Mose Vinson

Mose Vinson was an American pianist and singer, born in 1917 in Holly Springs, Mississippi. He taught himself to play the piano as a child and began performing his own style of barrelhouse boogie-woogie in local juke joints during his teenage years. In 1932, after meeting Sunnyland Slim, Vinson moved to Memphis, Tennessee. By the early 1950s, he was working at the Taylor Boarding Home near Sun Records studio and occasionally accompanied musicians under producer Sam Phillips. Notable recordings from this period include collaborations with James Cotton on "Cotton Crop Blues" and Jimmy DeBerry on "Take a Little Chance". In the early 1980s, Vinson performed at cultural events through the Center for Southern Folklore. His contributions to Memphis Piano Blues Today (2016) were recorded at his home in 1990. Declining health halted his playing shortly before his death from diabetes on November 16, 2002.