Time: 38:52
Size: 89.0 MB
Styles: Piano blues, Boogie woogie
Year: 1997/2015
Art: Front
[2:15] 1. Pinetop's Boogie Woogie
[2:02] 2. Same Thing On My Mind
[3:44] 3. I've Been Playing Ever Since I Was Five Years Old-Dishrag, He's Dead Now
[3:05] 4. 4 O'clock In The Morning
[1:29] 5. What A Friend We Have In Jesus
[1:30] 6. Precious Lord Take My Hand
[1:33] 7. Darktown Strutter's Ball
[1:33] 8. Just Because
[3:12] 9. My Mule
[2:09] 10. What Is Your Life
[1:59] 11. Three Hand Boogie
[1:19] 12. Boogie Woogie
[2:58] 13. Tell It Like It Is, My Girlfriend Won't Be Still
[1:59] 14. My Father Was A Gambler
[2:09] 15. 44 Blues
[1:36] 16. Me And Booker T
[2:21] 17. That's All Right Little Girl
[1:51] 18. Leaning On The Everlasting Arms
One of Memphis' last practitioners of barrel house blues and boogie woogie piano, Mose Vinson was family and a regular fixture at Center programs and festivals for over twenty year before his death in 2002. His music sessions transformed the Center's Beale Street locations into something special. You never knew who might show up and learn from Mose. One week it might be Rufus Thomas. Another, it might be Marcia Ball or Cybill Shepherd. But audiences, especially children, were drawn to Vinson who would light up at the presence of youngsters. He loved to call them up on stage to playfully give them piano lessons.
Mose Vinson began tinkling the ivories as a child. Though young people often had to work in the fields around his native Holly Springs, Mississippi, he knew his hands were not made to pick cotton! By his teens, he had begun playing jazz and blues and joined a touring show, establishing himself as a musician. "I just play my own style," he says. "I never did practice anyone else's style." He played local juke house and parties throughout the '30s and '40s in rural communities and neighborhoods in Mississippi and Tennessee. In the early 1950s, Sam Phillips asked Mose Vinson to accompany a number of Sun Records blues artists, most notably James Cotton in 1954. During that time, Phillips also had Vinson cut some tracks, but they remained unreleased until the 1980s.
In 1997, Mose had his day in the sun when "Mose Vinson: Piano Man", an album of his favorite blues, boogie woogie, and religious tunes, was produced by Jim Dickinson, Knox Phillips and Center for Southern Folklore Executive Producer, Judy Peiser. The 2007 Memphis Music & Heritage Festival was dedicated to his memory and re-released "Mose Vinson: Piano Man" with a Poster showing Mose playing at a country juke house. ~Patricia Hennessy
Mose Vinson began tinkling the ivories as a child. Though young people often had to work in the fields around his native Holly Springs, Mississippi, he knew his hands were not made to pick cotton! By his teens, he had begun playing jazz and blues and joined a touring show, establishing himself as a musician. "I just play my own style," he says. "I never did practice anyone else's style." He played local juke house and parties throughout the '30s and '40s in rural communities and neighborhoods in Mississippi and Tennessee. In the early 1950s, Sam Phillips asked Mose Vinson to accompany a number of Sun Records blues artists, most notably James Cotton in 1954. During that time, Phillips also had Vinson cut some tracks, but they remained unreleased until the 1980s.
In 1997, Mose had his day in the sun when "Mose Vinson: Piano Man", an album of his favorite blues, boogie woogie, and religious tunes, was produced by Jim Dickinson, Knox Phillips and Center for Southern Folklore Executive Producer, Judy Peiser. The 2007 Memphis Music & Heritage Festival was dedicated to his memory and re-released "Mose Vinson: Piano Man" with a Poster showing Mose playing at a country juke house. ~Patricia Hennessy
Piano Man