Chicago | All About Blues Music

JAMES COTTON

In 1954, James Cotton was a teenage Memphis harp player who had cut a few tracks for Sun Records, when Muddy Waters showed up and offered him a place in his band. James grabbed the opportunity with both hands and stayed for thirteen years. When he went solo, James unleashed a great roaring Blues voice…

PIANO C RED

Piano C Red was born in the South in 1933, and had been playing piano in Atlanta bars for ten years when he moved to Chicago in the mid-50s. He recorded briefly for Chess records in 1963, but his main work came as a backing musician for the big names of the day, working with…

KANSAS JOE McCOY

Kansas Joe McCoy did not have a long life, but it certainly was an eventful one. He was an excellent slide-guitar player from the Delta, who was also a fine baritone singer; he played with and married Memphis Minnie in Memphis and when they relocated to Chicago they were pioneers of ‘urban Blues’; Joe became…

A C REED

Sax playing, singing bandleaders are not common, but AC Reed pulls it off in style as his laid-back vocals and swinging sax fronted his Chicago based band the Spark Plugs. Having gained a solid apprenticeship backing a series of Blues Legends, AC’s late solo career showed a performer and songwriter with a sense of humour…

BUMBLE BEE SLIM

The Blues is a cruel mistress, and a man who sold millions of records can disappear into the footnotes of Blues history. Bumble Bee Slim was certainly not a one-hit-wonder, but he is not well remembered today. He came from the Piedmont area to make a name for himself in Chicago, as country Blues transformed…

HOMESICK JAMES

James Williamson claimed to have been born in 1905, but as he performed at a British Blues Festival more than a century later, that date is in doubt, and 1910 is a more likely vintage. What is not in doubt was his skill at ripping out a Blues riff on his strangely tuned slide guitar.…

J B LENOIR

J B Lenior was a uniquely talented musician. Born in Mississippi and surrounded by the Blues from an early age, he often used African polyrhythms which he would beat out on the sound-box of his guitar as he played his delicate Blues. His high, sweet voice and his taste in stage costume might have made…

J B HUTTO

The distorted slide-guitar of Elmore James electrified Chicago in the early 50s, and the effects were heard down the years in the work of a generation of players who followed him, most notably ‘Hound Dog’ Taylor and JB Hutto. Arrayed in bright suits and hats and using a 50-foot guitar lead, JB’s wild and exuberant…

OTIS SPANN

Otis Spann is renowned as Muddy Waters‘ pianist throughout his Classic period of electric Chicago Blues, and a member of the Chess house-band that backed a roster of their big selling artists. He did rather more than that, as he showed off his great Blues voice on a series of fine albums in a solo…

WILLIE MABON

In the early 50s, Willie Mabon was at the forefront of the Chicago blues scene, with massive hit records on the Chess label. After a quiet spell, his career was revitalised in the 70s, when he discovered a new audience across the pond. Although he is not well remembered today, there was a time when…