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Lucky Cordell: The Baron of Bounce… and Chicago Radio Royalty.
Moses Lucky Cordell was born July 28, 1928 in Mississippi. His mother died when Lucky was three, and his family moved to Chicago. Cordell graduated from Dunbar High School in 1946, and went on to a long career in Chicago Radio, initially as a disc jockey (known as the “Baron of Bounce”). By 1970, he…
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Windy City Breakdown: The intersection of black power, culture, & entrepreneurship 60s/70s Chicago.
The end of May 2015 marked the end of my first Art Exhibition: Windy City Breakdown. The solo exhibition illustrated my process and research. The work also explored locally-sourced vintage vinyl records and paper ephemera from my personal collection to reveal aspects of Black Chicago during times of collision among the arts, entrepreneurship, and Black Power.…
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Preserving the Beats at Chicago State University.
This Saturday, February 28th at 2:15pm, I’ll be speaking on a panel at Chicago State University as part of the Symposium titled: Preserving the Beats: Collecting Chicago Hip Hop Here’s a description of the subject matter to be covered: Collecting is one part of preservation of hip hop. For the history and culture to…
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Michael Abramson: Pulse of the Night.
What goes on at small clubs is ephemeral by nature: society created and dismantled night after night. A delicate hierarchy composed of drifters, dreamers, and those simply longing to escape. In the mid 1970s, a young white student, Michael Abramson, worked his way into the world of largely black South Side Chicago clubs. He brought…
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Have you tuned into Reclaimed Soul lately? Newcity apparently has…..
“…Ayana Contreras’ “Reclaimed Soul”… better than anything else on radio in the city…” —Newcity “Aw, Shucks…” –Ayana Contreras Media activism is exactly the right phrase for what we aim to do. Jive on.
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Do you Remember how to do the Camel Walk?
Do the Camel Walk! Last week on Reclaimed Soul, host Ayana Contreras played this rare local Chicago Blues/Soul record by Bobby Rush (not the former Black Panther turned Politician) from about 1968. In case you were wondering how to do the then-popular dance, here’s a clip of James Brown asking Sammy Davis, Jr. if he…
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An Evening at the Forum: Jive and Jitterbug on!
I’ll be spinning a very special set on Wednesday, September 24th in Chicago’s Bronzeville Community. All 1920s through 1950s music (with a few copacetic newer tracks sprinkled in). All vinyl. Actually, I’m trying to figure out if I’m bringing my Victrola. Then it’d be vinyl and shellac. The event is titled “An Evening at the…
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Reclaimed Soul: A Thin Line Between Chicago Soul and Gospel.
Reclaimed Soul Host Ayana Contreras explores the thin line between the Gospel and Soul scenes in Chicago during the 1960s and 1970s, and plays cuts that dip into each genre.
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Reclaimed Soul: Blues + Soul in Chicago, The 4 Brothers Story
Chicago is known worldwide for its electrified Delta Blues. Chicago’s also known for its sweet Soul Music. And during the 1960s, those musical traditions combined at Four Brothers, a tiny record label based at a famous West Side Chicago record shop called Barney’s One-Stop. This podcast features some of the hip, soul-flavored blues from the…
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The House That Jive Built.
I collect records. All sorts of records. That includes eighty year old records that I play on my Victrola. Often, I am just as interested in the physical state of the record as I am in the music itself. For instance, the label affixed to this label is interesting. First off, it lets me know…
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