The Blue Memphis Suite

SSC3045 2006-07-18

Track List

Born In Memphis,Tennessee - 3:33
Chicago - 0:34
Me And My Piano - 1:24
Handyman - 1:58
Feel Like Screaming And Crying - 3:36
Riding On The Blues Train - 1:39
Boogin’And Bluesin’ - 1:47
Wind Gonna Rise - 4:07
Youth Wants To Know - 4:49
Boogie Woogie 1-9-7-0 - 3:20
Otis Spann And Earl Hooker - 4:35
Chicago Seven - 3:51
Mason-Dixon Line - 3:51
Mother Earth - 4:54
I’Ve Got Soul - 4:51

Musicians

Memphis Slim - vocals, piano & clavichord
Peter Green - lead guitar
John Paul Jones - hammond organ
Pete Wingfield - electric piano, celeste & organ
Johnny Dean - chimes
Larry Steel - Bass
Conrad Isidore - Drums

The Horn Section:
Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Kenny Wheeler - trumpets
Karl Jenkins, Brian Smith, Stan Saltzman, Jerry Gibbs, Peter King - saxophones
Nick Evans, John Mumford - trombones

Cameo appearance in Feel Like Screaming And Crying by Mae Mercer.
Arrangements - Jerry Long.
Background Vocals by Kay Gardner, Barry St John & Lisa Strike on Mother Earth

The year is 1970. We’ve got Memphis Slim, a classic blues legend; and there’s guitarist Peter Green - the influential mainstay of the 60s British blues movement, taking some time off from Fleetwood Mac; and John Paul Jones taking a holiday from Led Zeppelin; Duster Bennett, another formidable British blues luminary; the brilliant American arranger Jerry Long, on loan from Motown; and a horn section and rhythm section drawn from the cream of the 1970s London jazz and session scene, many of whom were later to achieve international renown. (Karl Jenkins, Pete Wingfield and Kenny Wheeler, for example.)
The Blue Memphis Suite is a collection of short descriptive blues pieces written, played and sung by Peter Chatman (a.k.a. Memphis Slim) and ingeniously arranged by Jerry Long. Long avoids the usual pitfalls of writing blues arrangements. (A bit of an oxymoron - how can you write a blues arrangement? Long manages it!)