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Sample Entry - Chicago
Chicago is the third most populous city in the United States. Located on the shores
of the southern tip of Lake Michigan,it is the nucleus of a huge metropolitan
area extending north to Wisconsin and south to Indiana. The city is a
leading financial, industrial and cultural center, and the transportation hub
of the Midwest. At one time it had large Eastern European, German and Irish
Catholic communities, but since the 1960s the city’s European immigrant population has
become a small minority. Communities of Latin Americans and Asian Americans have come
to predominate. Chicago was once second only to New York as the largest recording and
music publishing center in the nation and, after New York, it has the richest tradition
in producing US popular music.
Early Years
The first piece of copyrighted music to be issued from Chicago, ‘Garden City Polka,’
was published by Brooks K. Mould in 1853. By the time of the Civil War, the city was
home to such publishing houses as the Higgins Brothers, Lyon & Healy and, most notably,
Root & Cady, publishers of some of the most widely known and circulated songs of the war,
such as ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom’ (1862, by Ebenezer Root’s brother George) and
‘Marching Through Georgia’ (1865). The Great Fire of 1871 caused a slump in the music
publishing business that lasted for many years, but by the 1890s Chicago had reemerged
as a major center of song publishing.
As Chicago was rebuilt in the wake of the Great Fire, its name became increasingly
associated with architectural innovation, leading to the Chicago School of the 1890s.
It was architecture and landscape design that formed the principal attraction at the 1893
World Columbian Exposition in the city, but many of the 27 million visitors also took away
with them the memory of having experienced a range of novel entertainment, from the first
Ferris wheel to ‘hoochie koochie,’ and from Egyptian dancing to the music of ragtime piano
‘professors.’
Early in the twentieth century, Chicago established itself as an important location for
the popular music of immigrant populations, notably Irish songs and melodies. Chicago’s
superintendent of police from 1901 to 1905, Francis O’Neill, who for years played at Irish
dances, transcribed and compiled 1,850 Irish tunes with fellow police officer James O’Neill.
The collection, O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, published by Lyon & Healy in 1903, was a significant
milestone in the diffusion of Irish popular music. By the 1920s, the city was home to more
than 50 song publishers. The ‘Tin Pan Alley’ of the city was along Randolph Street on the
northern edge of the downtown section called the Loop.
During the early years of the twentieth century, popular music was disseminated primarily
by the dance bands that played in the city’s dance halls and hotel ballrooms. The premier
venues were the Midway Gardens, the White City Ballroom, the Aragon Ballroom, the Trianon
Ballroom, the Marigold Gardens, the Rainbow Gardens and the Dreamland Ballroom. The foremost
bands in the 1920s were those of Isham Jones, Edgar Benson, Charles Elgar and Wayne King.
While most of the venues featured bands that played waltzes and dance music with a gently
bouncing beat and other conservative styles of music, some ventured into hot jazz.
Jazz
The demographic base that established Chicago as a focus for African-American music stemmed
from the migration of African-American people from the South. This migration, which was well
established by the early part of the twentieth century, increased markedly during World War I,
when some 50,000 African-American people from the South arrived in Chicago. Many of these people
found jobs in the city’s manufacturing plants (most notably in munitions factories) and stockyards
(Chicago was then ‘hog-butcher’ to the world). During the 1920s, the city emerged as a hub for
blues and jazz recording, when such companies as Paramount, Brunswick-Balke-Collender, Victor
and OKeh recorded many blues artists there. With its large South Side black entertainment district
extending from 31st to 35th Streets along State Street, an area known as the Stroll, the city was
a particularly rich source of recording talent.
The emergence of jazz in the city occurred paradoxically during the era of Prohibition, which was
imposed nationally from 1920 to 1933. In such conurbations as Chicago, Prohibition was unpopular
and an unholy alliance developed between organized crime, which supplied illegal alcohol, and the
city’s political bosses, who controlled the police in return for campaign donations and allowed
mobsters such as Al Capone to thrive. Many of the nightclubs and dance halls, particularly in the
African-American ghetto, were owned by mobsters, and these served as a seedbed from which jazz could
flourish.
As a major railhead and nodal city, Chicago attracted thousands of musicians who migrated to the Midwest.
The Illinois Central railroad made a direct connection with New Orleans, thereby providing an easy
route for musicians traveling to Chicago. Before World War I, a number of ragtime and jazz pianists,
who later played in Chicago, played in New Orleans -- Tony Jackson in 1906, and Ferdinand ‘Jelly Roll’
Morton in 1908. As early as 1912, Bill Johnson’s Original Creole Band played in Chicago, soon to have
trumpet player Freddie Keppard taking the lead. By 1917, many New Orleans musicians were playing on the
South Side, in the ‘wide-open,’ often gangster-operated clubs, dance halls and cabarets offering employment
after the closing down of the Storyville red-light district in their home city. Sidney Bechet, George Bacquet,
Mutt Carey and Edward ‘Kid’ Ory were among the early arrivals, with Sugar Johnny’s band being a sensation at
the De Luxe Café for the year before his death in 1918.
White bands also brought the New Orleans sounds to Chicago, the first being Tom Brown’s Dixieland ‘Jass’
Band, which played on the North Side at Lamb’s Café at the junction of Randolph and Clark Streets. In 1916,
Schiller’s Café featured the thrilling Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which was to receive a rapturous reception
in New York, and to make the first commercial jazz record in the following year. In the early 1920s, Friar’s
Inn at Wabash and van Buren Streets was host to the group of white New Orleans musicians who recorded as the
New Orleans Rhythm Kings.
By 1918, trumpet player Joe ‘King’ Oliver had arrived, playing every night at the Dreamland Café at 35th and
State Streets until 1:00 a.m., and then doubling at the notorious gangland venue, the Pekin Theater-Cabaret,
at 27th and State Streets until 6:00 a.m. After a tour on the west coast, King Oliver returned to play regularly
at the Royal (formerly Lincoln) Gardens, sending for the young Louis Armstrong to join him from New Orleans in the
summer of 1922. The Creole Jazz Band with the two trumpet leads was outstanding, making many records that have become
classic in jazz history. Armstrong left Oliver in 1924 and was soon to make a series of brilliant recordings with his
Hot Five and, later, Hot Seven bands. These recordings became supreme examples of the New Orleans idiom, though with a
Chicago emphasis on solos as well as collective improvisation.
Chicago jazz grew from these influences, and from the recordings made by the pioneer bands, both black and white.
Students at the Austin High School, the Columbus Park Refectory and elsewhere developed a fast style, using ‘flares’
or bursts of sound, contrasted with the mellower tones of tenor and alto saxophones. Leon ‘Bix’ Beiderbecke, a lyrical
trumpet player from Davenport, Iowa, played briefly in Chicago, recording with the Wolverines, before moving on to New York.
Chicago bands featured the talents of Bud Freeman, Frank Teschemacher and, in the later 1920s, the fluent Benny Goodman, on
saxophones and clarinet.
Throughout the 1920s, Chicago was the hotbed of both black and white jazz, though many musicians worked for periods in Harlem
and New York, or traveled with touring bands and on the Orpheum and other circuits. With the advent of the Depression and the
repeal of Prohibition, many musicians found themselves out of work. Many moved to New York and the eastern resorts, some, such
as Goodman, adapting their music to the demands of the big bands and becoming prominent with the growth of swing.
The most significant jazz musician in Chicago in the 1930s was Earl Hines, who with his big band held sway at the Grand Terrace
from 1928 to 1941. During the 1940s and 1950s, the usual fare for black nightclubs was a jazz combo, and on the South and West
Sides of Chicago there were scores of them, many of them made up from alumni of the Hines bands. The jazz clubs in the Loop and
on the near North Side appealed primarily to a white clientele. During the 1930s, the Blackhawk in the Loop was home to Louis Prima
and, subsequently, to Bob Crosby, while the College Inn at the Hotel Sherman hosted most of the big bands that visited Chicago. Here,
too, Muggsy Spanier’s Ragtimers were formed, pointing the way to the New Orleans ‘revival.’ By this time, however, blues was beginning
to become a force. Blues bands led by ‘Big’ Bill Broonzy, ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson, Washboard Sam, Lonnie Johnson and many other singers
filled the taverns, clubs and joints on State Street and its environs on the South Side, or along West Lake on the West Side.
Jazz musicians who made an impact recording and playing in the city during the 1950s were largely cocktail lounge combos such as the
Ramsey Lewis Trio and the Johnny Pate Trio, and bebop musicians such as Sonny Stitt, Von Freeman and Dexter Gordon. Defying any sort
of categorization was avant-gardist Sun Ra.
Blues and Rhythm and Blues
The development of blues in Chicago also owed much to the dramatic increase in the migration of African-American people, primarily
from the states of Mississippi and eastern Louisiana, that took place during World War I. Although, in contrast to the South, there
was no official policy of segregation in the North, de facto segregation occurred in northern cities such as Chicago as a consequence
of the fact that African-American people could find housing only in certain areas. It was in these increasingly overcrowded ghettoes
that a form of piano music called ‘boogie-woogie’ developed during the 1920s. This music was played in Chicago by pianists such as
‘Cow Cow’ Davenport, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Jimmy Blythe, Clarence ‘Pine Top’ Smith, Meade ‘Lux’ Lewis, Albert Ammons and Jimmy Yancey.
Boogie-woogie was played in brothels or ‘boogie houses,’ in clubs or ‘speak-easies’ where, during the Prohibition years, illegal
alcohol was sold, in black vaudeville theaters, and on the house rent party circuit, where house tenants would hold parties (again
featuring illegal alcohol) and charge admission in order to make enough money to pay the rent.
The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 instigated changes in the blues scene in Chicago, changes that drew on forms of blues other than
boogie-woogie (and on instruments other than the piano), which had continued in Chicago and other northern cities during Prohibition.
Whereas, before, clubs that sold alcohol illegally could not easily advertise the musicians who played there (only ‘dry’ clubs could
advertise openly), all clubs could now safely advertise blues singers and promote them openly as well-known personalities. As the 1930s
unfolded, big-name male singers began to dominate the blues scene. The 1930s in Chicago witnessed the development of the careers of
musicians such as Tommy McClennan (born in Yazoo, Mississippi, and brought to Chicago to play and record by Lester Melrose, a white
publisher and record company executive) and Big Bill Broonzy. Obtaining a recording contract was one of few ways in which African
Americans could seek advancement at this time. Many African-American musicians played ‘after hours’ in the clubs when their day’s
work as stockyard workers or as janitors was over. Many who came to Chicago seeking fame and fortune returned home after one
recording session, having made little impact. Others, however, such as Sonny Boy Williamson, Tampa Red and ‘Yank’ Rachell, continued
to be called back to the recording studios. The 1930s in Chicago were a vibrant period for the development of the blues and, by the
1940s, many clubs had reopened following the repeal of Prohibition. Sonny Boy Williamson played at the Plantation, while Memphis Minnie
was featured at the 708 Club (708 E. 47th Street). Ruby Gatwood’s tavern, with Broonzy and Memphis Slim, was celebrated. An important
influence on the younger pianist was Big Maceo Merriweather, who moved from Detroit to Chicago in the mid-1940s.
The recording industry had been important to the development and dissemination of the blues since the 1920s. However, during the 1940s,
there occurred an event that was to act as a stimulus for their further development. This event had as its background Chicago’s role
as an early center of labor militancy among musicians. Central to the development of this role was James C. Petrillo, president of
Local 10 of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) for 40 years from 1922 (in Chicago, Local 10 was for whites and Local 208 for
blacks; in 1966, after cultural norms had changed, the two Chicago locals merged). Petrillo led strikes to ensure payment for radio
performers and for union recognition of theater orchestras and musicians hired to play in Chinese restaurants. Such was the severity
of these struggles that the union’s Chicago headquarters, built in 1933, were bulletproofed.
Because of his successes, Petrillo was in 1940 elected international president of the AFM. During the 1940s, he twice brought the
activities of the major record companies to a halt with recording-ban strikes (1942--44 and 1948). These strikes, which affected
both black and white musicians, constituted the event that was to act as a further stimulus for the development of the blues. Independent
record companies took advantage of the cessation of operations on the part of the major record companies to seize control of the black
music market from them, and Chicago emerged as one of the principal locations for rhythm and blues (R&B) music. Dozens of small labels
appeared during this period: United, Vee-Jay, Chess, Chance and Parrot, among others. The city’s R&B recording industry established a
‘Record Row’ on the South Side along Cottage Grove from 47th Street to 50th Street, where both the labels and the distributors made
their headquarters.
The city’s two most successful R&B labels during this period were Chess and Vee-Jay. Chess Records, begun by Phil and Leonard Chess,
originally achieved major success with blues artists, notably McKinley Morganfield, known as ‘Muddy Waters,’ ‘Little Walter’ Jacobs
and Chester Burnett, known as ‘Howlin’ Wolf.’ However, by the mid-1950s, Chess had become a player in the dramatic arrival of rock
’n’ roll, with such artists as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, the Flamingos and the Moonglows. Vee-Jay, founded by Jimmy and Vivian Carter,
had success on both the R&B and the pop charts with bluesman Jimmy Reed and with such doowop vocal groups as the Spaniels, the El
Dorados and the Dells.
World War II, like World War I, accelerated the influx into Chicago of African-American musicians from the South. Incoming musicians
tended to try their luck and work out with other immigrant players in the sector called ‘Jew Town,’ comprising Maxwell Street market
and the adjacent streets off South Halstead Street. Here, playing in the street was not discouraged, and the market remained a
significant testing ground until the 1960s, Daddy Stovepipe, Floyd Jones and even Little Walter all playing there regularly. It
was the arrival and eventual recording of Muddy Waters that set the seal on post-World War II Chicago blues. The Muddy Waters blues
band synthesized Mississippi sounds (on guitars -- now amplified -- and piano) with those of Louisiana, represented through Little
Walter’s harmonica playing. Shortly after, in 1952, fellow Mississippian Howlin’ Wolf settled in Chicago and rivaled the supremacy
of Muddy Waters. Rice Miller, called Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2, and Elmore James, also from Mississippi, provided extra impetus to
post-World War II blues, which echoed the sounds of Son House and Robert Johnson in a tough urban setting. Harmonica player Junior Wells
and guitarists Johnny Shines, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy sustained them in the early 1960s, but with the popularization of the blues among
young white musicians, and the rise of soul, Chicago blues went into relative decline, and clubs like the Tay May, the 708 Club, the Zanzibar
and Smitty’s Corner closed their doors.
Other Genres
In other areas of popular music, it was the major record companies -- RCA-Victor, Columbia, Decca and other major labels from the 1930s
through the 1950s -- that maintained studios and offices in the city and that recorded big band, jazz, country and western, classical
and gospel music there. One of the biggest pop artists from Chicago during the 1950s was singer Joni James, who in the RCA studio
recorded a whole spate of hits for MGM Records on the west coast.
In the 1920s, Chicago, despite its northern location, became a center for the broadcasting of hillbilly (country) music. Station WLS,
with its powerful 50,000-watts transmitter and clear-channel frequency (no other station in North America occupied the same frequency),
began broadcasting the Barn Dance show to the rural Midwest and beyond in 1924 (‘National’ was added to the name when the program was
picked up by the NBC network in 1933). Some of the stars of the show were Bradley Kincaid, Patsy Montana, Gene Autry, Lulu Belle and
Scotty, and Red Foley. The National Barn Dance was the premier show of its type until the end of the 1930s. By that time, the Grand Ole Opry
in Nashville, with its more rural southern sound, had surpassed it in popularity. By the 1950s, Chicago had long ceased to be a focal
point for country music. The National Barn Dance was almost defunct, and in 1960 WLS went to a 24-hour rock ’n’ roll format. But in
nearby Hammond, Indiana, Harry Glenn’s Marvel label recorded some 140 singles between 1949 and 1966, most of which were country songs
by southern immigrant performers.
Modern African-American gospel music can be said to have emerged in Chicago in the early 1930s under the leadership of the Reverend
Thomas A. Dorsey. He helped found the first gospel choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church (1931) and wrote one of the great standards of
the form, ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord,’ first performed in 1932 by the gospel choir he founded at Pilgrim Baptist Church and published
by Dorsey himself. Gospel sheet music, much of it published in Chicago, was to have a significant influence on the spread of the music,
especially among the choirs in African-American churches. Meanwhile, Chicago-based singers such as Sallie Martin, Roberta Martin and
Mahalia Jackson played a major role in making the music and its characteristic singing style known worldwide.
Polka music, a US style of music based on Central and Eastern European folk tunes, developed in Chicago and other US cities during
the late 1920s in response to opportunities for its dissemination provided through the emergence of radio and recording. Polka grew
tremendously in popularity during the late 1940s and 1950s in Chicago, particularly among the city’s Polish and Bohemian communities.
The most popular polka exponent in Chicago during the 1950s was Li’l Wally (Wladziu Jagiello). During the late 1950s and early 1960s,
the big polka star was Marion Lush, ‘the golden voice of polka.’ Lush is credited with introducing the two-trumpet style of polka which
thereafter remained prevalent, and with having a rhythm section that redefined the honky style of Li’l Wally, making it more dynamic.
These innovations established Lush as a transitional figure between Li’l Wally and Eddie Blazonczyk, who emerged as the most popular polka
exponent in Chicago during the 1960s. The developments in polka that took place during the 1950s and 1960s in Chicago were seminal and
reverberated throughout the rest of the United States.
The 1950s also saw the emergence of a strong folk music community. Studs Terkel, who wedded a leftist political agenda to the form,
featured such early performers as Win Stracke and Big Bill Broonzy in his television show, ‘Studs Place.’ In 1956, Al Grossman founded
the country’s first folk nightclub, the Gate of Horn (1956--64), on the near North Side, with Frank Hamilton as his house musician.
Besides booking national talent, the Gate of Horn became home to Chicago-based performers Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp. The pair became
the act to see and helped to make the club the premier folk club of its era. Folk music as a popular music form got a further boost
in Chicago in 1957, when Stracke and Hamilton, together with folk music sponsor extraordinaire Dawn Greening, founded the Old Town
School of Folk Music. The Old Town School discovered and nurtured new talent every year that fed the city’s coffee houses and
nightclubs -- notably Willie Wright, Ginni Clemons and Roger McGuinn (later of the folk-rock group, the Byrds). The fine arts radio
station WFMT, on its Saturday evening folk music program The Midnight Special, particularly promoted Chicago folk singers, playing
many tapes of live performances as well as locally made recordings.
Soul
By the early 1960s, ‘Record Row’ had been reestablished on South Michigan Avenue, and it became the location for a new style of
R&B called soul. Over the next two decades, Chicago-style soul music was produced by such large home-grown labels as Vee-Jay, Chess,
Curtom and Mercury, and major labels such as Columbia (through its OKeh subsidiary) and ABC-Paramount set up offices in Chicago and
courted the city’s African-American talent. There were numerous smaller companies, many mere ‘mom-and-pop’ operations, that also
contributed to the growth in soul that Chicago witnessed -- companies such as Formal, Cortland and One-derful.
Many of the world’s major soul acts -- Jerry Butler, the Impressions, Gene Chandler, the Chi-Lites and the Dells, for example --
called Chicago home. At one time, as many as one-third of all the records played on the city’s black radio stations were locally
produced, and internationally Chicago was putting as many records on the charts as such soul factories as Detroit, Memphis and
New York. The distribution firms and local radio stations, principally WVON, working symbiotically, contributed immeasurably
to the growth of the local record industry.
The first Chicago company to experience great success in the emerging soul market was Vee-Jay with ‘For Your Precious Love,’ a
1958 hit by Jerry Butler and the Impressions. Other successful Vee-Jay soul recording artists were Dee Clark, Betty Everett
and Gene Chandler. OKeh was another successful Chicago-based soul label. With producer Carl Davis at the helm, the imprint had
huge success with Major Lance, as well as with Billy Butler, Walter Jackson and the Vibrations. Chess Records, under A&R head
‘Billy’ Roquel Davis, had great success with such soul artists as Etta James, Little Milton, the Dells, Fontella Bass, the
Radiants and Billy Stewart. The Radiants’ ‘Voice Your Choice’ (1964) was typical of the Chess soft soul approach, using Phil
Wright’s full orchestra arrangements and the production talents of Billy Davis. One of Chicago’s biggest acts, the Curtis
Mayfield-led Impressions, recorded for New York-based ABC Paramount.
A harder side of Chicago soul was provided by George Leaner in his One-derful operations. He specialized in southern-style hard
soul, best exemplified by Otis Clay, McKinley Mitchell and the Five Dutones. The act that garnered the most hits for Leaner was
an all-brother act, Alvin Cash and the Crawlers, who chanted their way through a bevy of funky dance records. However,
Leaner did not monopolize Chicago’s hard soul market. Syl Johnson continually had hits on Twinight Records from 1967 to 1972
with funky aggressive songs distinguished mostly by his sharply piercing vocals. Bright Star/Four Brothers had hits in the hard
soul vein with blues harpist (harmonica player) Junior Wells, as well as with Johnny Moore and Ricky Allen. What helped
immeasurably in the success of these independent soul labels was their custom of maintaining woodshedding (practice) studios and
house bands that kept creativity at a high level.
Recent History
Soul music was not the only ‘scene’ in Chicago during the 1960s. In the wake of the invasion of British rock acts during 1964,
Chicago built a home-grown rock industry. In the 1960s, the preeminent groups were the Cryan’ Shames, Buckinghams, Shadows of
Knight, American Breed and New Colony Six. The record industry started talking about ‘the Chicago sound.’
For the 1970s, the story of Chicago soul music was basically that of Carl Davis and his productions at Brunswick, most notably those of the
Artistics, Jackie Wilson, Barbara Acklin, Tyrone Davis and the Chi-Lites. Curtis Mayfield’s Curtom label was also active in the
1970s, recording the Impressions, Linda Clifford (who recorded disco for the label) and Mayfield himself. The company’s most
distinguished recordings were those of Mayfield, notably his Superfly soundtrack from 1972, which helped pioneer the funk style
of soul music.
In the 1970s, a new generation of folk singers in Chicago came to the fore. The most successful were Steve Goodman, John Prine
and Bonnie Koloc. All three made albums that were well received, and they were generally marketed as ‘singer-songwriters’ by
the record industry. Many of their songs drew on folk music elements, and in touring they generally played the ‘folk clubs.’
Other outstanding folk performers were Fred Holstein, Tom Dundee, Utah Phillips and Jim Post. The preeminent folk club in the
city during this decade was the Earl of Old Town (1966--84), and it was particularly instrumental in showcasing local talent.
Chicago continued to produce rock acts in the 1970s, but there were few home-grown independent labels to sign with, and the
acts increasingly recorded out of town for major companies located in Los Angeles and New York. The most significant
Chicago-based acts of the decade were Styx, Flock, H.P. Lovecraft and Ides of March. The rock group Chicago was formed
in the city in the late 1960s, but was based on the west coast when recording.
In this period, Chicago saw the rise of one of the most significant avant-garde developments in jazz -- the Association
for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a music collective founded in 1965. Among its roughly 40 members were
Muhal Richard Abrams, Malachi Favors, Anthony Braxton and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, artists who built a worldwide
reputation during the 1970s.
Although in the 1980s Chicago was only a minor player in the black music industry, the city did make a name for itself
as the focal point of a new form of disco called ‘house,’ when such club deejays as Frankie Knuckles, Farley Keith and
Ron Hardy began putting drum machine tracks over old disco songs and boosting the beats per minute into the 120 range.
While the origins of house music are disputed, the name ‘house’ has frequently been associated with the Warehouse, the
Chicago club where Knuckles held sway. Early house stars were JM Silk and Marshall Jefferson. DJ International became
the preeminent house label.
In the late 1980s, Chicago began making a small impact with abrasive hard rock bands which, following in the wake of
the punk rock boom of earlier in the decade, were called postpunk bands. The most notable were Naked Raygun, Big
Black (led by underground rock producer Steve Albini) and Jesus Lizard. Albini soon developed a national reputation
for producing postpunk rock. A more mainstream rock act from Chicago was Survivor, which included former Ides of
March veteran Jim Peterik. Another type of rock that made an impact was industrial rock, in which vein Chicago
produced Ministry. A number of independent labels emerged to record most of the city’s new rock acts, notably
Wax Trax! (which concentrated on industrial rock) and Touch and Go (which concentrated on postpunk).
In the 1990s, Chicago became a major location for alternative rock, that is, rock music that began as an
alternative to the hit-oriented rock music being played on the radio. Alternative rock bands sought to
create music that made no concessions to mass taste or the trends of the record industry. Seattle became
the first center for alternative rock, with such artists as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, but Chicago followed
with Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins and Urge Overkill. Such clubs as Lounge Ax and Metro became important
venues for disseminating this music.
Although Chicago developed a ‘cutting edge’ reputation for its alternative bands, the city nonetheless
remained a nucleus for one of the most traditional of music forms, the blues, which built up a new
following among mainstream white audiences. A number of blues labels, the most successful of which were
Alligator, Delmark, Earwig and Blind Pig, continued to thrive and to produce many of the top blues acts
in the country, notably Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks and Buddy Guy. The city built up a new tourist industry
for blues with such clubs as Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines, and with the Chicago Blues Festival,
held annually since 1983 at the Petrillo Band Shell in Grant Park. Other notable festivals sponsored by
the city included those devoted to gospel music, jazz and Latin music.
In the 1990s, Chicago produced the successful hip-hop--influenced R&B performers R. Kelly, Common
(Rashied Lynn) and Crucial Conflict. Also, the city’s rapidly growing South-Asian population gave rise to
an African-American--influenced Indian dance music. Notable acts included T.S. Soundz, which remixed house
music with Indian movie music, and Rahul Sharma, which created an Indian-funk fusion music.
Chicago as the Subject of Songs
Chicago has been the subject of a great many songs and tunes. Most widely known are songs such as Fred
Fisher’s ‘Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town’) (1922) and Jimmy Van Heusen’s ‘My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)’
(1964), which have celebrated the city as an entertainment attraction. A rather different image of
the city in the 1920s was the subject of John Kander’s and Fred Ebb’s ‘musical vaudeville’ show
Chicago (1975), which centered on the story of murderess Roxie Hart and her nonexistent conscience.
The magnetic pull that Chicago exercised on people thinking about migrating from the South was
reflected in blues titles such as Ida Cox’s ‘Chicago Bound Blues (Famous Migration Blues)’ (1923),
while the opposite phenomenon, the reality of life in the cold northern city and the nostalgic appeal
of the South, was described in songs such as ‘Georgia Bound’ (1929), in which Blind Blake complained
of having ‘walked out my shoes over this ice and snow.’ Blues musicians often responded to the fact
that they and their listeners shared an intimate knowledge of some of the specific landmarks of the
Black Belt (districts of Chicago where African Americans lived), as in Papa Charlie Jackson’s ‘Maxwell
Street Blues’ (1925), and Jimmy Blythe’s piano solo ‘Lovin’s Been Here and Gone to the Mecca Flat’ (1926).
Teaching and Research of Popular Music
Elmhurst College maintains a distinctive program in music business, which prepares students for a wide
variety of careers in music and the music industry. Founded in 1972, it was one of the first programs
of its type. Graduates have developed careers as recording industry executives, music retailers and
arts managers.
Chicago is rich in research materials relating to popular music. The Museum of Broadcast Communications,
located at the Chicago Cultural Center, has an archive of over 10,000 television programs, over 50,000
hours of radio broadcasting, together with commercials and a computerized catalog. There is a small
admissions charge for members of the public. The Chicago Historical Society has substantial collections
of programs, scrapbooks of organizations, and correspondence relating to the history of music in Chicago,
plus a large collection of sheet music and some holograph copies of famous nineteenth-century popular songs.
The Moody Bible Institute has 2,000 songbooks, including Gospel items, hymnals and shape-note tunebooks,
together with biographical information. The Newberry Library has over 100,000 items of sheet music,
including the Driscoll Collection (which is especially strong in Stephen Foster songs, minstrel songs
and music relating to Boston). It also possesses many scrapbooks and programs of music in Chicago,
including four books on music at the World Columbian Exposition. The Polish Museum of America possesses
songbooks, sheet music, programs and books. Materials relating to popular music in the Chicago area can
also be found in the ‘Chicago Blues Archives’ of the Chicago Public Library’s Harold Washington Library
Center, and the ‘Chicago Jazz Archives’ of the University of Chicago Regenstein Library.
Of special significance is the Center for Black Music Research, which possesses substantial collections
of books, recordings, journals, printed music and manuscripts relating to black music. Coverage is worldwide,
with an emphasis on the United States. The Center publishes the journal Black Music Research, various
monographs and a newsletter, and organizes conferences. Recent initiatives include projects aimed at
furthering Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Hispanic music.
Bibliography
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Austin, Mary. 1978. ‘Petrillo’s War.’ Journal of Popular Culture 12(1) (Summer): 11--18.
Baker, Cary, and Lind, Jeff. 1976. ‘Sounds of the Sixties: Part Three, Chicago.’ Who Put the Bomp!. 15 (Spring): 31--36.
Boehlert, Eric. 1993. ‘Chicago: Cutting Edge's New Capital.’ Billboard (21 August): 1, 68, 76.
Brubaker, Robert L. 1985. Making Music Chicago Style. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society.
Bushnell, George D. 1971. ‘When Jazz Came to Chicago.’ Chicago History 1(3) (Spring).
Dahl, Bill. 1993. ‘City’s Clubs, Labels, Find Blues Is the Cure.’ Billboard (21 August): 1, 76.
Drake, St. Clair. 1945. Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Ernberg, Lewis A. 1986. ‘Ain’t We Got Fun?’ Chicago History 14(4) (Winter).
Grayson, Lisa. 1992. The History of Chicago’s Legendary Old Town School of Folk Music. Chicago: Old Town School of Folk Music.
Greene, Victor. 1992. The Passion for Polka: Old-Time Ethnic Music in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Hafferkamp, Jack. 1974. ‘Pop Music in Chicago: This Isn’t Where It’s At.’ Chicago Daily News (1 June).
Harris, Michael W. 1992. The Rise of Gospel Blues: The Music of Thomas Andrew Dorsey in the Urban Church. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hurst, Jack. 1984. ‘“Barn Dance” Days: Remembering the Stars of a Pioneering Chicago Radio Show.’ Chicago Tribune Sunday (5 August): 8--13, 15.
Kennedy, Rick. 1994. Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Kenney, William Howland. 1993. Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904--1930. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kot, Greg. 1994. ‘A Wax Trax for the ’90s.’ Chicago Tribune (23 October).
Lee, Stephen. 1995. ‘Re-examining the Concept of the Independent Record Label: The Case of Wax Trax! Records.’ Popular Music 14(1): 13--23.
Leiter, Robert David. 1953. The Musicians and Petrillo. New York: Bookman Associates.
Margasak, Peter. 1996. ‘Bhangra Heats Up: Tradition Meets Technology.’ Reader (4 October, 1976).
Miller, Paul Edward. 1947. ‘Thirty Years of Chicago Jazz.’ In Esquire’s Jazz Book, ed. Paul Edward Miller and Ralph Venables. London: Peter Davies.
Miller, Paul Edward, and Hoefer, George. 1947. ‘Chicago Jazz History.’ In Esquire’s Jazz Book, ed. Paul Edward Miller and Ralph Venables. London: Peter Davies.
Morris, Ronald L. 1980. Wait Until Dark: Jazz and the Underworld, 1880--1940. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press.
Oliver, Paul. 1997. The Story of the Blues: The Making of a Black Music. Rev. ed. London: Pimlico. (First published Philadelphia: Chilton, 1969.)
Ostransky, Leroy. 1978. Jazz City: The Impact of Our Cities on the Development of Jazz. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Pruter, Robert. 1991. Chicago Soul. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Pruter, Robert. 1996. Doowop: The Chicago Scene. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Rand, Lawrence. 1994. ‘Old Folkies: A Gathering of the Gate of Horn Crowd.’ Reader (7 October).
Rowe, Mike. 1981 (1973). Chicago Blues: The City and the Music. New York: Da Capo Press. (Originally published as Chicago Breakdown.)
Salowitz, Stew. 1993. Chicago’s Personality Radio: The WLS Disc Jockeys of the Early 1960s. Bloomington, IL: Chicago Radio Book.
Sengstock, Charles A., Jr. 1987. ‘Chicago’s Dance Bands and Orchestras.’ Chicago History 16(1) (Spring).
Steiner, John. 1959. ‘Chicago.’ In Jazz: New Perspectives, ed. Nat Hentoff and Albert McCarthy. New York: Rinehart and Company.
Verna, Paul. 1993. ‘Touch and Go Thrives by Keeping Punk Ethic.’ Billboard (21 August): 1, 76--77.
Whitburn, Joel, comp. 1991. Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles, 1955--1990. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc.
Whitburn, Joel, and Grendysa, Peter, comps. 1988. Joel Whitburn’s Top R&B Singles, 1942--1988. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research Inc.
Wyman, Bill. 1993. ‘Chicago-Area Labels Agree to Disagree.’ Billboard (21 August): 1, 75.
Sheet Music
Cahn, Sammy, lyr., and Van Heusen, Jimmy, comp. 1964. ‘My Kind of Town (Chicago Is).’ New York: Sergeant Music Co.
Dorsey, Thomas A., comp. and lyr. 1932. ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord.’ Chicago: Thomas A. Dorsey.
Fisher, Fred, comp. and lyr. 1922. ‘Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town).’ Chicago: Fred Fisher Music Co.
Root, George F., comp. and lyr. 1862. ‘The Battle Cry of Freedom.’ Chicago: Root & Cady.
Work, Henry Clay, comp. and lyr. 1865. ‘Marching Through Georgia.’ Chicago: Root & Cady.
Discographical References
Blind Blake. ‘Georgia Bound.’ Paramount 12824. 1929: USA.
Blythe, Jimmy. ‘Lovin’s Been Here and Gone to the Mecca Flat.’ Paramount 12370. 1926: USA.
Butler, Jerry, and the Impressions. ‘For Your Precious Love.’ Falcon 1013. 1958: USA.
Cox, Ida. ‘Chicago Bound Blues (Famous Migration Blues).’ Paramount 12056. 1923: USA.
Jackson, Mahalia. ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord.’ Columbia CL899 (reissued on CS9686). 1956: USA.
Jackson, Papa Charlie. ‘Maxwell Street Blues.’ Paramount 12320. 1925: USA.
Mayfield, Curtis. Superfly. Curtom Cur 2002-CD. 1988: USA.
Radiants. ‘Voice Your Choice.’ Chess 1904. 1964.
Discography
Blues
Big Bill Broonzy. Big Bill Broonzy: ‘Good Time Tonight.’ CBS 467247. 1930--42; 1990: USA.
Butterfield, Paul. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Elektra 7294. 1965: USA.
Doctor Clayton and His Buddies 1946--1947. Old Tramp OTCD-05. 1946--47: Austria.
Genius of Boogie Woogie. Giants of Jazz CD 53053. 1928--44; 1990: Italy.
Muddy Waters. Muddy Waters: ‘Got My Mojo Working.’ Classic Blues Charly CD 1039. 1950--64; 1992: UK.
The Piano Blues: Paramount Vol. 2 1927--1932. Magpie PYCD 05. 1927--32; 1991: UK.
Sonny Boy Williamson. Sonny Boy Williamson Volume 4 1941--1945. Document DOCD 5058. 1941--45; ca. 1992: Austria.
Folk
Gibson, Bob. The Gate of Horn. Elektra. 1960: USA.
Goodman, Steve. No Big Surprise: The Steve Goodman Anthology. Red Pajamas RPJ-008. 1994: USA.
Prine, John. Prime Prine: The Best of John Prine. Atlantic 18202-2. 1976: USA.
Gospel
Chicago Gospel Pioneers. Spirit Feel SF 1004. 1987: USA.
None But the Righteous: Chess Gospel Greats. Chess CHD 9336. 1992: USA.
The Soul of Chicago. Shanachie SH-6008. 1993: USA.
Working the Road: The Golden Age of Chicago Gospel. Delmark DE-702. 1997: USA.
Jazz
Armstrong, Louis. Louis Armstrong Hot 5s and 7s. JSP 315. 1926--27: UK.
Armstrong, Louis. Louis Armstrong with King Oliver. Jazz Archives No. 12, VILCD 012-2. Germany.
Beiderbecke, Bix. Bix Beiderbecke: The Collection. OR0072. 1927--28; 1989: UK.
Condon, Eddie. Eddie Condon 1927--1938. Classics 742. 1927--38: USA.
Jelly Roll Morton. Jelly Roll Morton: Red Hot Peppers, New Orleans Jazzmen and Trios. Giants of Jazz CD 53018. 1926--39; 1990: Italy.
Muggsy Spanier. Muggsy Spanier: The ‘Ragtime Band’ Sessions 1939. Bluebird 07863 66550-2. 1939; 1995: USA.
New Orleans Rhythm Kings. New Orleans Rhythm Kings. Milestone MCD 47020-2. 1923--25: USA.
Polka
Blazonczyk, Eddie. Polka Spotlight. Bel-Aire 3025. USA.
Li’l Wally. Sings No Beer in Heaven. Jay Jay 5079. USA.
Lush, Marion. Na Zdrowie. Dyno DLP 1606. USA.
Rhythm and Blues
Berry, Chuck. His Best, Volume 1. MCA/Chess CHD-9371. 1997: USA.
Clark, Dee. Rain Drops. Vee-Jay NVD2-703. 1993: USA.
Diddley, Bo. His Best. MCA/Chess CHD-9373. 1997: USA.
El Dorados, The. Bim Bam Boom. Vee-Jay NVD2-702. 1992: USA.
Flamingos, The. The Complete Chess Masters. MCA/Chess CHD-9378. 1997: USA.
Moonglows, The. Their Greatest Hits. MCA/Chess CHD-9379. 1997: USA.
Spaniels, The. Play It Cool. Charly CD 222. 1990: UK.
Rock
Buckinghams, The. Made in Chicago. Columbia KG 33333. 1975: USA.
Chicago. Chicago Transit Authority. Columbia COL PG-8. 1969: USA.
Flock, The. The Flock. Columbia CS 9911. 1969: USA.
Ministry. Land of Rape and Honey. Sire 925799 2. 1988: UK.
Phair, Liz. Exile in Guyville. Matador OLE-051. 1991: USA.
Smashing Pumpkins. Gish. Caroline CAROL 1705-2. 1991: USA.
Styx. Equinox. A&M 4559. 1975: USA.
Soul
Butler, Jerry. The Best of Jerry Butler. Rhino R2 75881. 1987: USA.
Chandler, Gene. Nothing Can Stop Me: Greatest Hits. Varese Sarabande VSD-5515. 1994: USA.
Chi-Lites, The. Greatest Hits. Rhino R2 70532. 1992: USA.
Davis, Tyrone. Greatest Hits. Rhino R2 70533. 1992: USA.
Dells, The. On Their Corner: The Best of the Dells. MCA/Chess CHD-9333. 1992: USA.
Impressions, The. Definitive Impressions. Kent CDKEND 923. 1989: UK.
James, Etta. The Essential Etta James. MCA/Chess CHD2-9341. 1993: USA.
Johnson, Syl. Chicago Twinight Soul. P-Vine PCD-2152. 1990: Japan.
Lance, Major. The Best of Major Lance. Legacy/Epic E2K 66988. 1995: USA.
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ROBERT PRUTER, PAUL OLIVER AND THE EDITORS |
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