Sunnyland Slim
Exhibiting truly amazing longevity that was commensurate with his powerful, imposing physical build, Sunnyland Slim's status as a beloved Chicago piano patriarch endured long after most of his peers had perished. For more than 50 years, the towering Slim had rumbled the ivories around the Windy City, playing with virtually every local luminary imaginable and backing the great majority in the studio at one time or another.
He was born Albert Luandrew in Mississippi and received his early training on a pump organ. After entertaining at juke joints and movie houses in the Delta, Luandrew made Memphis his home base during the late '20s, playing along Beale Street and hanging out with the likes of Little Brother Montgomery and Ma Rainey. He adopted his colorful stage name from the title of one of his best-known songs, the mournful "Sunnyland Train." (The downbeat piece immortalized the speed and deadly power of a St. Louis-to-Memphis locomotive that mowed down numerous people unfortunate enough to cross its tracks at the wrong instant.)
Slim moved to Chicago in 1939 and set up shop as an in-demand piano man, playing for a spell with John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson before waxing eight sides for RCA Victor in 1947 under the somewhat misleading handle of "Doctor Clayton's Buddy." If it hadn't been for the helpful Slim, Muddy Waters may not have found his way onto Chess; it was at the pianist's 1947 session for Aristocrat that the Chess brothers made Waters' acquaintance.
Aristocrat (which issued his harrowing "Johnson Machine Gun") was but one of a myriad of labels that Slim recorded for between 1948 and 1956: Hytone, Opera, Chance, Tempo-Tone, Mercury, Apollo, JOB, Regal, Vee-Jay (unissued), Blue Lake, Club 51, and Cobra all cut dates on Slim, whose vocals thundered with the same resonant authority as his 88s. In addition, his distinctive playing enlivened hundreds of sessions by other artists during the same time frame. In 1960, Slim traveled to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, to cut his debut LP for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary with King Curtis supplying diamond-hard tenor sax breaks on many cuts. The album, Slim's Shout, ranks as one of his finest, with definitive renditions of the pianist's "The Devil Is a Busy Man," "Shake It," "Brownskin Woman," and "It's You Baby."
Like a deep-rooted tree, Sunnyland Slim persevered despite the passing decades. For a time, he helmed his own label, Airway Records. As late as 1985, he made a fine set for the Red Beans logo, Chicago Jump, backed by the same crack combo that shared the stage with him every Sunday evening at a popular North side club called B.L.U.E.S. for some 12 years.
There were times when the pianist fell seriously ill, but he always defied the odds and returned to action, warbling his trademark Woody Woodpecker chortle and kicking off one more exultant slow blues as he had done for the previous half century. Finally, after a calamitous fall on the ice coming home from a gig led to numerous complications, Sunnyland Slim died of kidney failure in 1995. He's sorely missed.
© Bill Dahl /TiVo
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Slim's Shout (Album Version)
Blues - Released by Original Blues Classics on 1 jan. 1969
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hawk Squat (Deluxe Edition)
Blues - Released by Delmark on 26 mrt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Golden Selection (Remastered)
Blues - Released by Master Tape Records on 24 sep. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blues Masters Vol. 8
Blues - Released by Storyville Records on 20 jan. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Milestones of Legends - Chicago Blues, Vol. 7
Blues - Released by Documents 2 on 25 mrt. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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40 Greatest Hits
Blues - Released by Nifty Music, Inc. on 15 apr. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
House Rent Party
Blues - Released by Delmark Records on 1 jan. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chicago Blues Session
Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery
Blues - Released by Southland on 31 jan. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Be Careful How You Vote
Blues - Released by Earwig Music on 19 jul. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chicago Blues Festival 1974 With Jimmy Dawkins
Blues - Released by Disques Black & Blue on 1 jan. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sunnyland Slim & His Pals, Hard Times Vol. 4
Blues - Released by Firefly Entertainment on 1 okt. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
She's Got A Thing Goin' On
Blues - Released by Earwig Music on 19 jul. 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classics: 1947-1948
Blues - Released by Classics Blues & Rhythm Series on 4 aug. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The La Salle
Blues - Released by Wolf Records International GmbH on 17 jun. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Travelin' (Blues Reference (recorded in France 1974))
Blues - Released by Disques Black & Blue on 1 jan. 1974
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Slim's Shout + Chicago Blues Session
Blues - Released by Dark Was the Night Records on 13 okt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -