Chess Records
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Charles Stepney in Full Flower
Ayana Contreras Recorded January 26, 1972 at RCA Studios in Chicago, The Dells sing Dionne Warwicke’s Greatest Hits is an album that features nearly a dozen of Charles Stepney’s magical reimaginings of Burt Bacharach/Hal David compositions. On the as-released version of the album, idiosyncratic Dells baritone Marvin Junior growls pleasingly (in concert with the rest…
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Eddie Sings The Blues
Chicago saxophonist Eddie Harris is perhaps best remembered as an unabashed experimentalist, famously playing the Varitone electronic saxophone on albums like Plug Me In (1968). He also utilized an early tape looping mechanism (now so en vogue) on 1969’s Silver Cycles. So, Eddie Harris Sings The Blues (1972) stands less as an outlier than as…
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Blind Man: Little Milton’s hooked and he can’t let her go.
This is Little Milton. He’s hooked and he can’t let her go. Of this, I am wholly convinced.
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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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The Jazz-Soul of Chess Records
Chicago’s Chess Records may be best known for its blues artists such as Howlin Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter. But in the 1960s, they also had a wealth of hip Jazz and Soul artists, many of whom recorded for Chess’ Cadet subsidiary. On this installment of Reclaimed Soul, host Ayana Contreras featured the Jazz-Soul…
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A bit about Black Rock Bands out of Detroit.
This weekend at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, I caught a documentary about Death, a 1970s all-black proto-punk band out of Detroit. The documentary, titled “A Band Called Death” chronicled the group’s forming, brush with success, and descent into obscurity. The master tapes of their sole album, recorded under Don Davis’ Groovesville productions languished…
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Fontella Bass: In Memorium.
Fontella Bass was an amazing lady who passed away on December 26th, 2012. In memorium, Darkjive revisits a post from 2011 that touches on her legacy on the Chicago Soul scene. Not only [was] the trajectory of her career fascinating, but she’s arguably the archetype for what Aretha Franklin was to become: a sassy, soulful…
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More and More: Little Milton’s plea for more as the cost of living was skyrocketing.
Whew. That was a long blogpost title, huh? I know. But, let me explain: In late 1967, Chess Records’ Checker subsidiary released this record entitled “More and More” by Little Milton, where the chorus sings and growls: “More and More… all the time!” Ironically, the flip is a meandering soulful blues cut called “The Cost…
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Fontella Bass: sassy soulful siren in the first degree.
Fontella Bass is an amazing lady. Not only is the trajectory of her career fascinating, but she’s arguably the archetype for what Aretha Franklin was to become: a sassy, soulful siren in the first degree. Ms. Bass comes from the St. Louis, and is a part of a group of St. Louis native vocalists that…
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