THE CHESS STORY 1947-1975 BOXSET : HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PHIL CHESS
Eric LeBlanc-CISTI
1) the founder & designer of Rock-Ola Jukeboxes, David C. Rockola.
I heard my first Chess recordings on one of these Jukeboxes -
Bo Diddley's "Say Man" (released in Canada on REO Records) and
Little Walter's "Flying Saucer" (released in Canada on QUALITY
Records). David C. Rockola (yes, that was his real name!) was
born in Canada, on January 22, 1897, Virden, Manitoba, and died
on January 25, 1993, Skokie, IL., at age 96. He sold the
company to Antique Apparatus Co. in 1992. Visit their webpage
if you like Jukeboxes <www.rock-ola.com>, or Gert J. Almind's
excellent Danish Jukebox Archives website <http://juke-box.dk/>
2) the Chess Recording engineer between 1959 and 1970, RON MALO.
Ronald Clements Malo was born on August 29, 1935, IL., and died
on August 15, 1992, Burbank, CA., at the St. Joseph Medical
Center. His first record he engineered for Chess was Howlin'
Wolf's July 1959 session that produced "I've Been Abused",
and "Howlin' For My Darling".
MCA (UK) 380 596 2 : THE CHESS STORY 1947-1975 : BLUES-ROCK 'N ROLL-SOUL
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15 CDs, 16 hours, 5 minutes + 73:29 minute interview + CD-ROM
Chess Records : producers
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Leonard S. Chess [Lejzor Shmuel Czyz] b. 1917/Mar/12, Motol, Poland
d. 1969/Oct/16, Chicago, IL
Phil Chess [Fiszel Czyz] b. 1921/Apr/05, Motol, Poland
Willie James Dixon (Blues A&R/prod) b. 1915/Jul/01, Vicksburg, MS
d. 1992/Jan/29, Burbank, CA
Charles Stepney (Soul A&R/prod) b. 1931/Mar/26, IL
d. 1976/May/17, Chicago, IL
Roquel "Billy" Davis (Soul A&R/prod) b. 1937/Jul/11, Detroit, MI
ARC Music : (founded on August 1, 1953)
---------
Marshall Paul Chess, CEO b. 1942/Mar/13, Chicago, IL
Gene Goodman [Eugene Goodman] b. 1910/Aug/03, Chicago, IL
Harry S. Goodman b. 1906/Jun/21, Chicago, IL
d. 1997/Oct/22, Gstaad,Switzerland
"I think that what makes the Chess catalogue so great is that it was
really produced in a very honest way which was to make the best record
that would sell the most."
~ Marshall Chess, Folk Roots #177 (March 1998)
Given the history of Chess Records (there's even a full fledge book
by John Collins, and a new one on The Chess Brothers due out in May
2000 - for details, visit website <www.bluestogold.com>), here
we finally have a collection of Chess Blues, Rock 'N Roll, and Soul
all in one boxset - and it's a good one, music-wise! What you have
is
- a 68 page historical book by Robert Pruter (Soul), Tony Russell
(Blues) & Colin Escott (Rock 'N Roll);
- 13 CDs (340 tracks, all selected by Dave Booth & Colin Escott,
and presented in roughly chronological order, with 159 of the
tracks entering the Billboard R&B charts);
- an interview disc (w/Phil Chess & Mary Katherine Aldin,
Marshall Chess & Paul Jones);
- an interactive CD-ROM - a 'hypertext' expedition through
the 'Chess Story' years. The CD-ROM contains a History of Chess
Records (with photos of Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, The Flamingos,
Etta James, Muddy Waters and The Moonglows); Chess The Legendary
Master series - a catalog listing of the MCA U.S. series ;
Video Archive of The Dells (edited version "Oh What A Night"),
Chuck Berry (edited live version of "Johnny B. Goode" introduced
by Trini Lopez); The Chicago Streets (Bo Diddley narrates,
telling how he came to record for Chess); Chess Record pressing
process (narrated, I believe, by Phil Chess); Chicago - Home Of
The Blues, a listing of clubs with addresses, with a link to
the The Blues Highway Website ; and Catalog - Illinois U.S. 66
- an alphabetical list of Chess/Excello artists with the
equivalent MCA CD catalog number.
Interestingly, the CD-ROM audio soundtrack includes tracks NOT included
in the CD set - tracks like "My Baby" (Memphis Slim), "Work For Your
Money" (Howlin' Wolf), "Something You Got" (The Ramsey Lewis Trio),
"I Had A Dream (live)" (Howlin' Wolf), "Hard Days" (Muddy Waters),
"T. W. A. (I'm Riding High)" (Jimmy Witherspoon), "These Foolish Things"
(Etta James), "While The Blood Runs Warm" (Aretha Franklin),
"Mean Old Frisco" (Muddy Waters), etc. The Chess Jazz & Gospel recordings
are not covered by this set. One final important (negative) note, the
documentation is poor for such an important collection. For this reason,
I've made available a complete listing of the contents, with recording
dates. Just send me an email <Eric.L...@NRC.CA> for a copy.
If you're a longtime collector (especially of Chess music), you'll
need to decide if this set is for you as you surely will have some of
these sides, especially by the 'Big Four' (Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter,
Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson). All their important sides are
here - including "Forty Four" (HW), "Little Red Rooster" (HW),
"Smokestack Lightnin'" (HW),"Spoonful" (HW), "Juke" (LW), "My Baby"
(LW), "Off The Wall" (LW), "Gypsy Woman" (MW), "I'm Your Hoochie
Coochie Man" (MW), "Long Distance Call" (MW), "Your Funeral And My
Trial" (SBW), "Help Me" (SBW), "Nine Below Zero" (SBW), etc.
As an example of the wealth of songs held by ARC Music, you couldn't
find a better selection of songs. These seminal Chess recordings may
just defined the popular music of the last 40 or so years - some even
say that it gave birth to 'Rock 'n Roll'. It would make a perfect
soundtrack to post-war popular music. Of course it wasn't all that
simple, but for sure Leonard & Phil Chess were 'in the manger' when
this 'birth' happen, and with this set, you'll be able to trace the
roots, and decide for yourself. It's clear that these brothers happened
to be at the right place (Chicago), at the right time (post-war II),
with the right production team (Leonard Chess, Willie Dixon, Charles
Stepney).
Happy Birthday, Phil Chess.
Very Selective Bibliography : mostly from Görgen Antonsson's Blues
Bibliographic Database <http://www.hub.org/bluesnet/gorgen/>
====================================================================
Campbell, Robert L. 2000, "The Aristocrat Label : with George R. White",
Red Saunders Research Foundation Website
<http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html>
Cohodas, Nadine 2000, Spinning Blues Into Gold : The Chess Brothers and
the Legendary Chess Records, St. Martins Press
Collis, John 1998, The story of Chess Records (1998)
Fancourt, Les 1989, Chess blues discography (1989, 3nd. ed)
Fancourt, Les 1991, Chess R&B discography : a discography of the R&B
artists on the Chess labels 1947-1975 (1991, 2nd ed.)
George R. White 1997, The Aristocrat of Records, Blues and Rhythm
No 124 (1997), pp. 4-8.
Golkin, Peter 1989, "Blacks, whites and blues : the story of Chess
Records", Living Blues No 88 (1989), p. 22-32 ;
no 89 (1989), p. 25-29
Peabody, Dace 1998, "The Producers : Marshall Chess",
Folk Roots No. 177 (March 1998), p. 28-30
Rowe, Mike 1973, "The Chess set", In: Chicago breakdown (1973),
P. 126-152
Ruppli, Michel 1983, The Chess labels : a discography (1983, 2 vol.)
maxdog
Records just last night. I am almost finished reading the
Willie Dixon book "I AM THE BLUES." I have no idea how
accurate the book is but it is mostly quotes from Dixon,
Malo, Marshall Chess and many others. I am somewhat
undecided about the Chess organization as a result. I'd love
to hear any thoughts on the following. Without Leonard Chess
we probably would not have the wealth of classic Chicago
Blues recordings that exist. Many of the artists we revere
would probably have never been recorded. But it seems that
Leonard took a paternal stance towards his recording artists
and only doled out what he felt they needed for their work,
not a fair share of the royalties. The Goodman's seemed
worse in their operation of Arc Music. Phil Chess is thought
of more kindly by the artists. Horst Lippman of the American
Folk Music Festivals comes off as a hero, somewhat of a
champion for the bluesmen. Same for Scott Cameron.
On one hand we owe Leonard Chess for archiving an important
piece of African-American musical history and providing an
important source of income for many Black artists of the
time, on the other hand he was ripping them off with the
Goodman's in cahoots. Many of the quotes about Leonard in
the book have a love/hate aspect to them. So, should we
revere or revile Leonard Chess? Or just call it history and
learn from it.
Also, how much of the recorded work that Chess choose not to
release has since been released. According to the book,
Leonard Chess would sometimes record an artist just to
secure the rights to the songs so no one else would record
them in competition. Then he would not release the records.
BTW, thanks for the bibliography, gives me more to read.
--
maxdog
*>big snip<*