12) Blues Chicago And Chess Records

At Last - Etta James

As legendary guitarist Robert Johnson put it, Chicago has been a “sweet home” for the blues. The most recognizable cultural signature this city has produced, Chicago blues has diverse and contradictory roots: African American migration from the South and the growth of the modern music industry; regional folk genius and ethnic entrepreneurial savvy. This rich sense of origin and history makes blues music such a celebrated civic resource, one that still shapes cultural and social practice throughout the Windy City.

                 -Encyclopedia Of Chicago History

The promise of jobs in the Chicago, coupled with racism and a lack of opportunity brought African Americans and their culture to Chicago.  Chicago Blues is born as the the  Delta Blues collides with the modern industrial city. Chess Records is in the thick of it, as Rock and Roll, and the modern music industry  take their formative steps.

 
Formed by  Jewish/Polish immigrants, Phil & Leonard and Chess, Chess Records ended up, with an impressive roster of  artists (Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf and Jimmy rogers ...). Chess went on to inspire many future "white" Rock n' Rollers like Eric Clapton. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards traveled to Chicago to record some of the tracks of their second album 12x5 , in the Chess studios. 

The story of Chess and Blues, is a classic American/Chicagoan story of Jewish immigrants, African American immigrants, their dreams, and the whole being much bigger and influential than anyone would have imagined. From just trying to make a buck, or just make it, in the shady nightclubs, where music draws in the crowd that will buy the booze. This is the next chapter in the story after the speakeasies, gangsters and Jazz. Modern popular rock would not be what it became in the 1980's and still is were it not for Chess and  Chicago Blues.