Sunnyland Slim

▪ 1996

      (ALBERT LUANDREW), U.S. blues musician (b. Sept. 5, 1907, Vance, Miss.—d. March 17, 1995, Chicago, Ill.), introduced his own powerful brand of Mississippi Delta-blues piano and helped build post-World War II Chicago into a major centre for the performance and recording of classic and electrified blues music. The son of a preacher and the grandson of a slave, he learned to play organ and piano in his father's church. He ran away in his early teens and drifted, working odd jobs and playing piano in roadhouses, juke joints, and silent cinemas. In the mid-1920s Sunnyland Slim settled in Memphis, Tenn., where his shouting, boogie-woogie style became a fixture in local blues clubs. After moving to Chicago in the early 1940s, he signed with Aristocrat (later called Chess Records), which became a force in the recording and promotion of blues. In 1947 he helped to secure the future of Chess and the Chicago blues scene when he arranged for a recording contract for a friend from his days in Memphis: Muddy Waters. In addition to his solo music, Sunnyland Slim often worked as an accompanist or as backup for other bluesmen, and in the 1970s he founded his own label, Airways Records. He recorded more than 200 songs and 20 albums, variously using the name Sunnyland Slim (allegedly acquired from one of his songs, "Sunnyland Train"), Sunny Land Slim, Delta Joe, and Dr. Clayton's Buddy.

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