Jim Derogatis

Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank talk about creating How to Be a Rock Critic: Based on the Writings of Lester Bangs.

In his latest tutorial on Chicago’s music history, Jim DeRogatis explores the enduring contributions of Chicago’s south and R&B music.

Though its roots are ultimately as hard to pin down to a specific time and place as those of any other enduring musical genre, Chicago looms as large in gospel music as it does in the electric blues, thanks in large part to the pioneering Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey and the extraordinary women who followed in his footsteps. One does not have to be a person of faith to appreciate the music, echoes of which are heard in all modern pop, especially via the rich tradition of call-and-response vocals and the never-ending search for melodies that evoke spiritual transcendence. The importance of the music as the magnet at the centers of community represented by African-American churches cannot be overstated — in the present or in the past.

Chicago-based Chess Records helped make stars of Muddy Waters, Etta James and a force of nature named Chuck Berry, who died March 18, 2017, at his home outside St. Louis. He was 90. In 2010, WBEZ’s Sound Opinions visited the home of Chess Records, which released most of Berry’s best-known songs. In this special rebroadcast by WBEZ Presents, Sound Opinions hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot dive into the history and the legacy of Chess, a Chicago record label that changed rock n’ roll.

The argument can be made that all modern popular music begins when Southern musicians who migrated to the North electrified their sounds in an attempt to be heard in the big city—and that means it all started here on Maxwell Street.

The tenor of SXSW 2017 can be gleaned from the way it’s now described in its official corporate lingo: “The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference & Festivals celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries, March 10-19, 2017.”