These Blues Are Inspite of You Mr. Charlie: Oral Histories of Black Chicago Blues Musicians Discussing Matters of Race

My thesis explores the impact of race on Chicago Blues musicians from 1985 to 2012, a time when musicians began publically challenging the control of their music by white promoters. While there are a few scholarly works that discuss race and blues, none of them are written by a Black Chicago Blues musician. This thesis fills that void and provides further insight into race and marginalization through the experience of musicians captured in oral histories. Chicago-style Blues music is an African American art form that since its inception has been controlled and commodified chiefly by whites, who are gatekeepers. I argue that gatekeepers mostly hire white blues artists as headliners for blues festivals, recipients of record label contracts, and winners of blues music awards. This thesis answers the central question: Do white gatekeepers predominantly hire, market, and give awards to white blues artists over Blacks because they are racist, or is it because it is more profitable to bolster white artists? Importantly, these actions are not mutually exclusive, meaning gatekeepers may hire white artists over Blacks because white overrepresentation among blues consumers may create market incentives for promoters to privilege white artists over Black musicians. In other words, the gatekeepers may respond to white consumers\u27 racist preference for white blues artists

The Persistence of Ethnicity in African American Popular Music: A Theology of Rap Music

The racial oppression of black people in many ways has fueled and shaped black musical forms in America. One example is the blues which originated in the rural South among poor, nonliterate, agrarian African Americans.[1] In the North the music became more formalized, and singers such as Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ida Cox, and Sarah Martin became known as the queens of the classic blues. Another musical genre is jazz, which was largely based on the twelve-bar blues harmonic structure and phrasing. It was more polished than the earlier New Orleans jazz at the turn of the century, and its major influences came from New York City, Chicago, and Kansas City. Finally, on the religious front, gospel music was in its early stages of development around the time early blues was evolving. Influenced by blues and jazz, gospel was revolutionary (and controversial) in its combination of drums and fast, rocking rhythms

Invitation: Chicago ’96 Welcoming Party Featuring Taste of Chicago for Media and Delegates and Ripped Ticket Stub. August 24, 1996.

Tasting from Chicago\u27s museums. Listen to live Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Country, and Rock music. Experience a taste of art, science, and history from some of Chicago\u27s renowned museums. Big Band music

GSU Celebrates 50 Years of Alligator Records with Streaming Concert

The Center for Performing Arts continues its 25th Anniversary Season with a celebration of Chicago blues and Chicago-based Alligator Records’ 50th anniversary by presenting an online streaming video concert starring four of the label’s most popular artists

Lennon, Florence Becker.

Little White School House Blues, the Chicago Jewish Forum, Summer, 1961https://dh.howard.edu/og_poetry/1029/thumbnail.jp

Lurrie Bell\u27s Chicago Blues Band

Promotional material and autographed playbill insert for the January 15, 2011 performance by Lurrie Bell\u27s Chicago Blues Band.https://opus.govst.edu/cpa_memorabilia/1087/thumbnail.jp

Everybody Talkin\u27 \u27Bout a Spoonful: The Blues, from America to England and Back

Though the blues are typically considered one of the few uniquely American musical styles, a group of British performers in the 1960s championed the blues to mainstream audiences on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This essay explores the journey of the blues from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago and then across the Atlantic to England. It examines the various changes the genre underwent throughout this journey as well as aspects of the blues that remained static. Utilizing the song Spoonful as a common thread between these locations, this essay details how changes in popular opinion , advancements in technology, and sheer force of will on the part of its devotees brought the blues to the forefront of 1 960s popular music scenes

Sweet Home Chicago Blues

Promotional material and playbill insert for the March 5, 2016 performance by Sweet Home Chicago Blues.https://opus.govst.edu/cpa_memorabilia/1284/thumbnail.jp

Blues for You Johnny: Johnny Dodds and His Wild Man Blues Recordings of 1927 and 1938

Shortly after Johnny Dodd\u27s death Sidney Bechet invited Johnny\u27s brother to join his New Orleans Feetwarmers in a recording honoring Bechet\u27s hometown musical colleague and lifelong friend. Although Baby Dodds pronounced Blues for You, Johnny, recorded in Chicago on September 6, 1940, a fine tribute, Down Beat found vocalist Herb Jeffries from hunger on blues. A more fitting memorial would have been Wild Man Blues cut by Bechet a few months previously. Said to be his favorite number, Wild Man Blues was recorded by Dodds three times in 1927 and once again in 1938. This study examines Johnny Dodds\u27s style of performance and methods of improvisation by comparing the extant recordings, of which, counting alternate takes, there are six

Chicago Arts and Communication, 1994

Student-produced magazine entitled Chicago Arts and Communication, later changed to Echo magazine. Cover Articles: All About Blues Legend Buddy Guy; The TV Talk Shows; What\u27s New in African-American Comedy; At Intermission with Daniel Barenboim; Betting on the Hollywood Casino; Chicago Coffeehouses; In Search of a Psychic; Who Goes to the Admiral Theater?; Last Days of Old Maxwell Street. Editor-In-Chief: David Gabriel. 98 pages.https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/echo/1003/thumbnail.jp