Chicago is too often presented as a violent wasteland rather than a cultural wonderland, for terrible reasons and occasionally for less terrible reasons. Many fantastic facets of our city have been underdocumented not out of nefariousness, but because everyone who cared already knew. In pre-Instagram days, who had an incentive to record a sight as […]
Tag: Soul Train
Posted inMusic
Andrew Kitchen’s boogie strikes back
Soul Train veteran and Attack of the Boogie host Andrew Kitchen celebrates the reissue of his dance show’s 1984 theme song.
Posted inMusic
Thirty-five moments that brought Chicago music to the world
The Year of Chicago Music has had less music in it than anybody anticipated, but we still have plenty to celebrate.
Posted inMusic
The return of Captain Sky
Chicago funk superhero Captain Sky releases his first album in 40 years—and this time his mission includes mentoring Black teenagers on the south side.
Posted inMusic
Damon Locks’s greatest moment in Chicago music history
Black Monument Ensemble founder Damon Locks still feels the ripples from Soul Train 50 years after its Chicago premiere.
Posted inBlogs
Archive dive: How Soul Train, the show that put black music on TVs across America, got its start in Chicago
Even after it moved to LA, Chicago kept its own version running daily for nearly a decade.
Posted inMusic
The Secret History of Chicago Music: Mr. Lee & the Rearrangers Band
Mr. Lee & the Rearrangers Band are credited on what Roctober‘s Jake Austen calls “perhaps the most bizarre 45 in Chicago history.”
Posted inFilm
The lost Chicago of Medium Cool
With Medium Cool, Haskell Wexler had more on his mind than just the Democratic Convention.
Posted inBlogs
Soul music: not just dusties
During Soul Week, let’s remember that soul music is still alive and well
Posted inBlogs
The greatest Soul Train performance?
James Brown plays the daylights out of a Soul Train performance
Posted inBlogs
An early glimpse of Don Cornelius
Don Cornelius started out on a black news show on Chicago’s WCIU
Posted inBlogs
Chicago’s 50 wards—the jigsaw version
A local architect makes a jigsaw puzzle out of the gerrymandered ward map
Posted inMusic
Who is Dancin’ Man?
Meet Dancin’ Man, who’s shared stages with James Brown and the Jackson Five
