Sunnyland Slim
Sunnyland Slim | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Albert Luandrew |
| Born | September 5, 1906 Near Vance, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | March 17, 1995 (aged 88) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Genres | Blues |
| Occupations |
|
| Instrument | Piano |
| Years active | 1920s–1990s |
| Labels |
|
Albert Luandrew (September 5, 1906 – March 17, 1995),[1] known as Sunnyland Slim, was an American blues pianist born in the Mississippi Delta and moved to Chicago, helping to make that city a center of postwar blues.[2]
Chicago broadcaster and writer Studs Terkel said Sunnyland Slim was "a living piece of our folk history, gallantly and eloquently carrying on in the old tradition".[3]
Biography
[edit]Sunnyland Slim was born on a farm in Quitman County, Mississippi, near the unincorporated settlement of Vance.[1][3] He moved to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1925, where he performed with many of the popular blues musicians of the day. His stage name came from the song "Sunnyland Train", about a railroad line between Memphis and St. Louis, Missouri.[3] In 1942 he moved to Chicago, in the great migration of southern workers to the industrial north.[4]
At that time the electric blues was taking shape in Chicago, and through the years Sunnyland Slim played with such musicians as Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf,[5] Robert Lockwood Jr., and Little Walter.[3] His piano style is characterised by heavy basses or vamping chords with the left hand and tremolos with the right. His voice was loud, and he sang in a declamatory style.[6]
Sunnyland Slim's first recording was as a singer with Armand "Jump" Jackson's band for Specialty Records in September 1946. His first recordings as a leader were for Hy-Tone Records and Aristocrat Records in late 1947.[7] He continued performing until his death, in 1995.
He released one record for RCA Victor, "Illinois Central" backed with "Sweet Lucy Blues" (Victor 20–2733), under the name Dr. Clayton's Buddy.
In the late 1960s, Slim became friends with members of the band Canned Heat and played piano on the track "Turpentine Moan" on their album Boogie with Canned Heat. In turn, members of the band—lead guitarist Henry Vestine, slide guitarist Alan Wilson and bassist Larry Taylor—contributed to Sunnyland Slim's Liberty Records album Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On (1969), which also featured Mick Taylor.
He was a recipient of a 1988 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.[8]
He died in March 1995 in Chicago, after complications from renal failure, at the age of 88.[9]
Discography
[edit]NB. Sunnyland Slim recorded on many different record labels over his lengthy career. Some of these titles were issued, and re-issued, at various dates and on other labels.
| Year | Title | Collaboration (and notes) | Record label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Slim's Shout | Bluesville | |
| 1964 | Portraits In Blues Vol. 8 | Storyville | |
| 1964 | Chicago Blues Session | Little Brother Montgomery | 77 |
| 1965 | American Folk Blues | Hubert Sumlin, Clifton James and Willie Dixon, later reissued as Blues Anytime! on L+R, Evidence Music and others | Amiga |
| 1969 | Midnight Jump | Blue Horizon | |
| 1969 | Slim's Got His Thing Goin' On | World Pacific | |
| 1970 | Pearl Harbour Blues | Doctor Clayton & His Buddy (=Sunnyland Slim) | RCA International (Camden) |
| 1971 | Depression Blues | Festival | |
| 1972 | Sad and Lonesome | Jewel | |
| 1973 | Plays Ragtime Blues | BluesWay | |
| 1974 | Worried About My Baby | Black & Blue | |
| 1974 | The Legacy Of The Blues Vol. 11 | Sonet | |
| 1974 | She Got That Jive | Airway | |
| 1975 | Depression Blues | Disques Festival | |
| 1976 | Sunnyland Slim's Blues Jam With Delta Blues Band | The Delta Blues Band | Storyville |
| 1979 | Patience Like Job | Airway | |
| 1981 | Just You And Me | Airway | |
| 1981 | Old Friends | David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Kansas City Red, Big Walter Horton, Floyd Jones |
Earwig |
| 1983 | Sunnyland Train | (Reissued on Evidence Music in 1995) | Red Beans |
| 1984 | Travelin' | Black & Blue | |
| 1985 | Chicago Jump | (Sunnyland Slim Blues Band, Reissued in 1995 by Evidence Music) | Red Beans |
| 1989 | Be Careful How You Vote | Earwig | |
| 1991 | Live in Europe | Airway | |
| 1992 | House Rent Party | (Previously unissued recordings recorded in 1949) | Delmark |
| 1994 | Decoration Day | Evidence Music | |
| 1994 | Live at the D.C. Blues Society | (recorded in 1987) | Mapleshade |
| 1997 | Bad and Lonesome | Jewel | |
| 1998 | She Got a Thing Goin' On | (recorded 1971 – 1983) | Earwig / Blind Pig |
| 1999 | Smile on My Face | (recorded 1977) | Delmark |
| 2006 | Blues Legends Live | John Dee Holeman | Mapleshade |
| 2010 | ABC of the Blues Vol. 42 | Johnny Shines | Documents |
| 2012 | Legendary Bop Rhythm & Blues Classics | Essential Media Group | |
| 2012 | The Devil Is a Busy Man | Essential Media Group |
With Howlin' Wolf
- Live and Cookin' (Chess, 1972)
References
[edit]- ^ a b Campbell, Robert L.; Pruter, Robert; White, George R.; Kelly, Tom (July 31, 2009). "The Aristocrat Label". Red Saunders Research Foundation. Retrieved June 5, 2014. "Blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim was born Albert Luandrew in Vance, Mississippi, September 5, 1906 (most sources say 1907, but the Social Security Death Index and 1920 census data give the date as 1906)."
- ^ "Sunnyland Slim". Britannica Online Encyclopedia, www.britannica.com. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
- ^ a b c d Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books. p. 171. ISBN 1-85868-255-X.
- ^ Robert Palmer (1982). Deep Blues. Penguin Books. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6.
- ^ "Howlin' Wolf – Shake It for Me". YouTube. September 15, 2006. Archived from the original on July 19, 2009. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
- ^ Oliver, Paul (1984). Blues Off the Record: Thirty Years of Blues Commentary. New York: Da Capo. pp. 201–203. ISBN 0-306-80321-6.
- ^ Pruter, Robert; Campbell, Robert L.; Kelly, Tom (June 21, 2009). "The Hy-Tone Label". Red Saunders Research Foundation. Archived from the original on November 23, 2009. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
- ^ "NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1988". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
- ^ Doc Rock. "The Dead Rock Stars Club 1994–1995". Thedeadrockstarsclub.com. Retrieved March 14, 2013.
- ^ "Sunnyland Slim – Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
- ^ "Sunnyland Slim Discography: Vinyl, CDs, & More". Discogs. Retrieved April 29, 2025.
External links
[edit]
- 1906 births
- 1995 deaths
- People from Quitman County, Mississippi
- American blues pianists
- American male pianists
- Blues musicians from Mississippi
- African-American pianists
- Chicago blues musicians
- Delta blues musicians
- National Heritage Fellowship winners
- Deaths from kidney failure in the United States
- 20th-century American pianists
- 20th-century American male musicians
- Black & Blue Records artists
- Cobra Records artists
- Earwig Music artists
- Mapleshade Records artists
- Southland Records artists
- 20th-century African-American musicians