This month, we spotlight the seminal blues label Chess Records
Chess Records is the focus of renewed interest thanks in part to the recent film Cadillac Records in which the company figures prominently. Chess was the home of the Electric Blues. Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and countless others all enjoyed their greatest success with the label. If you were anyone recording the blues in the 1950s and 60s, you were likely on Chess Records. It went from being a small local Chicago label in the late 40s to a major force in popular music whose impact endures to this day.
Brothers Leonard and Philip Chess were two Jewish immigrants from Poland who came to Chicago in 1928. They were involved in the liquor business and by the 1940s they owned several bars on the south side of Chicago. Their largest was a nightclub called the Macomba, which featured live entertainment. Many blues performers who had migrated to Chicago from the Mississippi delta in the '30s and '40s were a popular draw at the club.
Leonard and Phil soon realized that these performers were not being properly recorded, and started recording them themselves. In 1947, they joined forces with Charles and Evelyn Aron, who owned a small successful label called Aristocrat Records. By 1950, the brothers had bought out their partners and Chess Records was born. It would soon become a fixture in the music world as the most impressive collection of blues music on the planet.<>
The most important artist to record for Aristocrat before it was Chess was McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters. He had a few hit singles with Aristocrat. But through their connections with radio and other local clubs around Chicago, Chess turned Waters into Chicago’s premier blues singer.
From their experiences in the nightclub business, the Chess brothers understood the popular preferences of their predominantly black audiences, but also saw the marketability of blues music to a broader market. At first, Chess was run as a two-man business, with Phil overseeing the nightclub and the offices of Aristocrat/Chess and Arc, its publishing division, while Leonard scouted talent, produced the sessions, and hand-delivered fresh recordings to radio stations in Chicago.
Other greats joined Chess like Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and John Lee Hooker, all recording for the label in the 1950s and early 60s. Later, Chess recorded the next generation of Chicago blues artists with Buddy Guy, and later Etta James and Fontella Bass.
But no one at Chess had as much impact on the future of popular music as Chuck Berry. On the advice of his friend Muddy Waters, he signed with the label in May 1955 and had his first hit, "Maybelline" a few months later.
In 1969, Leonard and Phil Chess sold Chess to GRT for 6.5 million dollars a few months before Leonard died. Quality output declined, and by 1972, the Chess Chicago offices were almost empty, the distribution company and pressing plants had been closed, and only the Chess Ter Mar studio was operating with a few employees. In 1975, GRT dismantled most of what was left of Chess and sold it to All Platinum Records.
In 1985, MCA acquired the rights to the massive Chess catalogue and two years later launched an ambitious long-term reissue campaign of the invaluable Chess masters. Today, more than 60 years since Chess began, the company may be long gone but its influence on popular music as one of the world’s greatest blues labels is still being felt and is as relevant as ever.
- Davin Bujalski
- Listen to the music here: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Chess-Original-Versions-Cadillac/dp/B001JL2VCE
THE ROOTS TOP 10
A guide to the sounds of Roots for March
- A Little Bit, Lykke Li
- Awe Struck, B. Reith
- Lucky, Jason Mraz Feat. Colby Caillat
- Love Songs, Anjulie
- Who’d Have Know, Lily Allen
- Mad, Ne-Yo
- What’s Your World, Leon Ware
- Broken Strings, James Morrison Feat. Nelly Furtado
- Beautiful U R, Deborah Cox
- Cape Cod Kwassa, Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel
- Compiled by Davin Bujalski
