For decades, fans who made the pilgrimage to Sweet Home Chicago- the blues capital of the world - were surprised by how little pridethe city seemed to take in its major musical export. The bluesprovides the bedrock for so much American music - from the mostsophisticated jazz to the most basic rock 'n' roll - yet the citywhere the blues has flourished strongest and longest seemed almostashamed by its wealth of blues artistry.
To civic Chicago, the blues was raw, rude, dirty; to whiteChicago, the blues was black ghetto music. As a culturalachievement, the blues was disreputable. Taking pride in the blueswas like taking pride in your sister's reputation as the best hookeraround.
My, how times have changed. These days, the down-home blues hasachieved upscale respectability. The music that was once theprovince of the South and West sides - the toughest neighborhoods intown - has made a home for itself in some of the city's trendiestnight spots, gained a foothold in the high-rent districts.Advertisers have embraced the blues as an image-enhancer, using themusic to hawk everything from newspapers to premium beer to foreignautomobiles.
With the advent of the fifth annual Chicago Blues Festival -no, make that the Chicago Miller High Life Blues Festival - it isplain that the blues belatedly has achieved the respect in Chicagothat it has long deserved. Questions remain about whether the bluescan withstand respectability as well as it weathered neglect, thoughmusicians who were underappreciated for way too long can hardly befaulted for enjoying better paydays and higher profiles.
After all, the first fest five years ago was almost the last.The City Council threatened to pull the plug on the event, arguingthat the fest failed to show sufficient crowd appeal and that it wasa little unseemly for the city to be in the blues business. In theyears since, crowds for the annual Grant Park freebie have pushedpast the point of saturation and overflowed beyond the level ofcomfort. The fest that drew a total of 100,000 in its first yearover the course of three days now attracts two or three times thatmany for a single day's programming.
Blues fans throughout the world have begun planning theirvacations around the Chicago Blues Festival, the three-day,free-to-the-public event that celebrates the blues in all its tradition and vitality.Local clubs have caught the spirit, using the weekend event as afocus for extending the festival all through the week, and well intoeach evening. From now until the festival rings its last note nextSunday, Chicago will transform itself into one giant blues bar.
For those drawn by the big-name programming, the majorattractions at this year's festival are the Queen - Koko Taylor - andtwo Kings, B.B. and Albert. Long acknowledged as the Queen of theBlues, Taylor will close Friday's opening night festivities with herfirst major performance since Feb. 4, when an automobile accidentleft her and most of her band hospitalized. Her return willundoubtedly provide one of the most emotionally moving experiences ofthe festival, for Taylor is one of the warmest, most belovedperformers in the blues.
Friday's other major highlight is a guitar duel featuring OtisRush and Buddy Guy. Twenty years ago, when both of these artistswere at the peak of their creative powers, I believed that if BuddyGuy was not the most exciting electric guitarist that I had everheard, then Otis Rush had to be. Though both men are stillrelatively young by blues standards, Guy has since settled forflamboyant gimmickry in his playing, while Rush has been plagued bypersonal demons. If the two of them can somehow spark each other,this set could be blues heaven.
Opening night traditionally celebrates hometown talent, withguitarist Son Seals, pianist Pinetop Perkins (long a stalwart inMuddy Waters' band) and singer Artie "Blues Boy" White completing thelineup.
As the blues fest has become more popular, one of its savinggraces has been the development of afternoon programming, where thecrowds are lighter, the music is more relaxed, and the emphasis is onblues roots rather than flashier showmanship. Once again, the festwill be featuring two stages each afternoon.
With "Rockin' the 88s" a natural hook for the 1988 blues fest,this year's programming includes plenty of blues piano. SunnylandSlim, the patriarch of Chicago blues piano, will reach across thegenerations to team with young Barrelhouse Chuck in Friday afternoonduets. Other afternoon entertainment will include David "Honeyboy"Edwards, Roy Hytower and Jimmy Tillman (who double as blueseducators, bringing blues to the Chicago public school system),Johnny Christian with Nora Jean, and the Louis Myers Band with MojoBuford.
Saturday night will feature Albert King as headliner. When helast played the fest two years ago, his set was perfunctory, adisappointment, but the man who made "Born Under a Bad Sign" and"Crosscut Saw" into blues classics is generally a live-wireentertainer, a master of a particularly soulful brand of blues.
Opening Saturday's bill will be Hank Ballard and theMidnighters, who originated "The Twist" and "Work With Me, Annie,"and whose recent club appearances have been knockouts. Completingthe bill will be singers Etta James and Charles Brown, and guitaristLonnie Brooks, the Louisiana transplant whom Chicago has adopted as atop hometown favorite.
On Saturday afternoon, the fest will present a Texas PianoRoundup - R.T. "Grey Ghost" Williams, Lavada "Dr. Hepcat" Durst, AlexMoore Sr. and Charles Brown. Other Saturday afternoon highlightswill include the doo-wop vocalizing of El Dorados; a Chicago bluesharp jam backed by a band led by guitarist Steve Freund and featuringSnooky Pryor, Billy Branch, Chicago Beau and Mojo Buford; a set ofslide guitar by Homesick James and friends, and a "Youngbloods"guitar jam featuring Dion Payton and Joanna Collins.
The fest will close Sunday night by presenting the legendaryB.B. King for the first time. Though many of King's records inrecent years have suffered from slickness, he remains the preeminentliving blues artist, a man whose singing and playing have influencedpractically every blues musician who has followed in his wake.
The rest of Sunday night's bill will feature Bobby "Blue" Band,a great singer who has often toured with B.B. King, Fontella ("RescueMe") Bass with the Oliver Sain Band, pianist Little WillieLittlefield and Chicago's Magic Slim and the Teardrops.
Sunday afternoon's lineup will include more Chicago blues pianoby Erwin Helfer, Jimmy Walker and Big Moose Walker, another"Youngbloods" guitar jam with Kanika Kress, Anthony Palmer and MelvinTaylor, some country blues from Moses Rascoe with "Bowling Green"John Cephas and Harmonica Phil Wiggins, and sets by singers ZoraYoung, Bonnie Lee and Buster Benton.
For those who prefer to experience the spirit of Chicago bluesin its natural habitat, this year's fest has organized its firstannual "Pub Crawl," which will celebrate Blue Monday on Monday nightat 14 clubs on the city's North, West and South sides. A covercharge of $5 will permit entry to any or all of the participatingclubs, as well as to the fleet of buses that will be providingbetween-club transportation from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m.
Beginning at 6 p.m., there will be pub-crawl orientation at BlueChicago, 937 N. State, and At the Tracks, 325 N. Sheffield.Scheduled performers will include Son Seals (Wise Fools Pub, 2270 N.Lincoln), Magic Slim and the Teardrops (Checkerboard, 423 E. 43rd),and Jimmy Rogers & Sunnyland Slim (Lilly's, 2513 N. Lincoln), withmany of theother clubs holding traditional Blue Monday jam sessions where avariety of artists are likely to join in.
Another pre-fest event will find Willie Dixon headlining abirthday tribute to the late Howlin' Wolf Thursday night at theRiviera, 4746 N. Racine. The most renowned of all Chicago bluessongwriters, Dixon composed classics such as "Spoonful," "Back DoorMan" and "The Red Rooster" specifically for Wolf. He will be joinedon the bill by longtime Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin, saxophonistEddie Shaw and the Wolfgang, and Mighty Joe Young.
Through the annual blues fest and the special events thatprecede it, Chicago celebrates a musical legacy that is so integralto this city's character that it is frequently taken for granted.The festival highlights Chicago as home to one of the most vital,exciting and influential strains of music that the world has known, acity where the music continues to thrive and flourish. What theblues fest serves to remind is that Chicago is a blues festival everynight of the year.
The 5th annual Chicago Blues Festival // Two kings and queen
For decades, fans who made the pilgrimage to Sweet Home Chicago- the blues capital of the world - were surprised by how little pridethe city seemed to take in its major musical export. The bluesprovides the bedrock for so much American music - from the mostsophisticated jazz to the most basic rock 'n' roll - yet the citywhere the blues has flourished strongest and longest seemed almostashamed by its wealth of blues artistry.
To civic Chicago, the blues was raw, rude, dirty; to whiteChicago, the blues was black ghetto music. As a culturalachievement, the blues was disreputable. Taking pride in the blueswas like taking pride in your sister's reputation as the best hookeraround.
My, how times have changed. These days, the down-home blues hasachieved upscale respectability. The music that was once theprovince of the South and West sides - the toughest neighborhoods intown - has made a home for itself in some of the city's trendiestnight spots, gained a foothold in the high-rent districts.Advertisers have embraced the blues as an image-enhancer, using themusic to hawk everything from newspapers to premium beer to foreignautomobiles.
With the advent of the fifth annual Chicago Blues Festival -no, make that the Chicago Miller High Life Blues Festival - it isplain that the blues belatedly has achieved the respect in Chicagothat it has long deserved. Questions remain about whether the bluescan withstand respectability as well as it weathered neglect, thoughmusicians who were underappreciated for way too long can hardly befaulted for enjoying better paydays and higher profiles.
After all, the first fest five years ago was almost the last.The City Council threatened to pull the plug on the event, arguingthat the fest failed to show sufficient crowd appeal and that it wasa little unseemly for the city to be in the blues business. In theyears since, crowds for the annual Grant Park freebie have pushedpast the point of saturation and overflowed beyond the level ofcomfort. The fest that drew a total of 100,000 in its first yearover the course of three days now attracts two or three times thatmany for a single day's programming.
Blues fans throughout the world have begun planning theirvacations around the Chicago Blues Festival, the three-day,free-to-the-public event that celebrates the blues in all its tradition and vitality.Local clubs have caught the spirit, using the weekend event as afocus for extending the festival all through the week, and well intoeach evening. From now until the festival rings its last note nextSunday, Chicago will transform itself into one giant blues bar.
For those drawn by the big-name programming, the majorattractions at this year's festival are the Queen - Koko Taylor - andtwo Kings, B.B. and Albert. Long acknowledged as the Queen of theBlues, Taylor will close Friday's opening night festivities with herfirst major performance since Feb. 4, when an automobile accidentleft her and most of her band hospitalized. Her return willundoubtedly provide one of the most emotionally moving experiences ofthe festival, for Taylor is one of the warmest, most belovedperformers in the blues.
Friday's other major highlight is a guitar duel featuring OtisRush and Buddy Guy. Twenty years ago, when both of these artistswere at the peak of their creative powers, I believed that if BuddyGuy was not the most exciting electric guitarist that I had everheard, then Otis Rush had to be. Though both men are stillrelatively young by blues standards, Guy has since settled forflamboyant gimmickry in his playing, while Rush has been plagued bypersonal demons. If the two of them can somehow spark each other,this set could be blues heaven.
Opening night traditionally celebrates hometown talent, withguitarist Son Seals, pianist Pinetop Perkins (long a stalwart inMuddy Waters' band) and singer Artie "Blues Boy" White completing thelineup.
As the blues fest has become more popular, one of its savinggraces has been the development of afternoon programming, where thecrowds are lighter, the music is more relaxed, and the emphasis is onblues roots rather than flashier showmanship. Once again, the festwill be featuring two stages each afternoon.
With "Rockin' the 88s" a natural hook for the 1988 blues fest,this year's programming includes plenty of blues piano. SunnylandSlim, the patriarch of Chicago blues piano, will reach across thegenerations to team with young Barrelhouse Chuck in Friday afternoonduets. Other afternoon entertainment will include David "Honeyboy"Edwards, Roy Hytower and Jimmy Tillman (who double as blueseducators, bringing blues to the Chicago public school system),Johnny Christian with Nora Jean, and the Louis Myers Band with MojoBuford.
Saturday night will feature Albert King as headliner. When helast played the fest two years ago, his set was perfunctory, adisappointment, but the man who made "Born Under a Bad Sign" and"Crosscut Saw" into blues classics is generally a live-wireentertainer, a master of a particularly soulful brand of blues.
Opening Saturday's bill will be Hank Ballard and theMidnighters, who originated "The Twist" and "Work With Me, Annie,"and whose recent club appearances have been knockouts. Completingthe bill will be singers Etta James and Charles Brown, and guitaristLonnie Brooks, the Louisiana transplant whom Chicago has adopted as atop hometown favorite.
On Saturday afternoon, the fest will present a Texas PianoRoundup - R.T. "Grey Ghost" Williams, Lavada "Dr. Hepcat" Durst, AlexMoore Sr. and Charles Brown. Other Saturday afternoon highlightswill include the doo-wop vocalizing of El Dorados; a Chicago bluesharp jam backed by a band led by guitarist Steve Freund and featuringSnooky Pryor, Billy Branch, Chicago Beau and Mojo Buford; a set ofslide guitar by Homesick James and friends, and a "Youngbloods"guitar jam featuring Dion Payton and Joanna Collins.
The fest will close Sunday night by presenting the legendaryB.B. King for the first time. Though many of King's records inrecent years have suffered from slickness, he remains the preeminentliving blues artist, a man whose singing and playing have influencedpractically every blues musician who has followed in his wake.
The rest of Sunday night's bill will feature Bobby "Blue" Band,a great singer who has often toured with B.B. King, Fontella ("RescueMe") Bass with the Oliver Sain Band, pianist Little WillieLittlefield and Chicago's Magic Slim and the Teardrops.
Sunday afternoon's lineup will include more Chicago blues pianoby Erwin Helfer, Jimmy Walker and Big Moose Walker, another"Youngbloods" guitar jam with Kanika Kress, Anthony Palmer and MelvinTaylor, some country blues from Moses Rascoe with "Bowling Green"John Cephas and Harmonica Phil Wiggins, and sets by singers ZoraYoung, Bonnie Lee and Buster Benton.
For those who prefer to experience the spirit of Chicago bluesin its natural habitat, this year's fest has organized its firstannual "Pub Crawl," which will celebrate Blue Monday on Monday nightat 14 clubs on the city's North, West and South sides. A covercharge of $5 will permit entry to any or all of the participatingclubs, as well as to the fleet of buses that will be providingbetween-club transportation from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m.
Beginning at 6 p.m., there will be pub-crawl orientation at BlueChicago, 937 N. State, and At the Tracks, 325 N. Sheffield.Scheduled performers will include Son Seals (Wise Fools Pub, 2270 N.Lincoln), Magic Slim and the Teardrops (Checkerboard, 423 E. 43rd),and Jimmy Rogers & Sunnyland Slim (Lilly's, 2513 N. Lincoln), withmany of theother clubs holding traditional Blue Monday jam sessions where avariety of artists are likely to join in.
Another pre-fest event will find Willie Dixon headlining abirthday tribute to the late Howlin' Wolf Thursday night at theRiviera, 4746 N. Racine. The most renowned of all Chicago bluessongwriters, Dixon composed classics such as "Spoonful," "Back DoorMan" and "The Red Rooster" specifically for Wolf. He will be joinedon the bill by longtime Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin, saxophonistEddie Shaw and the Wolfgang, and Mighty Joe Young.
Through the annual blues fest and the special events thatprecede it, Chicago celebrates a musical legacy that is so integralto this city's character that it is frequently taken for granted.The festival highlights Chicago as home to one of the most vital,exciting and influential strains of music that the world has known, acity where the music continues to thrive and flourish. What theblues fest serves to remind is that Chicago is a blues festival everynight of the year.
