From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Sep 5, 2002  1:15 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Sunnyland Slim
 
SUNNYLAND SLIM (By Dave Penny)

Born Albert Luandrew, 5 September 1907, Vance, Mississippi
Died 17 March 1995, Chicago, Illinois

Albert Luandrew was born and raised on a farm and became interested in
music at an early age, teaching himself to play the piano while still a child.
Becoming disillusioned with rural life on the farm, during his teens, in 1924,
young Albert left home to work as a pianist in Memphis where he held
residencies as a solo pianist as well as playing with several local bands.
He began to venture further afield in the late '20s and '30s, finally settling
in Chicago in 1942 where - following the path of many musician migrants -
he hooked up with Tampa Red who found him work in local Chicago and
Gary, Indiana, night clubs under the name Sunnyland Slim (a name he is
reputed to have earned due to his affection for the old song Sunnyland
Train). Around 1946 Slim started to associate with Doctor Clayton - leading
to his recording sobriquet of "Doctor Clayton's Buddy" following the popular
blues singer's death in 1947 - and that year made his recording debut as a
vocalist with Jump Jackson's Band on California-based Specialty Records. In
fact, it was probably drummer Jackson who introduced Slim to the Chess
Brothers; whatever, by 1947, in the company of another ex-Mississippian
Muddy Waters, Slim was recording in his own name for Aristocrat Records,
and, later in the year, as vocalist "Doctor Clayton's Buddy" for RCA Victor.
By the following year, Slim was much in demand by the Chicago independent
labels and as well as recording for Aristocrat, he would cut 78s for Freddie
Williams' Hy-Tone Records, Joe Brown's Opera label and the tiny Tempo-Tone
Records run by bar owner "Big Earl". His powerful keyboard playing became
the piano-sound of choice for the new breed of "hard" Chicago blues bands
and his accompaniment can be heard on classic sides by Muddy Waters,
Howlin' Wolf, Floyd Jones, Snooky Prior, Jimmy Rogers, J B Lenoir, Little
Walter, Billy Boy Arnold and many others. Slim, himself, continued recording
extensively in his own right for myriad labels - big and small- like Mercury,
JOB, Apollo, Regal, Vee Jay, Blue Lake and Cobra. In the 1960s, like
Memphis Slim and Roosevelt Sykes, he became a darling of the overseas
blues festivals and began recording for the new found LP market, but the
results were often mediocre. Much better were the recordings for his own
label, Airway, incorporated in the early 1960s. Slim continued living and
playing in his beloved Chicago up until his death in the Windy City on 17th
March 1995.

Recommended listening:
The Chronological Sunnyland Slim 1947-1948 (Classics 5013)
The Chronological Sunnyland Slim 1949-1951 (Classics 5035)