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Chicago, Illinois, is a major center for music[1] in theMidwestern United States where distinctive forms ofblues (greatly responsible for the future creation ofrock and roll), andhouse music (a genre ofelectronic dance music), were developed.
The "Great Migration" of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditionaljazz and blues music to the city, resulting inChicago blues and "Chicago-style"Dixieland jazz. Notable blues artists includedMuddy Waters,Junior Wells,Howlin' Wolf and bothSonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats includedNat King Cole,Gene Ammons,Benny Goodman andBud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for itssoul music.
In the early 1930s,gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due toThomas A. Dorsey's contributions atPilgrim Baptist Church.
In the 1980s and 1990s,heavy rock,punk,metal andhip-hop also became popular in Chicago. Orchestras in Chicago include theChicago Symphony Orchestra, theLyric Opera of Chicago and theChicago Sinfonietta.[2]
Chicago's music scene has been well known for its blues music for many years. "Chicago Blues" uses a variety of instruments in a way which heavily influenced earlyrock and roll music, including instruments likeelectrically amplified guitar,drums,piano,bass guitar and sometimes thesaxophone orharmonica, which are generally used inDelta blues, which originated inMississippi. Chicago Blues has a more extended palette of notes than the standardsix-note blues scale; often, notes from themajor scale and dominant9th chords are added, which gives the music more of a "jazz feel" while still being in the blues genre. Chicago blues is also known for its heavy rolling bass. The music developed mainly as a result of the "Great Migration" of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities of the North, such as Chicago in particular, in the first half of the 20th century.[3]
Chicago is one of the places where the faster, juicierboogie-woogie emerged from the blues. The most renowned early recordings of boogies were made in Chicago withClarence Pinetop Smith, who might have been influenced by the brothersHersal Thomas andGeorge W. Thomas fromHouston, who were together in Chicago in the 1920s.[4]
Chicago blues and boogie music continues to be popular today with the annualChicago Blues Festival, and with appreciation of many musicians such asMuddy Waters,Howlin' Wolf, andWillie Dixon; guitar players such asTampa Red,Buddy Guy,Bo Diddley,Elmore James and Lefty Dizz; and "harp" (blues slang forharmonica) players such asBig Walter Horton,Little Walter,Sonny Boy Williamson I,Syl Johnson,Charlie Musselwhite,Paul Butterfield,Junior Wells, and, most notably,James Cotton.[5]
House music originated in a Chicago nightclub calledThe Warehouse. Chicago house is the earliest style of house music. While the origins of the name "house music" are unclear, the most popular belief is that it can be traced to the name of that club. DJFrankie Knuckles originally popularized house music while working at The Warehouse.[6]
House music was developed in the houses, garages and clubs of Chicago, and was initially for local club-goers in the "underground" club scenes, rather than for widespread commercial release. As a result, the recordings were much more conceptual, and longer than the music usually played on commercial radio. House musicians used analog synthesizers and sequencers to create and arrange the electronic elements and samples on their tracks, combining live traditional instruments and percussion and soulful vocals with preprogrammed electronic synthesizers and "beat-boxes".
House, perhaps more than any other form of black music, has birthed many offshoots and spread its sound far and wide. The prevalence of four on the floor beats in dance music is largely derived from house. It has influenced, in some capacity,garage house,jungle music,Eurodance,electropop,dubstep, and even certain elements ofalternative rock andhip-hop.[7]
Important musicians in theChicago house scene includeAdonis,Mark Farina,Keith Farley,Felix da Housecat,Fingers Inc.,Ron Hardy,Larry Heard,Steve 'Silk' Hurley,Marshall Jefferson,Curtis Jones,Paul Johnson,Frankie Knuckles,Lil' Louis,Jesse Saunders,Joe Smooth,Julius the Mad Thinker andTen City
The city is host to the Chicago House Music Festaval, the event is held at Millennium park in the late summer.[8][9]
The "Chicago style" ofjazz originated in southern musiciansmoving North after 1917, bringing with them theNew Orleans "Dixieland" or sometimes called "hot jazz" styles.[10]
Dixieland largely evolved into Chicago style in the late 1910s and the new style was popularly called that name by the early 1920s.[11]
King Oliver andJelly Roll Morton became stars of the Chicago jazz scene. King Oliver in particular broughtLouis Armstrong to Chicago in 1922 while he was performing at the Dreamland Café with his "Creole Jazz Band".[12] More importantly, white musicians, or "alligators", attended Oliver's performances in order to learn how to play jazz.[13]Louis Armstrong's recordings with his Chicago-basedLouis Armstrong and his Hot Five andHot Seven band came out in the years 1925 to 1928 and were popular with both black and white audiences.[14] These recordings marked the transition of original New Orleans jazz to a more sophisticated type of American improvised music with more emphasis on solo choruses instead of just little solo breaks. This style of playing was adopted by white musicians who favoredmeters of 2 instead of 4.[15] Emphasis on solos, faster tempos,string bass andguitar (replacing the traditionaltuba andbanjo) and saxophones also distinguish Chicago-style playing from New Orleans style. When Chicago musicians started playing four-beat measures, they laid the foundation for theswing era. TheLindy Hop was originally danced to four-beat Chicago style jazz and went on to become one of the iconic features of the swing era.
Important musicians in the Chicago style includeLovie Austin,Muggsy Spanier,Jimmy McPartland,Bix Beiderbecke,Eddie Condon,Bud Freeman,Benny Goodman,Gene Krupa,Frank Teschemacher, andFrank Trumbauer.[15]Thegangsters of Chicago engaged profiled musicians likeEarl Hines, whose benefit was to lead an orchestra in one of the city's top locations. Armstrong was also friendly with gangsters, such as Al Capone who frequently paid for private use of jazz clubs.[16] Hines and Benny Goodman emancipated from Chicago style when they became two of the most famousband leaders of theswing era.
Two decades later, original Chicago-style pianistArt Hodes presented the classic jazz style in aTV show series.
From the mid 1960s to the present day theAssociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians has nurtured "Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future".
Chicago's jazz scene includes the annualChicago Jazz Festival[17] which has its origins in the 1970s. Festival performers have includedMiles Davis,Sonny Rollins,Ornette Coleman,Benny Carter,Ella Fitzgerald,Anthony Braxton,Betty Carter,Lionel Hampton,Chico O'Farrill's big band,Jimmy Dawkins,Von Freeman,Johnny Frigo,Slide Hampton, andRoy Haynes.
Musicians from all surviving eras of jazz perform regularly in the city, release recordings, and tour nationally and internationally.
Sinyan Shen, internationally known for his Shanghai classical repertoire and Shanghai jazz performances based on tonal interests and just intervals, is based in Chicago.
Musicians still performing today who originally came to prominence in thebebop andhard bop eras includeVon Freeman andJimmy Ellis, both contemporaries of former ChicagoanJohnny Griffin.
Members of Chicago'sAssociation for the Advancement of Creative Musicians working regularly in the city includeFred Anderson,Ernest Dawkins,Aaron Getsug, andIsaiah Spencer. Since the 1960s, members of the organization have performed their version of "Great Black Music" throughout the world.
Innovative jazz musicians who have come to public attention since the early 1990s includeMarbin,David Boykin,Karl E. H. Seigfried,Jeff Parker,Joshua Abrams andJim Baker. Common to many of this new generation is an embrace of a wide variety of styles and techniques.[18]
During the mid-1960s to the late 1970s a new style of soul music emerged from Chicago. Its sound, likesouthern soul with its rich influence ofblack gospel music, also exhibited an unmistakable gospel sound, but was somewhat lighter and more delicate in its approach, and was sometimes called "soft soul".
Popular R&B/soul artists from Chicago includeThe Impressions,Sam Cooke,Curtis Mayfield,Lou Rawls,The Five Stairsteps,The Staple Singers,Earth Wind & Fire,Rufus,Chaka Khan,Dave Hollister,The Emotions,The Chi-lites,R. Kelly,Carl Thomas, andJennifer Hudson. Chicago soul labels, includingVee-Jay,Chess Records,OKeh,ABC-Paramount,Brunswick, andCurtom, established a major presence in R&B/soul music.
Vee-Jay Records is an Americanrecord label founded in the 1950s, located inChicago and specializing inblues,jazz,rhythm and blues androck and roll. The label was founded inGary, Indiana in 1953 byVivian Carter andJames C. Bracken (shortly after moving to Chicago), a husband-and-wife team who used their initials for the label's name.[19] Vee-Jay hold historical significance being one of the first African American and female owned record companies.[20]
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 inChicago, specializing inblues andrhythm and blues. It was the successor toAristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded intosoul music,gospel music, earlyrock and roll, andjazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and itssubsidiary labelsChecker andArgo/Cadet. Chess was based at several locations on the south side of Chicago, initially at South Cottage Grove Ave.[21] The most famous was 2120 S.Michigan Avenue, from May 1957 to 1965, immortalized bythe Rolling Stones in "2120 South Michigan Avenue", an instrumental recorded there during the group's first U.S. tour in 1964.[22] The building is now the home ofWillie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation.[23]
In 1965 Chicago's burgeoning pop rock horn sound moved into national exposure with the brass arrangements in early recordings byThe Buckinghams, who recorded their first hits at the historicChess Studios. Their horn sound was followed quickly and expanded upon substantially by the rock bandChicago, originally named theChicago Transit Authority. Other popular Chicago-based bands from the 1960s and 1970s includeShadows of Knight,Cryan' Shames,The Buckinghams,The Flock,Ides of March,New Colony Six,Mason Proffit,Styx,Survivor,REO Speedwagon (Champaign) andCheap Trick (Rockford).
As documented inMichael Azerrad'sOur Band Could Be Your Life, the 1980s independent music scene was alive and well in Chicago. Some of the more famous punk and "post-punk" bands originating from the city wereNaked Raygun,The Effigies,88 Fingers Louie,Big Black,The Queers andScreeching Weasel, with punk legendPatti Smith also born in the city. Many of these bands would become major precursors topop punk (Screeching Weasel and The Queers) andpost-hardcore (Big Black and Naked Raygun).[24] At this timeSteve Albini (ofBig Black) also began his prolific recording engineer work with acts both local and national.[25]The Victims represented Chicago on the New Wave scene.
The 1980s punk scene eventually gave way to the 1990salternative rock boom with artists likeLocal H,Eleventh Dream Day,Ministry,Veruca Salt (the bandSeether is named after their song "Seether"),My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult,Material Issue,Liz Phair,Urge Overkill,LaTour,The Jesus Lizard, andThe Smashing Pumpkins gaining fame. Many of these bands got their career started at noted alternative music venuesMetro (originally Cabaret Metro) andLounge Ax, and later on influential alternative music stationQ101. Alternative iconsEddie Vedder (Pearl Jam),Kim Thayil (Soundgarden),Adam Jones (Tool), andTom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) also attended school in the area. In the late 1990s, along withMilwaukee, WI andChampaign-Urbana, IL, Chicago also supported a healthy midwesternemo/post-hardcore scene that includedCap'n Jazz,Braid andAmerican Football.
Since the late 1990s/early 2000s, Chicago has also become a major force in the American heavy metal scene including a handful ofdeathcore,death metal andindustrial metal groups supported and promoted by indie labels likeWax Trax! Records among others. Bands such as,Disturbed,SOiL,From Zero,No One,Ministry,Dance Club Massacre,Born of Osiris,Veil of Maya,Macabre,Oceano andLovehammers hail from the Chicago area.
Since the 2000s Chicago has remained a hotbed for independent music. Being home to a number ofindependent record labels such asTouch and Go Records,Thrill Jockey Records,Bloodshot Records,Drag City Records,Victory Records andHozac Records, Chicago continues to have one of the most active indie scenes in the United States. The area is home to the foundations of Americanhardcore punk,alt-country,noise rock,industrial music, and many otherindependent music scenes.
Contemporary bands with ties to Chicago includeWilco,Tortoise,The Sea and Cake,Califone,The Greenskeepers,The Loneliest Monk,The Mekons,Smith Westerns,Andrew Bird,Umphrey's McGee,Neko Case, andMatthew &Eleanor Friedberger of theFiery Furnaces. The 2000s have also seen many punk/pop/rock bands from the Chicago area attain national success, includingDisturbed, SOiL,Alkaline Trio,Kill Hannah,The Academy Is,Rise Against,The Audition,Spitalfield,Chevelle, thePlain White T's, andOK Go.
Fall Out Boy, fromWilmette, Illinois, has been the most commercially successful band to come from the Chicago area in recent years, scoring 4 #1 albums on the Billboard Hot 200.
Despite the scene's frequent distaste for local politics, city funding has allowed Chicago to become America's premier music festival city,[26] hosting popular indie headliners such asSuperchunk,Black Francis,Pavement,The Flaming Lips,Spoon,De La Soul,Mos Def,Isis,Olivia Tremor Control andJunior Boys. It has also hosted music festivals such asPitchfork Music Festival,Lollapalooza (since 2005),Chicago Blues Festival,Alehorn of Power,Riot Fest, and a free weekly Monday music series called "Downtown Sound", atMillennium Park'sJay Pritzker Pavilion.
Chicago's music scene varies from neighborhood to neighborhood, but overall has a large focus on independent music due to its influences from local record stores and local radio stationsWXRT-FM andLoyola University Chicago'sWLUW. While the scenes vary many Chicago residents in the south side have collectively decided to create a scene of groove and thrash metal called Southside Chicago Metal. Bands in the Southside Chicago Metal scene areGuttural, Satara, etc.
Chicago is home to media tastemakersPitchfork Media,The Onion'sThe A.V. Club,Consequence of Sound, the nationally syndicatedSound Opinions radio talk show, andCHIRP,[27] a community radio station providing the internet with independent music. The station also bids for support to convince theUnited States Congress and theFCC to remove existing barriers to low power FM radio licenses in urban areas.
Thehip hop of Chicago is sometimes called "Chi-town"[28] in the music industry. It became commonplace for serious rappers to cite theNation of Islam, a Black Muslim organization headquartered in Chicago, as a lyrical and ideological influence in the 1980s and 1990s, a rap theme often resulting in controversy.[29]
Kanye West'sfirst album was nominated forGrammy Award for Album of the Year and wonBest Rap Album. Lupe Fiasco's 2006 albumLupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor was a #1 selling rap album.
Today, Chicago is well established within the hip hop industry.Drill music was also born in Chicago.
Chicago artists and impresarios have been important in the development of theGospel music genre.[30] Its origin and rise in popularity is mainly due to the "godfather of Gospel music",Thomas A. Dorsey. Dorsey began his career as a blues pianist, but later began composing religious music to the rhythms of jazz and blues, later calling it "Gospel".[31] His most popular song, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand", was a favorite ofMartin Luther King Jr., and was sung byMahalia Jackson by his request at his funeral. Many other artists have recorded their own renditions of "Precious Lord", including another Chicago Gospel artist,Albertina Walker. Dorsey influenced other Chicago Gospel artists such asThe Caravans and Little Joey McClork.
Tired of the treatment he received in other music publishing houses, Dorsey founded his own called Dorsey House of Music.
Music historians often citePilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood as the birthplace of Gospel music. Originators of the genre, includingJames Cleveland,The Staples Singers, and theEdwin Hawkins singers, have performed there.
Other instrumental members in the Gospel music movement wereRoberta Martin,Sallie Martin,Kenneth Morris, and"Little Lucy" Smith.
The influences of jazz and blues have been replaced by more contemporary genres likehip hop music, rap, andrhythm and blues.[32]
Chicago is home to the annual GospelFest where traditional and contemporary Gospel choirs perform.
Rev. Milton Brunson and The Thompson Community Singers originated in Chicago. Dr. Charles G. Hayes andRev. Dr. Clay Evans both had chart-topping choirs in Chicago.Urban contemporary gospel artists such as Ray and Percy Bady, Darius Brooks,Ricky Dillard & New Generation Chorale, Joshua's Troop, New Direction,Shekinah Glory Ministry, andVaShawn Mitchell all have had Gospel hits and hail from Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.[33]
The area in and around Chicago has manymusic venues, including:
Former venues included:
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Many southern blacks migrated to Chicago during and afterWorld War I and the musicians migrated with them. White Chicagoans developed a style based on what they heard the blacks play. ... Most of the important early jazz recordings were made in the area.
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