Christine Chatman was a powerhouse pianist, vocalist, arranger, and bandleader whose music electrified the Midwest and the Chitlin’ Circuit during the 1940s and 1950s. She performed for Black servicemen during World War II — including the Tuskegee Airmen — and became a sought-after session musician whose fingerprints appear across the foundations of jump blues and early R&B.
Christine performed with Alan Green, the Leak Brothers, Sammy Prince, Duke Forte, Andrew Tibbs, Tommy Archia’s All Stars, Big Mabelle, Hank Ballard, Peppy Prince, Gene Ammons, Joe Liggins and the Honey Dippers, Percy Mayfield, Jack McVea, Oscar McLollie, and The Platters. Christine’s last recording is with the Walnut Grove Male Chorus, “What a Great Big God We Serve”.
Despite her brilliance, her contributions were largely uncredited, and her name faded from the historical record.
Decades later, her great-great-nephew, Alex — then a 3rd-grader — chose Christine for an I-Search school project. That simple assignment ignited a family journey that grew into a full-scale investigation led by her nephew, filmmaker and musician Ritchie L. Coleman.
This documentary blends archival materials, family interviews, historian insights, rare photographs, and newly uncovered documents to reconstruct the life of a woman whose story deserves to be heard.
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