All kinds of Chicago music—AM radio pop, free-spirited R&B, bold Afrocentric jazz, soulful funk—came together to shape her incredible voice.
Author Archives: James Porter
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Iconic trombonist Willie Colón brings his Nuyorican sounds to Millennium Park
Iconic Trombonist Willie Colón brings his Nuyorican sounds to Millennium Park
Posted inMusic
Rebirth Brass Band carries the torch of New Orleans brass band music while pushing the genre forward
In a sense, New Orleans brass band music is much like acappella doo-wop. The better practitioners of either style can make you forget you’re listening to a wordless art form where the music does the talking. On the Louisiana home turf of the Rebirth Brass Band, that legacy is something to be taken seriously. You […]
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Indigenous avoids cliche with fresh-sounding blues-infused rock
Indigenous was formed by guitarist Mato Nanji, along with his brother, sister, and cousin, in the 90s. As Native Americans growing up on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, they originally heard the sounds of blues from Nanji’s father—a musician who regularly played this style of music around the house. Though his family members […]
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For guitarist Breezy Rodio, the blues is just a breeze
The name “Breezy Rodio” might sound like it belongs to an alt-country band. In reality, it’s the moniker of a bluesman who just released his third album. Sometimes the Blues Got Me (Delmark) has a straight-ahead big-band sound that does a great job of highlighting the musician’s passionate, Italian-accented vocals and understated guitar. Originally from […]
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Buddy Guy and his buddies return for a one-month stand
Ever since B.B. King died, there’s been a lot of unnecessary talk about Buddy Guy being the Last Bluesman Standing From the Golden Era. This isn’t strictly true, but among that generation of blues musicians, Guy does seem to have the highest profile. With reason: though he’s now going on 81, his singing and guitar […]
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Chuck Prophet energizes rock ’n’ roll even as he eulogizes it
Chuck Prophet has been pursuing his vision as a solo artist for so long that his earlier band, Green on Red, is almost an asterisk in his bio. Not that the famed psych-country group, which gained traction in the 80s, doesn’t deserve its shine, but Prophet’s discography has moved far beyond it. While his music […]
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Bluesman Carl Weathersby brings a soul singer’s vulnerability to the table
This show is part of what Carl Weathersby is calling his “I’m Back Again” tour. That said, the bluesman hasn’t really been absent—he’s recently been heard and seen as part of Pierre Lacocque’s Mississippi Heat. All the same, considering that his last album under his own name, I’m Still Standing Here, was released eight years […]
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Garland Jeffreys stays in tune with NYC on his latest, 14 Steps to Harlem
Singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys has had a bit of a resurgence over the past four years after subtly refining the style he originally crafted on his seminal 1973 self-titled solo debut and 1977’s Ghost Writer. A native New Yorker, Jeffreys was close friends with Lou Reed, and their music shares definite similarities—in particular, the constant NYC […]
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Bluesman Billy Flynn makes his Delmark debut with Lonesome Highway
Billy Flynn has quietly been playing an essential role in Chicago blues for some time. A Green Bay resident, he’s frequently made the five-hour drive from Wisconsin to Illinois to play behind the distinguished likes of Jimmy Dawkins (whom Flynn considers his mentor), Billy Boy Arnold, Jody Williams, and Willie Kent as well as with […]
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The Big C Jamboree closes out its 25-year run with a weekend rockabilly celebration
Since the 90s, Chicago’s rockabilly scene has been getting bypassed in favor of its older alt-country sibling. In contrast to the likes of Robbie Fulks and Jeff Tweedy, who are well-known across the city, the rockabilly set has remained strangely insular. There’s a good chance other roots-rock communities might know about, say, former Chicagoan Jimmy […]
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Falsetto Philly soul singer Eddie Holman keeps on mending broken hearts
Now this is a random blast from the past. Eddie Holman is famed for “Hey There Lonely Girl,” a sweet, vulnerable Philly soul ballad that rocked AM radios during the winter of ’69. It wasn’t his only hit, but it overshadowed the others—visit his website and the opening bars are the first thing you hear. […]
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Bernice never imagined she’d be running Bernice’s Tavern
And now Bernice Badauskas’s first name has graced the Bridgeport building for half a century.
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Before the Civil Rights Act, Herman Roberts’s club defined black nightlife on the south side
As proprietor of Roberts Show Lounge and the 500 Room, Roberts booked the likes of Nat “King” Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton—and responded to segregation and its legacy with ingenuity and class
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Blues on the Bandwagon
Midnite Blues Party (Electro-Fi) Eddy Clearwater Rock ‘n’ Roll City (Bullseye) John Lee Hooker was almost a pop star once. Actually, he came close a few times, but the first was with “Boom Boom” in 1962. A top-20 hit on Billboard’s R & B charts, it even saw limited action toward the bottom of the […]