Move on up: Chicago soul music and black cultural power

255 Pages·2019·3.258 MB·English

by  Cohen, Aaron

Move On Up

Move On Up
Chicago Soul Music and
Black Cultural Power
AARON COHEN
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2019 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2019
Printed in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 17607- 9 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 65303- 7 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 65317- 4 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226653174 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Cohen, Aaron (Writer on music), author.
Title: Move on up : Chicago soul music and black cultural power / Aaron
Cohen.
Description: Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019004420 | ISBN 9780226176079 (cloth : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780226653037 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226653174 (e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: Soul music—Illinois—Chicago—History and criticism. |
Soul music—Social aspects—Illinois—Chicago. | Soul music—Political
aspects—Illinois—Chicago. | Soul musicians—Illinois—Chicago. | African
Americans—Illinois—Chicago—Music—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC ML3537 .C63 2019 | DDC 306.4/842440977311—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019004420
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
CONTENTS
Introduction / 1
ONE / Hallways and Airwaves: Changing Neighborhoods and
Emerging Media Inspire New Music / 5
TWO / I’m a- Telling You: Artists and Entrepreneurs
Step Up in a New Decade / 22
THREE / We’re a Winner: Musicians, Activists, and Educators Build
an Expanding Industry / 42
FOUR / Psychedelic Soul: Chicago’s 1960s Counterculture Redirects
Social and Musical Cues / 64
FIVE / A New Day: Afrocentric Philosophy and Sharp Statements
Answer 1960s Challenges / 86
SIX / Rhythm Ain’t All We Got: Organizational Drive Shapes 1970s
Black Music, Commerce, and Politics / 110
SEVEN / Sound Power: Funk and Disco Highlight Connections,
Divisions, and Aspirations / 143
EIGHT / Future Telling: Reissues, Sampling, and Young Artists
Reconsider Soul History / 165
vi / Contents
Acknowledgments / 173
Appendix: Interviews / 177
Notes / 181
Selected Discography / 209
Selected Bibliography / 215
Index / 225
INTRODUCTION
The sounds of Chicago soul have always felt as expansive as a drive through
this city’s neighborhoods and down its wide boulevards. Vocal groups har-
monizing about yearning for, or losing, eternal love defined the early 1960s,
and singer-s ongwriters with acoustic guitars and a broader lyrical vision
closed the decade. Some records’ muscular brass sections propelled danc-
ers; slower ballads highlighted intricate string arrangements. Even the blunt
word “funk” signified, and combined, everything from small African percus-
sion to interstellar explorations. R&B star Jerry Butler took in large pieces of
it all. When he used his music to become an agent for wider changes, he did
so in the city that always surrounded him.
Almost sixty years after Butler and his early group the Impressions signed
their first recording contract on Michigan Avenue’s “Record Row,” his career
outside singing was just as significant as his hits. He organized a songwriters’
workshop that created a repertoire for artists who followed him. Then, after
largely stepping away from concert stages and studios in the 1970s, he went
on to become a successful entrepreneur and politician. Butler was elected
to the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1986 and served there for
three decades, so he could have been justifiably proud when we talked on an
Independence Day afternoon in 2016 as he neared retirement from public
office. But hubris has never been his style. Instead, Butler’s conversational
voice merely hinted at his onstage baritone; quick-w itted asides poked at
a more serious tone. He also credited much of his accomplishment to his
community.
“I’m always prejudiced when I talk about Chicago because I think it’s
such a great city,” Butler said. “Most of what’s done in this city is prompted
by politics, and most of black politics is supported by music. And so the
music and politics kind of walk hand in hand down Michigan Avenue.”
2 / Introduction
Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power details these
meetings of music and hope for social progress. Mass movements and local-
ized efforts for dynamic change helped create R&B in Chicago. Here too,
musicians acted as change agents. Still, compared with other cities, surpris-
ingly little literature describes how musical and social forces combined in
this metropolitan area during the 1960s and 1970s. As a teenager I read
Sweet Soul Music, Peter Guralnick’s 1986 intermingling of southern R&B
and the civil rights movement, and wondered how such reporting would
describe the urban North’s culture and its struggles. But since the late 1990s
considerable work has focused on developments in soul music from such
hubs as Memphis and Detroit. Suzanne E. Smith’s Dancing in the Street:
Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit and Charles L. Hughes’s Country
Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South are examples from
two historians. Chicago has not been as fully investigated as these southern
and midwestern counterparts, despite its large size, voluminous output, and
intense political exchanges. That comparative lack of attention has been true
even for local institutions. While I was growing up in Evanston, just north of
Chicago, local artists’ contributions were never part of my schools’ curricula
in the 1970s and 1980s (although a terrific soul singer, Patti Drew, lived just
a few blocks from my classrooms).
These musicians had numerous traditions to draw from, such as gos-
pel and blues, yet they had the confidence to declare their musical inde-
pendence, recasting time- honored music to make it their own. A sense of
autonomy also fortified the songs that came out of these neighborhoods
through the heroic black educators, record companies, and performance
spaces that African American Chicagoans owned and managed. The results
helped shape canonical black American music through recordings that con-
vey a full stylistic range. Musicians also intersected with Chicago activists,
whether political or commercial. All of this occurred as African American
media in the city evolved with advances in radio, television, film, and other
industries. Black advertising firms in the city enlisted R&B studio players to
promote a heritage along with marketing household products. The politics
that Butler referred to include, yet are not limited to, elections and other
forms of civic governance. His friend Curtis Mayfield wrote lyrics that came
loaded with polemical discourse and lend this book its title. But actions
are as important as words. Musicians learning to become entrepreneurs or
banding with like- minded collaborators can be as consequential as inspira-
tional verses. Big changes can be sparked just from trying to work, or even
dance, across neighborhood boundaries.
Move On Up focuses on the period from the time Butler’s group first re-
Introduction / 3
corded in the late 1950s until he entered another kind of public service in
the early 1980s. These twenty- five years in Chicago proved vital. A genera-
tion born at the tail end of the African American Great Migration created its
art while contending with segregation, integration, and deindustrialization.
Music ran alongside civil rights activism, and some performers contributed
to that crusade. Like their contemporaries in the civil rights movement,
these musicians displayed ample courage to cope with daunting opposi-
tional force even when just getting together to perform or compose. In that
way their artistry resembled the work of activists as they also took it upon
themselves to make things better even in the worst of times.1 The contri-
butions of the city’s musicians to such national currents as the late 1960s
counterculture and black arts movement also created enduring artworks that
deserve more attention, as do the stories behind their conception. As these
campaigns turned toward commerce and achieving elective office during the
1970s and 1980s, musicians remained linked with these tides.
Black music in Chicago continued to evolve during the later 1980s and
throughout the 1990s and 2000s, but I chose not to cover those years here
because those eras deserve separate books. Although I discuss the beginning
of the house scene and its ties to a previous generation of music makers,
a comprehensive study of that genre requires a deep dive into its chang-
ing aesthetics and narratives— such as internationally celebrated DJs, rapid
technological advances, LGBTQ performance spaces, and municipal licens-
ing laws. Presenting the recent development of hip- hop and drill music in
Chicago would involve analyzing the controversial lyrics as well as detail-
ing at length celebrated personages and recent changes within the public
schools. I mention a few current musicians in the final chapter because of
the way they speak about enduring soul culture and demonstrate it through
their work. That a couple of them are just starting their careers provides hope
for the future.
My methodology stemmed from my work as a journalist, which meant
speaking with as many participants as I could. So I included interviews with
a range of people who made it all happen; my concentration is on artists,
but entrepreneurs, fans, media figures, activists, and one original Soul Train
dancer also provided valuable observations. A few became famous early in
their careers, and many others were connected with people who emerged
much later. At the same time, I wanted to focus on the Chicago area rather
than attempt overly broad comparisons or contrasts with other cities. Some
of these interviews stemmed from my contributions to magazines and news-
papers (DownBeat, the Chicago Tribune). Along with enabling access, these
assignments spurred my determination to undertake this larger endeavor.