The Checkerboard Lounge was a blues club on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, established in 1972 at 423 E. 43rd St. by L.C. Thurman and Buddy Guy. [1] [2] In 1985, Guy left the partnership and later established Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago's South Loop neighborhood.
The club hosted musical acts including Lefty Dizz, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Magic Slim, Vance Kelly, Muddy Waters, the Rolling Stones, James Cotton, Little Johnny Christian and the Chicago Playboys, Scotty and the Rib Tips, Jerry Lucky Lee and the Groove Machine, John Primer, and Chuck Berry. [3] [4] The Rolling Stones video and album Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981 included the Stones performing with Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, and members of Muddy Waters' band. [4] [5]
In 2003, the Checkerboard Lounge, in danger of closing due to structural issues with the building, [6] moved to a newly renovated building at 5201 S. Harper Court in Hyde Park. [2] The club experienced declining attendance and it closed its doors in 2015, after the death of L.C. Thurman. [7]
Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos that reflect characteristics of the human singing voice. It typically involves playing the guitar in the traditional position with the use of a slide fitted on one of the guitarist's fingers. The slide may be a metal or glass tube, such as the neck of a bottle, giving rise to the term bottleneck guitar to describe this type of playing. The strings are typically plucked while the slide is moved over the strings to change the pitch. The guitar may also be placed on the player's lap and played with a hand-held bar.
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-World War II blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues". His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, whom many consider to be the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues guitarist and singer. He is an exponent of Chicago blues who has influenced generations of guitarists including Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark Jr. and John Mayer. In the 1960s, Guy played with Muddy Waters as a session guitarist at Chess Records and began a musical partnership with blues harp virtuoso Junior Wells.
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June, that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and occurs in early June. Until 2017, the event took place at and around Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park, adjacent to the Lake Michigan waterfront east of the Loop in Chicago. In 2017, the festival was moved to the nearby Millennium Park.
Electric Mud is the fifth studio album by Muddy Waters, with members of Rotary Connection playing as his backing band. Released in 1968, it presents Muddy Waters as a psychedelic musician. Producer Marshall Chess suggested that Muddy Waters record it in an attempt to appeal to a rock audience.
Folk Singer is the second studio album and fourth album overall by Muddy Waters, released in January 1964 by Chess Records. The album features Waters on acoustic guitar, backed by Willie Dixon on string bass, Clifton James on drums, and Buddy Guy on acoustic guitar. It is Waters's only all-acoustic album. Numerous reissues of Folk Singer include bonus tracks from two subsequent sessions, in April 1964 and October 1964.
"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter.
John Primer is an American Chicago blues and electric blues singer and guitarist who played behind Junior Wells in the house band at Theresa's Lounge and as a member of the bands of Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters and Magic Slim before launching an award-winning career as a front man, carrying forward the traditional Windy City sound into the 21st century.
Chicago, Illinois is a major center for music in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues, and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.
Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, Chicago 1981 is a concert video and live album by American blues musician Muddy Waters and members of the English rock band the Rolling Stones. It was recorded on 22 November 1981 by David Hewitt on the Record Plant Black Truck, mixed by Bob Clearmountain, and released on 10 July 2012.
Lefty Dizz was an American Chicago blues guitarist and singer whose recorded work was released on eight albums.
Johnny "Big Moose" Walker was an American Chicago blues and electric blues pianist and organist. He worked with many blues musicians, including Ike Turner, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Lowell Fulson, Choker Campbell, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy Dawkins and Son Seals.
Buddy Guy's Legends is a blues club in Chicago, Illinois. It was opened in 1989 by blues musician Buddy Guy who still owns the club and makes regular appearances, performing a month of shows each January.
Harmonica Hinds is a Trinidadian-American blues singer and musician. He moved from Trinidad to Canada and then settled permanently in Chicago. He was influenced by blues musicians and started playing harmonica at an early age. He became known in the 1970s, when he played on the house band of Theresa's Lounge in Chicago. He shared the stage with and played on albums by many blues musicians for more than five decades, making his first recording in 2008. Further recordings were made in 2010 and 2012. He has been described as one of the most talented Chicago blues musicians and remains active on the Chicago blues scene.
Chicago Blues All-Stars is an American blues band based in Chicago that incorporates elements of funk, soul, R&B and hip hop. Chicago Blues All-Stars is made up of musicians that have been together as friends and musicians for four decades. The band includes numerous inductees in the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame and has been a headliner for shows such as Buddy Guy's Legends featured on PBS and at music venues Kingston Mines and House Of Blues. "Killer" Ray Allison, a W.C. Handy Award winner, and Daniel "Chicago Slim" Ivankovich, who has played with Bo Diddley, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, are the band leaders, co-founders, and Blues Hall of Fame inductees. Chicago Blues All-Stars have recorded with and performed with Chuck Berry, Paul Butterfield, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, James Cotton, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, B.B. King, Magic Sam, Gary Moore, Ohio Players, The Rolling Stones, Otis Rush, Koko Taylor, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter.
The Dollar Done Fell is the second live album by Buddy Guy.
McKinley Morganfield A.K.A. Muddy Waters is a compilation album by blues musician Muddy Waters featuring tracks recorded between 1948 and 1953 released by the Chess label in 1971.
Ladell McLin is an American blues musician.
41°48′59″N87°36′55″W / 41.816435°N 87.615211°W