Memphis Slim (Born John Chatman)
September 3, 1915 – February 24, 1988
Memphis Slim was a jump blues pianist and prolific composer who could count over 500 recordings as his own. He got his start during the early ’30s by playing honky-tonks and dance halls throughout Arkansas and Missouri. In 1939, he migrated up to Chicago where he started out playing gigs with Big Bill Broonzy. In 1940, Slim began making his own records. One of those recordings, “Nobody Loves Me” has been covered (as “Every Day I Have The Blues”) by the likes of Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Ella Fitzgerald, and Natalie Cole, to name just a few. Like so many of the blues greats of the first part of the 20th century, Slim made a nice comeback during the folk and blues revival of the early ’60s. He was so respected around the world, that the U.S. Senate once named him an Ambassador-At-Large of Good Will. Memphis Slim was 72 when he died of renal failure on February 24, 1988.
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