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A brief look
at contributed by Chris Judge Chicago is both famous and infamous for a number of people and events— Al Capone, Mayor Richard Daly, the Black Sox scandal, at least one devastating fire and a Republican National Convention gone awry. And wind. B.B. King’s reason for never moving there was "Chicago has the hawk, the ferocious wind that goes whipping’ around in winter and rips off the top of your head." Chicago Blues beginnings by all accounts are attributed to Muddy Waters recordings on Chess Records in the late 1940’s. Many of the Chicago greats recorded on the Chess Record label as did Chuck Berry and Etta James. The rural acoustic guitar sound of the delta was replaced by the electric sound, when Muddy Waters migrated to Chicago switched to electric guitar, and a whole new genre of the blues was born. Musicians arrived there before and after in droves. In his autobiography B.B. Kings states: Back in Indianola [Mississippi], we knew that he’d gone to Chicago, where he established a whole school that he’d rule for five decades... He was the boss of Chicago and the reason some call Chicago the sure-enough home of the blues." Chicago has long been associated with the blues with active scenes on the west and southsides of town. How many towns can boast two blues scenes? Most of the early blues players in Chicago moved there from the Mississippi Delta. It is along way from the Delta but Chicago, on Lake Michigan is only about 120 miles east of the Mississippi River. One player who made the move is Eddie Burks who played the 1995 Columbia Blues Festival. He moved from Mississippi to Chicago. The migration of people from the deep south to Midwestern urban areas like St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago reflected a prevalent dissatisfaction with the lack of opportunities dating back to the reconstruction era in the South. With that movement of people in search of opportunity came the culture and in particular their music. And the change from sleepy hot rural delta to the cold urban industrial Midwest put a change on that music. But even so guys like Muddy and Elmore James were very much influenced by Delta great Robert Johnson and it still showed even later in their careers. Chicago sound for the most part is defined by guitar and harmonica and the Chicago Blues alumni include players like Sonny Boy Williamson I and II, Howlin Wolf, Little Walter, Elmore James, Willie Dixon, Big Walter Horton, Robert Nighthawk and Magic Sam just to name a few. Of course pother instruments were involved too. Piano player Otis Spann joined Muddy in 1953 and Eddie Shaw is unique for his saxophone Chicago blues sound. A younger set of African American Chicago Blues artists include Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Wells was probably the last blues act ever to play at Rockafellas in five points. Claire DeLune in her article in Columbia’s Blues Festival Program in 2001 claimed Guy was "Chicago’s reigning blues king ." This style of American music shaped music culture and its certainly one of the roots of rock music. The Chicago Blues greats influenced a wealth of subsequent music, particularly when they were discovered by British bands such as John Mayall and the Rolling Stones. Little Walter toured with the Stones in 1964. Little Walter inspired young white bluesmen like Paul Butterfield (harmonica) and Mike Bloomfield (guitar) who as youngsters in the 1960’s went to the southside, studied and jammed with the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf. The organizers of Columbia’s Blues Festival have always had a certain taste for Chicago Blues and we have presented Chicago acts including Hubert Sumlin, Carey Bell, Eddie Burks, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater and Eddie Shaw, who returns this year. Sumlin and Shaw both backed up Howlin Wolf. Bob Margolin played with Muddy Waters and has brought bands twice to Columbia for the Blues Festival. Guitar Shorty who played here in 2000 toured with Otis Rush and Little Ed who also stopped here in 2000 was greatly influenced by Chicago musicians Hound Dog Taylor and Ed’s uncle J.B. Hutto. Hutto incidentally was born in South Carolina in 1926. So as you can see we have had strong ties to Chicago and the blues of the Windy City. Up first on the festival roster this year is Columbia’s Jeff Liberty Band. Liberty names Chicago Blues as one of his influences. Later on, enjoy a return visit by Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang who played in the rain in Martin Luther King Jr Park in 1996. Eddie and the Gang will return later in the evening to back up Festival headliner and another Chicago bluesman–Son Seals. |
