handy Man

5. Feel Like Screaming and Crying

6. Riding On the Blues Train

7. Boogin' and Bluesin'

8. Wind Gonna Rise

9. Youth Wants to Know

10. Boogie Woogie 1-9-7-0

11. Otis Spann and Earl Hooker

12. Chicago Seven

13. Mason Dixon Line

Editorial Reviews

Memphis Slim, a.k.a. John Len (and Peter) Chatman, born in 1915 in Memphis, and deceased en 1988, started playing piano during the 1920s. He met the great pianist Roosevelt Sykes, and started his recording career in the 1940s. He settled down in Chicago, where he played with bassist Willie Dixon, and moved to Paris in 1961, where he delighted parisian Blues fans ("Live at the Hot Club"). He then recorded many sessions in London (with Alexis Korner, among others), including this "Blue Memphis" album (1970), a concept album in which he teams up with top musicians, like Chris Spedding, Peter Green, Duster Bennett, John Paul Jones and Pete Winfield In this "concept album", Memphis Slim goes down memory lane, by performing some of his standards, with a British instrumentation. Words run naturally, and notes break out with a sound rarely heard in Blues. If you like vinyl albums, try to get the original release (Barclay, 1970/90007). It is not a list of singles, put together on the same album, but a real album, that should be considered as a whole. If you like the Blues of Memphis Slim, and want to hear something else than the classical (but excellent) piano-guitar combination, listen this gem ; it will become one of your references. TRACKS 1. Born in Memphis, Tennessee/ Chicago (M. Slim) - 4:05 2. Me and My Piano (M. Slim) - 1:23 3. Handy Man (M. Slim) - 1:55 4. Feel Like Screaming and Crying (M. Slim) - 3:35 5. Riding on the Blues Train (M. Slim) - 1:39 6. I Started Moving (M. Slim) - 1:47 7. Wind Gonna Rise (M. Slim) - 4:09 8. Youth Wants to Know (M. Slim) - 4:43 9. Boogie Woogie 1970 (M. Slim) - 3:15 10. Otis Spann/ Earl Hooker (M. Slim) - 4:30 11. Chicago Seven (M. Slim) - 3:50 12. Mason-Dixon Line (M. Slim) - 3:23

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Available on CD at last!, September 30, 2005

By 

Marc D. Thomas (Moab, UT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Memphis (Audio CD)

I've been waiting for two decades to get this album on CD to replace an old cassette tape copy of my long-gone LP. At long last, it's available, so snap it up while you can. Side 1 of the old LP contained the marvelously autobiographical & evocative "Blue Memphis Suite" that seemlessly alternated boogie'n & bluesin' songs. Side 2 had a more traditional album structure with songs topical to the early 1970's ("Youth Wants to Know" & "Chicago Seven") plus the rollicking "Boogie Woogie 1-9-7-0" & the wistful closer "Mason-Dixon Line." But make no mistake, you get this for the "Blue Memphis Suite" spanning the first half of the CD. An essential blues recording.