It is a blues date, with a fair amount of boogie-woogie. The two veterans, who had worked together previously, are joined by drummer Phillipe Combelle during the two 1962 sessions recorded at Les Trois Mailletz, complete with a typically out of tune piano and a fair amount of noise from the audience at times. The pianist's gruff voice dominates a fair amount of the performances, although most of the songs are Dixon's. The bassist steals the show during the opener, "Rocking and Rolling the House," with a fine solo. In fact, the only standard not written by either man is a campy miniature take of Big Bill Broonzy's "All by Myself." Blues fans will want up to pick up this live recording by two legendary musicians.

This choice chapter in the Memphis Slim story delivers an exciting taste of what a modern electric blues band sounded like in live performance during the early '70s. This reissue includes a bonus track featuring Hammond B-3 organist Deacon Jones and formidable electric guitar wizard Freddie King. The year 1973 was particularly exciting as blues, soul, funk, and rock & roll began to blend in ways that had only been hinted at during the 1960s. This cultural explosion was inevitable as music festivals were expanded to include a wide range of styles and genres. The 1973 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, for example, featured One String Sam, Victoria Spivey, Roosevelt Sykes, John Lee Hooker, and Ray Charles on the same weekend as Yusef Lateef, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. The 1973 jazz festival held in Montreux, Switzerland, underwent comparable dilation…

Erotic, humorous, and loaded with double entendres, these dozen tunes were recorded between 1956-1961 by Memphis Slim, Tampa Red, Victoria Spivey, Lonnie Johnson, Pink Anderson, Memphis Willie B., and Blind Willie McTell. The collection includes "Let Me Play with Your Poodle," "I'm a Red Hot Mama," and "If You See Kay."

This album includes recordings from two sessions, one with solo piano, the other with the 1983 Chicago Blues Festival. Throught a beautiful series of instrumental or vocal boogie-woogies and slow blues, Memphis Slim pays homage to some of his models and peers: Roosevelt Sykes, Pinetop Smith (or Perkins!), Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Sammy Price, Jay McShann, Lloyd Glenn, Willie Mabon, Eddie Boyd, Otis Spann.

Collectors will be thrilled to learn that The Come Back contains 11 previously unreleased tracks, but even those who aren't hardcore collectors will find that this CD paints an exciting picture of Slim's two years at United.
Like John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim was very much a label-hopper - from the '40s to the '80s, it was safe to assume that the singer/pianist wouldn't stay at one label for too long. In the '50s, Slim did some of his best work for United, a Chicago-based indie whose catalog has since been acquired by Delmark (another Windy City label). Slim's United period of 1952-1954 is the focus of The Come Back, a 20-track collection that Delmark assembled in 2002. This is a blues CD that has both jazz and rock appeal…

In 1970, expatriate pianist Memphis Slim hooked up with fellow Chicago blues great Buddy Guy while the guitarist was touring Europe with the Rolling Stones, and recorded the tracks for South Side Reunion, originally released on Warner Bros. in 1972. Slim's rollicking piano and Guy's guitar-slinging prowess are complemented by Windy City musicians Phillip Guy, Ernest Johnson, and Roosevelt Shaw, plus saxophonists A.C. Reed and Jimmy Conley. While harpist Junior Wells (who was also part of the Stones tour) is listed as if he played a prominent role in this endeavor, he's only heard on the tracks "Good Time Charlie," "No," and "Help Me Some."

In his powerfully insightful book of blues-inspired poetry Fattening Frogs for Snakes - Delta Sound Suite, John Sinclair cites blues and jazz scholar Robert Palmer as a source for the theory that the linguistic taproots of the word "boogie" probably reach back to West Africa, as the Hausa "buga" and the Mandingo "bug" both mean "to beat" as in "to beat a drum." This makes sense given the rhythmic potency of boogie-woogie, a style that emerged during the early 20th century among Southern black laborers who lived, toiled, and partied near the very bottom of the U.S. social hierarchy, usually living in an environment that was secluded from the rest of the population and often engaging in the production of turpentine…

This brief segment of the Memphis Slim story unearths a parcel of tasty tracks recorded during 1967 in Paris where Slim would live out the rest of his life. Here he delivers his usual mix of slow drags, soulful struts, shuffles, and boogies, working the piano and singing the blues. Solid support is provided by guitarist Mickey Baker, bassists Guy Pedersen and Roland Lobligeois, and drummer Andre Arpino. The rest of the personnel remain largely unidentified; the nameless organist and a tidy anonymous horn section put a lot of meat on the ribs of this album. On "People People" and "Christina" the organ establishes a vibe comparable with certain wistful portions of John Mayall's largely introspective Bare Wires album, a distant cousin to this session recorded in April of the following year…

Memphis Slim devoted all but one of the ten songs on this April 1961 session to covers of some of his favorite songwriters. He's only accompanied by his own piano playing as he provides serviceable, laidback interpretations of numbers by Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others, as well as his own "Sunnyland Train."

Recorded in New York City during May and June of 1969, this excellent album reveals the very core of Memphis Slim's blues artistry. He kneads the piano and sings his heart out in front of a tough little band comprised of R&B tenor sax legend Eddie Chamblee, an unidentified organist, guitarist Billy Butler, bassist Lloyd Trotman, and drummer Herb Lovelle. An anonymous utility horn section shows up during the rocking "Sassy Mae." "Ramble This Highway" (better known as "Key to the Highway") was written by Jazz Gillum, "Rock Me Baby" is credited to Big Bill Broonzy, and the famous "Caldonia" was composed by Fleecie Moore. The rest of the material heard on this album comes straight out of Slim's catalog of original songs. Check out Slim's relaxed sermon on "Freedom" and his candid statement about having the blues because he is black…