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The great migration
The first great migration of slaves after the emancipation proclamation. They brought Blues music into Chicago and other Northern parts of America -
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Blues Music in Chicago
People who moved from the deep south brought along their music, this of course was Blues. This meant that blues music was often played in clubs and became apart of the Chicago scene. -
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Start - Present
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Around. The development of Blues to Urban Blues
The City's Bues musicians began to add more instruments to their pieces like drums, piano and bass to help build up the layers, this attracted more people to listen to their music.
Urban Blues developed, the simple harmonica sound can be compared to the simplicity of a town/village and then developing into a City with more buildings and social structure. The same with a Blues song developing into lyrics about Urban problems and using a developed range of instruments and styles. -
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Blues music in Chicago
The period of time where Blues was around in Chicago, through the time of the Chicago Blues bloom and then towards the end of the Chicago Blues Era. -
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The second wave of the Great Migration
Around 1940 there was a rise in the amount of people moving up north in search of a better life and jobs. -
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Muddy Waters
Years active as a musician- (McKinley Morganfield) -
Electric Blues
Waters was given an electric guitar from his Uncle, this started to change the type of music that would accompany the blues lyrics. This new Urban style of blues stayed within Chicago's clubs and evening entertainment and wasnt until later on that this technique was used to other audiences. -
Delmark
In 1953 Delmark records was founded, the record label recorded a lot of Chiacgo Blues artists in the 1950's and 60's. http://www.bsnpubs.com/new/delmar.pdf -
Muddy Waters- Classic Blues Band
Waters was originally reacording with a classic Blues band of which proved to be popular within the chicago scene. "Hoochie Coochie Man" (Number 8 on the R&B charts), "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (Number 4) were the most popular songs produced by the band. The band didnt adopt Waters' electric blues sound even though Waters has previously created such music. -
Cobra Records
The business started out as a record store/ tv repair shop but realised the potential of the new Blues sound being produced in Chicago. But after only two years of releasing songs the company experenced financial problems resulting in the store closing in 1959.
Buddy Guy was one of the popular artists around at the time of Chicago Blues, he decided to sign to Cobra Records and is said to symbolise the beginning of a new generation of music. -
Electric Blues- Muddy Waters
Upon going accross to England, Muddy decided to change the acoustic sound of the band's performance into an amplified electric sound. Using "band instruements" such as electric guitars, drums and bass. This opened up the genre to the white population, people started to enjoy the music more even if they couldnt relate to the lyrics. Its said that Muddy himself brought the electric sound to performances, once he stopped playing the sound was lost and returned to the original sound of the band. -
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Chess Records
Chess Records was a record label based in Chicago, artists on the roster were mainly asociated with chicago blues. The record company is said to be the home of electric blues, Muddy Waters brought the sound to the label. -
-Late to Early 1980's: Recordings. (Picture is of a record produced by a Chicago Blues Record Label)
It wasnt until Chicago Blues had really established itself when major record labels began offering deals to the musicians who were asociated with the genre. As a result of the late starting of recording not much material was recorded due to the passing of many Chicago Blues artists.
Many of the clubs in Chicago changed ownership and became more known, becoming more of an established business before the end of the Chicago Blues Era (Around the late 1980's-1990's) -
End of the Chicago Blues Boom
Due to the only very recently recording contracts given to the musicians their material wasnt very well recorded. All of the recordings are recorded using tapes, the music came 20-30 years before digital recording. This means that not all of the records of the music are of a good quality.
The Chicago Blues Foundation is trying to secure these recordings by raising money to restore them with the aid -
The Chicago Blues Foundation
The Chicago Blues FoundationDue to the digital age of recording being after this era most of the recordings of the music arent a good quality sound. The Chicago Blues Foundation is trying to secure these recordings by raising money to restore them with the aid of current record labels. The people of Chicago wanted to peserve the music as it holds an important part of their history and what the social problems of the time were.
