I am anxious, I am ready and most of all, I am excited. On Thursday of this week, I will be flying to O’Hare Airport in Chicago to start my ten day endeavor. I have finally established a good weekly work schedule in Olympia and now I have to leave and go start a whole new one with limited wifi and an unpredictable screen. I am sitting in the library and I am seeing my regular library faces that I have been recognizing over the past four weeks. I am feeling slightly nervous about what is ahead of me. I am going to enter a city that I have been to at least ten times, but only to the tourist spots and with my questionably fun extended family. I just hope that I can feel somewhat at home and assimilate myself into the city and the public transportation sooner rather than later.
This week I am focusing on House music. While House music is often misunderstood to be originated in Europe, it is a true product of Chicago. In doing quite a bit of article reading over the past four weeks, I have been able to conjure up a sort of timeline and lineup list of the important players in the Chicago House music scene that started in the late seventies and on. It is crucial to my personal understanding that I have a clear idea of al of the individuals involved. I often would pull up Google Maps and get an idea of the locations being mentioned so I can get a true visual without having to imagine it. I have started to read my book for the week, an autobiography titled, House Music… The Real Story by Jesse Saunders, the semi self proclaimed “first house music DJ”. So far, it is an easy read and Saunders proves himself to be an emotional, but humorous writer. Sometimes he just restates everything he is trying to say for paragraphs at a time, but I am taking it as a sign that he is simply very passionate about his craft, and not so great at being concise. I am glad really glad that I am able to read about House music from an insider’s perspective and not some journalist and professional enthusiast. Not to say that I don’t enjoy writings from those mentioned, but getting to hear about the relationships and internal happenings in the house music scene from someone who was in the center of it is really remarkable to me. I look forward to finding out the “real story” behind the some of the most amazing, innovative music on Earth.
Yesterday, I watched Pump Up The Volume which I believed to be a movie about Chicago House music, but really went over a range of cities and styles of dance music at the end of the documentary. It was all worth seeing though, because it gave sort of a world wide perspective of how Chicago House music transformed what a music community meant around the world. People all over were coming together to listen to House music and that tradition has continued today in much more commercial settings such as dance oriented music festivals and raves. Sadly, the way in which this community gets together is now changing, in my opinion, for the worst. There are countless reports of young adults and teens dying or having life threatening reactions to the types of drugs that are being taken at raves and dance clubs is unprecedented. When House music clubs first started, they usually served water and juice. People could drink alcohol if they choose, but it was never the center of the experience. Not to say that drugs weren’t present at the early House music clubs, they certainly were, but again, not the center of the experience.
I finished my book from last week, Chicago Blues: The City & The Music and I must say that the Blues industry and community was just as exhilarating as the music. The relationships between the artists, and especially the artists’ relationships with the business people handling their careers interested me the most. Blues artists are notoriously known for being ripped off in multiple ways, despite their fame and following. One aspect that I was interested in was the record labels that were responsible for making Chicago Blues known to the public. One label that piqued my interest especially, was Chess Records started in the South Side of Chicago by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess. Artists like Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon were on the roster for quite a long time and other big name bands like The Rolling Stones have recorded there. At one point, there were over 100 names on the Chess Records artist roster, and nearly all of them were getting completely ripped off in their label deals, and paid nothing close to the amount that they deserved. I am on a mission to find out more about Chess Records and the story behind the label that supported but also betrayed it’s artists.