What is the blues? The question has been asked thousands of times and answered in hundreds of different ways. But if you want some idea of what it means to have the blues, try going to any other city (except perhaps New Orleans and New York) and finding live blues. Fat chance.
Here in Chicago on any given night you can see and hear more top blues talent than most towns get in a year. But because it`s always here, it`s easy to take the city`s blues riches for granted. So if the Chicago Blues Festival does nothing else (and it does), it reminds us of all the musical treasures to be found in the toddlin` town.
The Blues Fest gets under way Friday and continues through Sunday in Grant Park. As usual, two daytime stages focus on lesser-known, traditional and local talent. Of particular note are Magic Slim, one of the best current players in the classic Chicago blues style, Friday on the Front Porch stage;
classic Delta blues band the Jelly Roll Kings, Friday at the Crossroads stage; and performances Saturday by New Orleans pianist Champion Jack Dupree (Front Porch) and Robert Cray-style contemporary bluesman Joe Louis Walker
(Crossroads), both of whom also appear on the Main Stage Saturday night.
Friday nights on the Main Stage have traditionally been devoted to Chicago acts, and this year is no exception. This Friday night the Blues Fest salutes Chicago`s Alligator Records, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Before the evening is over, expect close to a dozen different Alligator acts to take the stage. Saturday nights always offer a potpourri of styles. This year, along with Dupree and Walker, Main Stage acts include Junior Wells and headliner Betty ”The Shoop Shoop Song” Everett. The Father`s Day lineup celebrates some fathers of the blues, including performances by Chicago blues patriarchs Sunnyland Slim and Willie Dixon and a salute to country blues giant Robert Johnson. (For a complete Blues Festival lineup, see Page 3 of today`s Friday section.)
The city`s blues clubs also swing into high gear at Fest time, offering a wide range of talent after the lights go out in the park. Several acts on the Fest bill this year also play club dates over the weekend. They include:
– Joe Louis Walker (Friday), Magic Slim and Lonnie Brooks (Saturday) and Little Charlie and the Nightcats (Sunday), all at Buddy Guy`s Legends.
– Little Charlie and the Nightcats also appear Friday at FitzGerald`s in Berwyn.
– Lil` Ed and the Blues Imperials camp out Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Wise Fools.
– Son Seals plays Friday and Saturday at B.L.U.E.S. etcetera.
– Sunnyland Slim occupies his usual Sunday berth at B.L.U.E.S.
Fest guests are not the only talents worth catching in the clubs this weekend. Other good bets include:
– Memphis-soul-styled singer Otis Clay, perhaps best known for his hit,
”Trying to Live My Life Without You” (Friday); hot young Detroit blues-rocker Larry McCray, whose recent debut album came out on the new Point Blank label (Saturday); and Chicago-based blues harp star and past
collaborator with the Rolling Stones Sugar Blue (Sunday), all at River West.
– Speaking of hot Chicago blues harp players, Billy Branch appears Sunday at B.L.U.E.S. etcetera.
– Michael Coleman, a congenial performer, solid guitarist and former member of James Cotton`s band, appears with his own group, the Backbreakers, and guests Chick Rodgers and Kid Dynamite Friday and Saturday at Blue Chicago on State. Blue Chicago on Clark hosts West Side favorite Willie Kent and the Gents, with guest Karen Carroll, on Friday and Saturday.
– Chicago blues meets Jimi Hendrix in the sound of local favorites Melvin Taylor & the Slack Band. The group appears Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Rosa`s.
Other shows of note
Steve Lacy Sextet, Friday at the Cubby Bear: The soprano sax is an ornery instrument that few truly master. Early jazz great Sidney Bechet did, and when Lacy first heard Bechet`s recording of Ellington`s ”The Mooche,” he became determined to do the same. Over the past four decades, Lacy has become one of the giants of soprano sax. And though he also emerged as a leader of the new thing, the avant garde or whatever you want to call it, echoes of Bechet and Ellington still course through his music and give a lyrical edge to his most challenging efforts. The Paris-based player has had a much higher profile in this country of late (finally recording on a major label and releasing four albums in the last four years) and appears here with his group of two decades` standing. Lacy does two shows tonight; both benefit the Jazz Institute of Chicago.
Clash of the Titans, Friday at the World Music Theatre and Saturday at Alpine Valley: Let`s see now, that`s Cronus, Hyperion, Atlas and Prometheus?
Well, would you believe Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and Alice in Chains? This is a slightly different band of Titans than the one that stormed Europe last winter-not surprising after members of various bands traded taunts in the press during that leg of the tour. Still, it boasts some of the heaviest names in speed metal today. At the extreme end of an already extreme style, speed metal and thrash thrive on loud, hard, fast sounds and dark, dangerous, bloody imagery. What sets bands like Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax apart is that there seems to be some method to the madness, some message beyond the shock and gore. (Alice in Chains, which released its debut last fall, is more of a mainstream metal band, though it covers similar thematic ground.) With this arena tour, speed-metal/death-rock breaks out of cult confines and the ancient, bloody Titans are set loose. Great Zeus!
The Skatalites, Saturday at Lounge Ax: In the early `60s when ska`s bouncy beat and horn-driven tunes dominated Jamaican music, one band dominated ska. The Skatalites, the top studio band of the day, practically defined the style as they provided musical support on countless ska hits and even cranked out a few of their own (most notably a giddy version of ”The Guns of Navarone”). Four original `lites are still with the band, saxmen Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso, bassist Lloyd Brevett and drummer Lloyd Knibbs. With five new players rounding out the lineup, the Skatalites are still blastin`.
Steve Winwood and Robert Cray, Saturday at the World Music Theatre:
Winwood`s blue-eyed soul and Cray`s contemporary blues start from somewhat different points, but end up in much the same place, making this a quite logical double bill. On earlier dates on his current world tour, Winwood served up selections from his last, rather listless ”Refugees of the Heart” album, along with hits from past solo outings and some old Traffic tunes, including ”Medicated Goo,” ”Heaven Is in Your Mind” and ”The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys.”
Will Downing, Saturday at Park West: Downing called his latest and third album ”A Dream Fulfilled” because it realized his desire to pull together various styles that first influenced him, particularly contemporary fusion and soul. The result was a sleek, sophisticated, quiet-storm set that ranged from originals to covers like the popular standard ”For All We Know” and War`s
”The World Is a Ghetto.” The record could fulfill another dream for Downing. With both the album itself and the current single, ”I Try,” moving strongly up the charts, the deep-voiced singer who first found success in the U.K. may finally be breaking into the big time here.
Ricky Van Shelton, Saturday at Star Plaza: Van Shelton has such a classic country sound and long string of hits that it`s easy to forget he just came onto the country music scene a few short years and a couple of albums ago. The man who could just be country`s best balladeer right now was a hit from the start. His debut album, ”Wild Eyed Dream,” was a platinum seller and subsequent efforts ”Loving Proof” and ”RVS III” were also big winners. It`s a safe bet his new album, ”Backroads,” will do just as well, since it debuted in the country Top 10. Van Shelton`s shows are also quite popular, with their mix of his own hits and oldies from such favorites as Ernest Tubb, the Beatles and Roy Orbison.
The Indigo Girls, John Wesley Harding and the Ellen James Society, Sunday at the World Music Theatre: Those serious, folk-based, unlikely hitmakers the Indigo Girls are ”Back on the Bus, Y`all,” to borrow the title of the duo`s new live EP. On that release the Indigos were backed on several tracks by jangly Southern rockers the Ellen James Society, who open here. (Indigo Amy Ray produced the Society`s recent debut album on her own label.) Harding, a smart, modern songwriter/rocker in an ”early Elvis Costello” mold, is also along for the bus ride.
Jon Lucien, Sunday at the Cubby Bear: Lucien`s early work preceded the quiet-storm/retro-nuevo revolution by several years. That may someday win him a place in the history books, but it did little for his career at the time. Back again with a new album called ”Listen Love,” Lucien is still ahead of the competition. With his distinctive voice and flair for Brazilian and Caribbean rhythms, Lucien adds energy, variety and subtle drama to a style that often borders on the somnolent. It ain`t what you do, it`s the way that you do it. And when Lucien does it, quiet storm is more than classy mood music.
Hermeto Pascoal, Monday at the Cubby Bear: It`s quite a leap from samba to fusion or from Brazilian forro to free jazz, but Pascoal jumps bigger chasms before breakfast every day. The free-thinking and even freer-playing multi-instrumentalist (sax, flute, accordion, bottles, keyboards, bass, percussion and, on a breakthrough record that seriously annoyed military authorities in Brazil, chickens, pigs and ducks) might be called Brazil`s answer to Ornette Coleman. He takes traditional forms and styles into new realms and puts spontaneity and riotous creativity at the center of his method. Listening to Pascoal is like riding a roller coaster. The dips are sudden, steep and scary, but the trip is exhilarating. This is one of those very rare occasions when Pascoal is here to conduct the ride in person.
Billy Squier and Maggie`s Dream, Wednesday at the Vic: The `80s answer to Journey, Squier scored a number of hits (”The Stroke,” ”My Kind of Lover,” ”Everybody Wants You,” ”Rock Me Tonight”) with his hook-laden arena rock. He can still come up with a catchy tune, as his new album ”Creatures of Habit” proves. But judging by the record`s limp chart performance, not many people seem to care. Opening act Maggie`s Dream, on the other hand, could be the band of the future here. Imagine Paul McCartney fronting Sly and the Family Stone and you have some idea of the group`s psychedelic funk pop. Maggie`s Dream has been compared to Living Colour and Lenny Kravitz (who worked in a band with several Dreamers), but with its clever sound and smart, socially conscious lyrics this group is carving out a place all its own.
Astrud Gilberto, Thursday at Ravinia: With Brazilian music riding another wave of popularity here, it`s fitting that the singer who personifies Brazilian music for many Americans should return to the spotlight. Gilberto became a favorite during the `60s bossa nova craze when she teamed up with Stan Getz for ”The Girl from Ipanema.” Her cool, precise singing was perfectly suited to the subtle, cerebral sophistication of bossa nova. At least a few bossa nova favorites should be on the menu here. Gilberto performs with a sextet that includes her son.
