Chicago Jazz: Selections from 1922-1974 by Ben Abid

If one wants to study the history of jazz, it is essential to look at the Chicago music scene in the 20th century. One of the biggest reasons for this is the great migration, during which six million African Americans moved from the South to urban areas in the Northeast, Midwest, and West due to poor living conditions caused by racism and discrimination. One popular urban destination was Chicago. Migrants brought with them their musical culture, which included blues and Dixieland music. As a result, in the early 20th century, Chicago developed its own distinctive style of jazz music. Although these African American musicians who came to Chicago in the early 20th century during the great migration came in search of a better life, the problems with racism and discrimination did not end there. Black musicians had a disadvantage in Chicago due to Jim Crow laws and musician’s union enforcement. Whereas white musicians could perform at or visit any venue in the city, Black musicians were restricted by union rules and segregation laws to performing in a small area within Chicago’s South Side. There was also a difference in pay— white musicians would get paid more for doing the same job. White musicians also had access to a larger variety of jobs. For example, white musicians could take jobs in symphonies, orchestra, and musicals, jobs that were not available for black musicians. These rules were heavily enforced by the music unions in Chicago. Local 208 was the Black union, and Local 10 was the white union. Local 208 provided many benefits for its musicians, however. They offered their members living arrangements, a social network, access to instruments, and fought for their rights. Among both Black and white musicians there was often a sense of mutual respect. Many white musicians strived to play blues and jazz authentically, and many black musicians were interested in European musical traditions.

The following playlist will attempt to illustrate the development of jazz in Chicago throughout the 20th century. In studying this collection of songs and musicians, we can see many themes and connections begin to appear. For example, many of the musicians during this period studied music with Walter Dyett at DuSable High School, including such musicians as saxophonist Eddie Harris and guitarist George Freeman. We can also see the stylistic changes throughout the years. Early in the 20th century, the music is largely influenced by Dixieland and the blues, which soon becomes mixed with swing and big band music. In the 1940s and 50s, we see the introduction of bebop and avant-garde techniques. The Chicago music scene in the 20th century played a crucial role in the development of jazz music due to the Great Migration and blending of African American musical traditions with urban influences.

“Farewell Blues” is a song recorded in 1922 by the New Orleans Rhythm Kings. This song was considered a standard, especially during the swing era. This ensemble was a white band that was attempting to capture the energy of the African American bands in a serious and respectful way- without the corniness or clowning of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. They were a big influence on musicians that later came to define the “”Chicago jazz”” sound. Jimmy McPartland of the Austin High School Gang (Jim Lanigan, Dick McPartland, Frank Teschemacher, Bud Freeman) remembered “ Farewell Blues” as one of the first songs that they learned together. McPartland tells a story about he and his colleagues playing along to the record and learning it note-for-note. The element that I find most compelling about this piece of music is how simple and tasteful it is. There is only a small amount of collective improvisation, mostly at the end of the song. The rest of the time, the band is harmonizing on a slow moving, repetitive, chromatically descending melody. It makes me think of a song one might hear in a busy prohibition era bar. The texture created by the harmonies is smooth and easy to listen to. Underneath, the rhythm section plays a driving simplified blues progression.

“Heebie Jeebies” is a song by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five. The band consists of Louis Armstrong (trumpet, vocals), Lil Hardin Armstrong (piano), Johnny Dodds (clarinet), Kid Ory (trombone), and Johnny St. Cyr (banjo). This song was recorded during the third Hot Five session on February 26th, 1926 and was released Okeh Records. The song begins with a piano and banjo introduction, followed by the band improvising over the form. Then follows a trumpet solo followed by a clarinet solo. Finally, Louis Armstrong sings a verse before the band comes back in with more collective improvisation. Similar to other Hot Five songs, “Heebie Jeebies” showcases Armstrong’s talents the most. While there is no banjo solo like in other Hot Five songs such as “Gut Bucket Blues”, the banjo still has a strong presence, especially during the vocal verse when it is the only instrument accompanying the singing. The harmonic content of this song shares similarities with “Gut Bucket Blues”, being based on blues changes, and has passing diminished chords and a secondary dominant turnaround at the end. This song has become well known as the first recording of a vocalist “scatting” in jazz.

“Sendin’ In The Vipers” is a song recorded by Mezz Mezzrow and his Orchestra in 1934. The personnel is Max Kaminsky, Reunald Jones, Chelsea Quealey(tp), Floyd O’Brien(tb), Mezz Mezzrow(cl,as,arr), Benny Carter(as), Bud Freeman(ts), Willie “The Lion” Smith(p), John Kirby(b), and Chick Webb(d). Mezzrow is a Chicago musician, as well as Floyd O’Brien and Bud Freeman who were part of the Austin High Gang. The band includes a mix of Black and white musicians, representing the mutual respect and collaboration between these two musical communities in the 1930s. Mezzrow is known to be influenced by African American music, especially blues, as we can hear in this recording. Bud Freeman’s solo is a good example of his style— a smooth eighth note flow consisting of arpeggios and occasional triplets, with very clear phrasing.

“Sail On Boogie” is a song by T-Bone Walker with Marl Young and his Orchestra. This song was released in 1945 on the Rhumboogie label. The personnel includes T-Bone Walker (guitar, vocals), Marl Young (piano), Frank Derrick (alto sax), Nat Jones (alto sax), Micky Simms (bass), Red Saunders (drums), Moses Grant (tenor sax), and Nick Cooper (trumpet). I recognized drummer Saunders from being discussed in chapter 4 of William Sites’s Sun Ra’s Chicago (2020). The style of this song is a simple 12-bar blues with three chords. Walker grew up in Texas in a family of musicians and quickly became a professional blues musician. He moved to Chicago when he was thirty-two. In this song, we can hear the mixture of rural blues with the syncopated arrangements of big band swing music and the jazz tradition of improvised solos. This reflects what was popular in Chicago at the time. The most interesting part about this song to me is the guitar solo. The use of distortion, string bending, and the minor blues pentatonic sound like it was perhaps influential to Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. Walker reportedly inspired Hendrix to play guitar with his teeth as a novelty.

“Sugar Bounce” is a song by the Red Saunders Orchestra that was released in November of 1951 as a B-side of a 78 RPM single called Week Day Blues. The personnel includes Joe Williams (vocals), Porter Kilbert (alto saxophone), McKinley Easton (baritone saxophone), Jimmy Richardson (bass), Red Saunders (drums), Earl Washington (piano), Leon Washington (tenor saxophone), Harian Floyd (trombone), John Avant (trombone), Sonny Cohn (trumpet) and Sun Ra (arranging). Red Saunders was a prominent Chicago drummer who came to Chicago from Tennessee as part of the Great Migration. In 1934 he was hired to perform at the Savoy Ballroom, and then in 1937 earned the house band gig at the Club DeLisa. Saunders maintained this role as the house band until the club closed in 1958. Both clubs were significant venues for jazz on the South Side of Chicago. “Sugar Bounce” was recorded in Columbia Studios in Chicago on August 24th, 1951. This song follows a 12-bar blues progression and features a catchy chorus calling on the audience to “do the sugar bounce”- along with a straight-ahead swing rhythm. After the chorus, vocalist Joe Williams delivers a fiery verse that leads into a tenor saxophone solo. The saxophone solo is simple and easy to dance to as it repeats a strong lick. The best moment of the song happens at 1:25 when the soloist begins to repeat a note on beats 1 and 3 and the band echoes on beats 2 and 4 creating a captivating effect. At 1:56 Joe Williams gives one more energetic verse with the backup singers repeating the chorus.

This next song is titled “Sun Song” from Sun Ra’s first record, Jazz by Sun Ra (1957). The personnel consists of Sun Ra (piano, organ, percussion), Art Hoyle (trumpet, percussion), Dave Young (trumpet, percussion), Julian Priester (trombone, percussion), James Scales (alto sax), John Gilmore (tenor sax, percussion), Pat Patrick (baritone sax, percussion), Richard Evans (bass), Wilburn Green (electric bass, percussion), Robert Barry (drums), and Jim Herndon (tympani). It was recorded in 1956 at Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago for Transition Records owned by Tom Wilson (known for later producing three Bob Dylan albums). This album was recorded while Sun Ra was living in Chicago and playing with the Arkestra. While many other songs on this album gear more toward traditional big band music that is arranged and orchestrated, this song is an example of the unconventional avante-garde style of Sun Ra. The consistent percussion rhythm is the most accessible aspect of this song. Additionally, it features many other percussion instruments not usually heard in jazz. The airy organ that enters at 0:13 is reminiscent of science fiction films and seems to be constantly shifting key centers. The bells play chromatic lines that sound atonal. Most of this song seems to be improvised, but perhaps the band had written out things such as the general structure of the song. This recording connects with chapter 4 from William Sites’s Sun Ra’s Chicago (2020), in which Sites discusses how Sun Ra wanted to experiment with the Henderson band, but the musicians were not receptive. At the strip club gigs in Calumet City he seemed to be bored while playing, even reading books while playing. “Sun Song” is an example of the experimental style that Sun Ra was passionate about at the time.

The next playlist track I chose the song “Interplanetary Music No. 1” from the album Interstellar Low Ways by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, recorded in Chicago in 1960 for the El Saturn label. The personnel includes Sun Ra (piano), Phil Cohran (cornet), Nate Pryor (trombone), Marshall Allen (alto sax, flute, bells), John Gilmore (tenor sax, percussion), Ronnie Boykins (bass, space gong), Jon Hardy (drums, percussion, gong). Everyone was also credited for vocals. This track, in particular, was part of the Arkestra’s repertoire for many years. There are many interesting aspects of this track for me. The vocals are the most noticeable part of the song. They are using a tone of singing that sounds more like a chant, but there is a clear melody. The lyrics are very simple- “interplanetary music, interplanetary melody, interplanetary harmony”- It sounds like a theme song introducing the album or the band. The song is highly percussive with a steady beat and a heavy bass drum on beats 1 and 3 as well as lots of auxiliary percussion such as a very loud gong or bell on beats 2 and 4. The rhythm of the song sounds to me like they may have been trying to evoke the sound of a spaceship engine or some kind of future industrial world. There is a very dissonant noisy instrument that I cannot identify- to me it sounds like a violin but there is no credit for violin so it might be trumpet. This song seems like it was meant to make the listener feel like they are in space- Perhaps Sun Ra was inspired by sci-fi movie soundtracks. The elements that seem inspired by jazz tradition to me is the instrumentation and the rhythm.

For this next track I chose the song “No One” from Eddie Harris’ album A Study In Jazz. The album features Eddie Harris on tenor saxophone, Willie Pickens on piano, Roland Faulkner on guitar, and Harold Jones on drums, released in 1962 on the Vee-Jay record label based in Chicago. There is not a lot of information about Roland Faulkner (born 1932) online, however he performed with notable musicians such as Lionel Hampton, Sammy Davis Jr., Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Joe Williams, Lena Horne, Muddy Waters, and Howlin’ Wolf. I found an article from guitarist Bobby Broom about how he met Faulkner playing in a restaurant in the 1980s and describes how underappreciated he is (https://www.bobbybroom.com/2019/07/roland-faulkner-unsung-jazz-guitar-hero/). The song “No One” has mid-tempo swing groove with a laid back, leisurely melody with a tinge of the blues. Faulkner’s solo at 1:45 has elements of bebop and blues language. Certain elements, like the loud attack of his picking and the 16th note runs remind me of Pat Martino. When I was reading about Eddie Harris, I noticed that he went to DuSable high school and studied with Walter Dyett. I also found it interesting that Harris was known for using an electrically amplified saxophone, and also experimented with strange instruments like the “guitorgan” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtUrpzkfeuI).

“Daffy” by George Freeman comes from the album New Improved Funk recorded in 1973 and released on the Groove Merchant record label. The personnel consists of George Freeman (guitar), Von Freeman (tenor saxophone), Bobby Blevins (organ), LeRoy Jackson (bass), Marion Booker (drums). I am not sure why the organist is credited on this track since there is piano and no organ, so it might be John Young on piano. I discovered this song while riding my bike and saw a free library box so I stopped and perused the contents. I saw a jazz encyclopedia and opened to a random page and noticed Freeman with his red guitar from the New Improved Funk album cover. I immediately searched the album on Spotify and listened to it on my bike ride. One of my favorite elements from the song Daffy is the chromaticism. The melodic figure at 0:14 is played first then repeated a half step down. During the B section they take that figure through even more chromatic movements. The A section mainly goes between two chords a half step apart. This leads to some interesting sounding dissonance in the improvising. Another aspect I like is the during the B section at 0:22, Von Freeman echoes the melody on tenor. This song and George Freeman relate to many of the topics we discussed in class. He was a student at DuSable High School and played in Captain Dyett’s band. We learned about his experience hearing T-Bone Walker at the Rhumboogie. We also learned about his experiences playing at the Pershing Hotel in Chicago’s first bebop band.

The final song of my playlist is entitled “Confirmed Truth” by George Freeman and comes from the same albumNew Improved Funk (1974) featuring Leroy Jackson on bass, Marion Booker on drums, Bobby Blevins on organ, and George Freeman on guitar. I chose this because I am a fan of George Freeman’s music, and it connects to our reading about Von Freeman (Allemana 2020). Freeman is directly connected to early black jazz and the Great Migration discussed in the Garret 2008 reading due to growing up in the 1930s/40s in a musical family and having musicians such as Louis Armstrong visiting his home occasionally. In this “Confirmed Truth”, we can hear the blues/gospel sound reminiscent of early Chicago musicians like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, but overall, it is very different. The amount of bending in the guitar and the steady drumbeat indicate influence from the 1960s, such as rock n roll and R&B. This brings up the question discussed in class, “What is jazz?”. There are certain things in Freeman’s guitar playing that indicate jazz influence like the ideas he played at 0:16 or 0:58. The use of improvisation over a repeating form also indicates jazz- “Confirmed Truth” is a good example of how, over time, jazz has become fused with soul, blues, R&B, and rock n roll.

Ben Abid is Chicago guitarist and graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 2024. He performs around the city as a jazz and rock guitarist.

Sources

Allemana, Michael. 2020. “‘Will You Still Be Mine?’: Memory, Place, Race and Jazz on Chicago’s South Side.” Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago. Chapter 4, “Von Freeman and The New Apartment Lounge: Interpretive Moves of Musical Practice and Pedagogy,” pp. 159–211.

Garrett, Charles Hiroshi. 2008. Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapter 3, “Louis Armstrong and the Great Migration,” 83–120.

Sites, William. 2020. Sun Ra’s Chicago: Urban Space and Afrofuturism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapter 4, “South Side Music Scene,” pp. 57–92.