Big Maceo
b. Major Meriweather, 31 March 1905, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, d. 26 February 1953, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Big Maceo learned piano while living in a suburb of Atlanta, in his early teens. In 1924 he moved to Detroit where he made his name on the local blues scene. In the early '40s, he made a series of classic recordings with the Chicago guitarist Tampa Red. Maceo's piano lends a distinctive toughness and weight to Tampa's records, while the guitarist complements the other's superb sides with his supple and beautifully expressive slide lines. Maceo's Worried Life was a big hit, and has become one of the most covered of all blues songs, while most of the other tracks he recorded for the Bluebird/Victor company are of comparable quality. These include the achingly plaintive Poor Kelly Blues to powerful instrumental pieces such as Chicago Breakdown. In 1946, he suffered a stroke, and while he made several more records, few of them recaptured the glories of his earlier work.