![]() ![]() As the community of artists and entrepreneurs grew, blues culture revised the geography of black Chicago. With the wartime emergence of local labels such as Bluebird, Chicago became the national center for blues recording-hits like Lil Green's “Romance in the Dark” (1940), Minnie's “Me and My Chauffeur Blues” (1941), and Williamson's “Elevator Woman” (1945) exemplified post-Depression popular music for blacks, North and South. Tampa Red and Bill Broonzy were joined by such talents as Memphis Minnie (Douglas), Lil Green, Memphis Slim (Peter Chatman), and Sonny Boy ( John Lee) Williamson. Still, the city continued to serve as incubator of blues music, as musicians awaited the resurgence of the record industry. The decline slowed the migration of blues artists, whose motivation for coming to Chicago, like other black southerners, included economic opportunity. Like the rest of the economy, music production suffered during theīetween 19, annual sales of phonograph records in the United States plummeted from $126 to $6 million sales for black performers decreased from $5 million to only $60,000. Although Hunter, Broonzy, and others performed across theĪnd despite an abundant audience of migrants, there was not yet the extensive network of blues clubs that emerged in later years. Williams gathered other musicians of note, including Tampa Red (Hudson Whittaker), Big Bill (William) Broonzy, and Georgia Tom, who later modernized Mayo “Ink” Williams of Paramount Records. (Charles) Davenport, and Blind Lemon Jefferson were among the first blues artists to record locally, under the supervision of J. In Chicago, the emergence of blues culture in the 1920s coincided with increased musical performance and recording nationwide and paralleled the dramatic growth of black urban enclaves during the The earliest geographic origins of the blues are uncertain, given the multiple versions appearing across the African American South near the turn of the century. ![]() This rich sense of origin and history makes blues music such a celebrated civic resource, one that still shapes cultural and social practice throughout the Windy City. Migration from the South and the growth of the modern music industry regional folk genius and ethnic entrepreneurial savvy. The most recognizable cultural signature this city has produced, Chicago blues has diverse and contradictory roots: As legendary guitarist Robert Johnson put it, Chicago has been a “sweet home” for the blues. ![]()
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