chicago music history

house music, blues, Curtis Mayfield/the Impressions and other Chicago soul (Chi-Lites for inst.), jazz (early Sun Ra for a start), Albini-rock and lots of 80s and 90s indie...jeez, where does it end? a pretty rich subject, you'll have no trouble doing a radio show.

besides what matos said, house and the whole post-rock scene.

more jazz = AACM (art ensemble of chicago, et al)

I share an office with the lead singer of the now 20-year-old power-pop outfit Green -- very much part of the late eighties Chicago indie scene.

Matos said house first!

uh, i saw that but refused to accept it

Wax Trax

Cool article:
http://www.geocities.com/antlion7/waxtrax.htm

There's a link to their discography, with hundreds of amazing things for a radio show, the pinnacle of industrial music 80's-'95 (if you aren't familiar, the most well known band would be Ministry.) I think the whole genre really went south when they went under, so it would be good history to mention.

A-ha! An artic student. Is John Corbett still teaching his class there? Well, take it if he is. Then you can just sort of go up to him and ask him questions.

You have to read Pruter's book, it's a wealth of info, even if he is the dryest stylest, like, EVER. Read Palmer's Deep Blues for sure, a too-broad overview which ostensibly attempts to trace the evolution of the music from African origins to present-day urbanity, but it really shines when it deals with the migration of musicians from the plantations to the urban centers like Chicago. But he'll teach how fucking great Otis fucking Rush is. And on that note, you'll want to read Charles Keil's Urban Blues. Check out John Litweiler's The Freedom Principle for extensive coverage of the city's important contribution to the jazz lineage in the 60s. Although, the whole book is great, frankly. There really hasn't been a book devoted solely to the incredible contribution of the AACM, sadly (what's up w/ that?). I wrote some stuff once on a thread.

A totally arbitrary, seat-of-the-pants top 35 records-

1. B.B. King - Live at the Regal
2. Effigies - Remains Nonviewable
3. Chicago Transit Authority - s/t
4. Mr. Fingers - Amnesia
5. Big Black - Atomizer
6. Louis Armstrong - The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings
7. Urge Overkill - Supersonic Storybook
8. Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
9. Naked Raygun - Throb Throb
10. Gene Chandler - The Gene Chandler Situation
11. Roscoe Mitchell - Sound
12. Anthony Braxton - Three Compositions for New Jazz
13. Clifford Jordan and John Gilmore - Blowing in From Chicago
14. Eight Bold Souls - Sideshow
15. Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Natural Boogie
16. Curtis Mayfield - Live (the 1971, small-band one; aces!)
17. R. Kelly - R.
18. Gastr del Sol - Upgrade and Afterlife
19. Muddy Waters - The Real Folk Blues (oh fer chrissakes get the box!)
20. Minnie Ripperton - Adventures in Paradise
21. Terry Callier - Occasional Rain
22. Magic Sam - West Side Soul
23. Fred Anderson and Steve McCall - Vintage Duets: Chicago 1-11-80
24. Various Artists - Oh Yeah! The best of Dunwich Records, Volume 1
25. Marshall Jefferson - Welcome to the World of Marshall Jefferson
26. Ministry - The Land of Rape and Honey
27. Sun Ra - Jazz in Silhouette
28. Shrimp Boat - Cavale
29. Little Walter - Essential Little Walter
30. Felix da Housecat - Kittenz and Thee Glitz
31. The Chi-Lites - (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People
32. Eddie C. Campbell - King of the Jungle
33. The Jesus Lizard - Goat
34. Von Freeman - Doin' It Right Now!
35. Eleventh Dream Day - El Moodio

Oh, and just listen to Richard Pegue's radio show late weekend nights on WGCI (the AM one), Arkansas Red on Saturday from 7-midnight on WHPK, Steve Cushing's Blues Before Sunrise show on WBEZ on Saturdays from midnight-4, and then like B-96 the rest of the time (on Saturday and Sunday nights do they still do the cool house mixes? i honestly haven't tuned in in a while)

hey go to TWAN+BOC for a rn down of chicago house tunes, with cool pics....

Search: 'Chicago Transit Authority' album, most of 'II' thru 'XIII', "Street Player", "Wishing You Were Here"

Destroy: the non-Cetera albums

mr. diamond you are amazing with lists.

i'd recommend pruter's books too, their main virtue (and sometimes flaw depending on your temperament) is their focus on the mundane details of record production and promotion and their refusal to focus only on the big names.

look for anything on lester melrose, he was rca/victor's producer/a&r guy in chicago in the 30s and 40s and recorded oodles and oodles of blues records. indeed there is even a "melrose sound" which is the subject of some controversy among blues fans.

Destroy: the non-Cetera albums Typo, I assume/hope.

whoa, this is great feedback. Ok, I didn't even think of the whole house music thing, i had my head in the 1930's. That's going to be so much fun. I think each show will stick to a very specific point in history, either the birth of a movement or a specific artist or group. i have the complete hot five and hot sevens recordings so i thought i would start with that, and i have a chess blues box set as well, so i guess that's something. As for the ARTIC thing...yes Corbett is here, but no, i'm not in his class. I'm taking max/msp with shawn decker, though. The sound dept. rocks so hard. This show will be broadband on the school radio, so everyone should listen in. When i get the exact schedule, I'll post it. Thanks again!

get the third (i think) volume of rca's recent "when the sun goes down" blues comp, which is called (i think) "that's chicago's south side." sort of a precis of the "melrose sound" to which i referred above.

>There really hasn't been a book devoted solely to the incredible contribution of the AACM, sadly (what's up w/ that?).

There was an AACM coffee-table book a few years ago; I saw it on eBay not long ago. Photos, oral history, other stuff. Looked kinda cool. Somebody really should write an in-depth biography of the Art Ensemble, though.