Albert Luandrew aka Sunnyland Slim (9/5/06-3/17/95). like many other bluesmen who migrated from the South, was a pianist who arrived in Chicago from Mississippi in 1942, and who played for a time in Jump Jackson’s band, was a far more significant figure in the future development of Chicago blues into the post-WWII era. He was one of the key musicians in ushering in the small-combo R&B of the ‘50s, which was to surplant the Jump Jackson style and of which Muddy Waters’ band was to be the ultimate example.
Slim began recordings in 1947 for Victor, billed as Doctor Clayton’s Buddy, an example of the occasional habit adopted by record companies trying to cash in on the name of a recently deceased performer. Clayton, an eccentric blues vaudevillian from George, had died in Chicago in January of that year. His former sideman Slim was on the earlier Muddy Waters sides for Aristrocrat – indeed it was Slim who guided the comparative newcomer to the label – before forming a series of groups under his own name recording in Chicago for a number of labels including Aristocrat, JOB and Mercury.
Later in life Slim became a star of the growing “blues festival” circuit and continued performing and recording into old age. This meant that he spanned the history of blues piano from the “barrelhouse” circuit of the 1920s and 30s – playing in joints so makeshift that the bar was simply a plank supported by two barrels – through the gold age of Chicago blues and on to the revival in the music prompted by the newly awakened white interest during the 60s.
That first Slim release on Aristocrat, designated 1301, was in fact double-billed to Sunnyland Slim and Muddy Water (sic) “Johnson Machine Gun” b/w “Fly Right, Little Girl”. By the time of Aristocrat 1304, another collaboration, Muddy’s surname had gained an “s”.
While the Victor sides were rooted in the old prewar blues, the Aristocrat sessions helped usher in the new urban sound for which Chicago was about to become famous.
Although the Chess brothers signed Waters, they declined to record Slim further and he went on to work for a number of other labels – Hytone, Opera, Chance, Temp-Tone, Apollo, JOB, Regal, Vee Jay, Blue Lake, Club 51 and Cobra; and was a sideman on many other Chicago artist sessions.
Sunnyland Slim would enjoy his first tour of Europe in 1964 with American Folk Blues Festival.
Continued to record and tour prolifically throughout the ‘70s and into the ‘80s on Storyville and Delmark – and on his own Airway Records – and also encouraging other up-and-comers.
Sadly, he died of kidney failure at 87 after he developed internal complications following a fall on an icy pavement on his way home from a gig at a Chicago club in March 1995.