Memphis Slim is perhaps most famous for composing “Everyday I Have The Blues,” a song covered by a plethora of artists, including BB King, Elmore James, and T-Bone Walker (as well as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton). But in leading bands including saxophones, bass, drums, and piano, the man born John Len Chatman also helped popularize the jump blues style of music that gained so much favor in the wake of World War II. In this solo recording from 1968–six years after the Tennessee native had moved to Paris–Slim sounds strong and self-assured in both his singing and piano playing, even as a cigarette dangles nonchalantly from his lips: the raw emotion in the performance of “Christina” sounds like the very gestation of the song. As such, it is the sound of the blues in its most elemental form.
