 |
Sample Entry - Recording Studios
Chess Studios (US)
When Chess Records was founded (as Aristocrat in 1947), the
company did not have a recording studio, and over the following
decade it recorded most of its artists at Universal Recording
Studio (at various locales in Chicago). In 1954, Chess moved
one block north from its location on Chicago’s 49th Street
to 48th and Cottage Grove, and there built its first rehearsal
studio, but its poor quality forced the company to continue
to rely on Universal for most of its recording production. Finally,
the company established a first-rate in-house studio –
called Chess Studios – in1957, when it relocated to 2120
S. Michigan Avenue, and it rented the second floor to Sheldon
Recording Studios, operated as a Chess subsidiary by engineer
Jack Wiener. The studio featured a set of matched echo chambers.
Under Wiener, Sheldon took in considerable outside work, recording
sessions for Atlantic and Mercury, for instance. In 1958, Chess
took over the studio directly and hired Malcolm Chisholm, who
had been the engineer for a considerable number of recordings
for Chess when the company was recording at Universal, as sound
engineer. When he left, he was replaced in 1960 by Ron Malo,
who stayed with the studio until its demise in 1975. Malo upgraded
the studio and ran the sound into dual echo chambers in the
basement. Almost all the Chess artists were recorded with echo,
sometimes to excess. Among the legendary blues and rock ’n’
roll artists recorded in this studio were Muddy Waters, Sonny
Boy Williamson II, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
The company also built an impressive jazz series, and recorded
such artists as the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Ahmad Jamal and Sonny
Stitt.
Malo supervised the engineering at recording sessions for most
of the company’s artists, which by the 1960s meant primarily
soul artists: Etta James, the Dells and Billy Stewart, for example.
Malo was also the engineer for many sessions with outside artists.
In June 1964, for example, the Rolling Stones, seeking to emulate
the sound of their legendary blues heroes, came to Chicago to
record at the Chess studio; the studio produced half of the
tracks on their LP, 12X5, one of the songs on which
was titled in tribute ‘2120 South Michigan Avenue.’
The Rolling Stones subsequently recorded about 20 more tracks
at Chess during 1964-65, and in 1965 the Yardbirds record ‘I’m
a Man’ there. By 1965, the studio had changed its name
to Ter-Mar Recording Studio.
In September 1966, Chess moved all its operations around the
corner to 320 E. 21st Street, relocated the Ter-Mar studio there
and added a small rehearsal studio. After Leonard Chess died
in late 1969, the company went into decline. Malcolm Chisholm
rejoined the operation in 1970, but, within two years, the Chess
studio was almost inoperative. As a result of its failure to
introduce new equipment and to keep up with new trends, the
studio had developed a second-rate reputation. When Chess closed
its doors in 1975, the studio was dismantled and its equipment
sold.
In 1990, the building at 2120 S. Michigan Avenue was dedicated
as a Chicago landmark, and hailed as the studio that recorded
Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and other legendary artists. A few
years later, the widow of Willie Dixon, Marie Dixon, purchased
the building and began a restoration project. In 1997, the building
was reopened as a dual-purpose complex: an educational foundation
for black artists and a museum of Chess Records and its famous
studio.
Bibliography
‘Chicago Loses Chess Records.’ 1975. Illinois
Entertainer (December): 25.
Dixon, Willie, with Snowdon, Don. 1989. I Am the Blues:
The Willie Dixon Story. New York: Da Capo Press.
Gart, Galen. 1993. First Pressings: The History of Rhythm
& Blues, Volume 7: 1957. Milford, NH: Big Nickel Publications.
Gart, Galen. 1995. First Pressings: The History of Rhythm
& Blues, Volume 8: 1958. Milford, NH: Big Nickel Publications.
Heatley, Michael. 1992. ‘The Yardbirds.’ Goldmine
(12 June): 16.
Pruter, Robert. 1991. ‘Chess Records.’ In Chicago
Soul. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 97-135.
Pruter, Robert. 1996. ‘Chess Records’. In Doowop:
The Chicago Scene.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 55-83.
Discographical References
Rolling Stones, The. 12X5. London L1-3402. 1964:
USA.
Yardbirds, The. ‘I’m a Man.’ Epic 9857. 1965:
USA. |
ROBERT PRUTER |
|
|
