News & Updates — Chicago

Tenor player Fred Anderson may have been an underknown saxophonist but there is no denying his amazing, flowing playing and his commitment to nurturing the local scene in Chicago. In fact, it was desire to stay home and run the Velvet Lounge that kept him from a larger international profile. Born in Louisiana, he came to Chicago in the '40s and worked doing carpet installation before opening nightclubs. In the '60's he was a founding member of the AACM and played on a couple of fantastic Joseph Jarman albums. Indeed, those fine albums are where I first heard him, especially...

J.B. Lenoir was an explicitly topical blues singer with a higher voice operating out of Chicago in the '50s and '60s. He cut the politicized "Korea Blues" in 1951. His controversial 1954 song "Eisenhower Blues" (lyrics: "My money's gone, my fun is gone, the way things look, how can I be here long?") was pulled from the shelves. His mid-'60s output was as political as ever. "Vietnam Blues" questioned the USA's involvement in Southeast Asia as blacks were being killed with regularity in Mississippi ("Mister President you always cry about peace, but you must clean up your house before you...

It's the return of the '70s Funk Rock party! For those that like their rock funky and their funk rocking. It's a Mothership connection and long-hairs are welcome. Come to The Rendezvous, Wednesday March 1 to hear Peace & Rhythm DJs (Andujar, Studebaker Hawk & Bongohead) selecting groovy cuts all from vinyl. Spanning the late '60s to the early '80s we'll be spinning funk rock & heavy funk in all its glory: popular and obscure cuts, psycofunkadelia, the funkiest classic rock, danceable post-punk, groovy psych from around the world, Latin-rock, Afro-rock, native rock, hard rock breaks, fusion and more. Funkadelic,...

Happy birthday to the R&B singer & dancer Alvin Cash, of Alvin Cash & The Crawlers, Alvin Cash & The Registers and Alvin Cash & The Hundred Dollar Bills fame. Born Alvin Welch, he grew up in St Louis as one of eight children. He and some of his brothers started singing and tap-dancing and they went to school with the future Tina Turner, Luther Ingram and Billy Davis (of The Fifth Dimension). Cash and three of his brothers moved to Chicago in '61 and a few years later hooked up with producer Andre Williams and recorded "Twine Time" (credited...

Sam Maghett aka Magic Sam! Not just the best barbecue on Chicago's West Side, but also one of my very favorite blues guitar players and singers! From his first record "All Your Love" (as Good Rockin' Sam, for the Cobra label) in 1957 until his early death in 1969 (just 32!), his rockin' sound and pleading voice was a staple on the blues circuit. Born in the Mississippi Delta into a family of sharecroppers, he built his own cigar-box guitars as a kid and when the family moved to Chicago in 1950 he had his eyes on the prize and...