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Marshall Chess (born March 13, 1942) is an American record producer, the son of Leonard Chess who co-founded Chess Records.
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Marshall Chess (born March 13, 1942) is an American record producer, the son of Leonard Chess who co-founded Chess Records.
Marshall worked for sixteen years with Chess Records; founded by his father Leonard and his uncle Phil. He did everything from pressing records and loading trucks to producing over 100 Chess Records projects and eventually heading up the label as President after their acquisition by GRT in 1969. In the late 1960s, Marshall also ran his own Cadet Concept imprint as a division of Chess Records. He created and produced the Rotary Connection, which became the springboard for Minnie Riperton’s career. He signed John Klemmer and created a new format which was heralded as the first jazz-fusion album, Blowin' Gold. He signed the underground black rock legends Black Merda. His Cadet Concept also imported and released the only American hit, "Pictures of Matchstick Men", by the British rock group Status Quo. He also created and produced the controversial psychedelicized blues albums Electric Mud by Muddy Waters and The Howlin' Wolf Album by Howlin' Wolf. He restored his reputation by producing the jam album Fathers & Sons with Waters, Mike Bloomfield, Otis Spann, Paul Butterfield, Duck Dunn, Sam Lay and Buddy Miles in 1969.
Departing from Chess Records in 1970 after the death of his father, Marshall was hired as the founding president of Rolling Stones Records, a record label controlled by the English rock group. Marshall Chess had known the band since 1964, when they had used Chess studios in Chicago to record songs while touring the United States. He was an active executive manager, touring with the band, and being involved with record production as well as outside business interests. In 1977, Chess resigned from Rolling Stones Records because he felt that too much drugs, sex, and rock n roll was undermining his health and his ability to work in the company. [1] He was replaced by Earl McGrath on the advice of Atlantic Records head Ahmet Ertegün, the Stones' record distribution partner. Chess wound up with a heroin addiction and spent years trying various therapies from primal scream to LSD while living in New York's Catskills. [2]
As well as music, Chess produced three films in the 1960s and 1970s: The Legend of Bo Diddley, Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones , and the unreleased concert tour documentary Cocksucker Blues by Robert Frank.
During the 1980s and 1990s Marshall produced projects for both Sire Records and Island Records. From 1979 to 1981 he also managed as well as co-produced (with Ed Stasium) the Sire band , Alda-Reserve. He worked with rap star KRS-One, developing an audio comic book project, Break The Chain, for Marvel Comics.
In 1984, Marshall Chess became a partner in publishing company ARC Music, which he began actively heading in 1992. In 2003, Chess was featured in the film Godfathers and Sons directed by Marc Levin, for the PBS series The Blues , produced by Martin Scorsese. [3] In the film, Marshall produces a hip hop version of the classic Chess track “Mannish Boy” featuring rappers Chuck D and Common recording with original members of the Electric Mud band.
In 1999 Chess founded the Czyz Records record label, with his cousin Kevin. The first record released on Czyz Records was the Murali Coryell album 2120, named after Chess' old Chicago address at 2120 South Michigan. Czyz (pronounced "Chez" or "Chaz") was the original Polish surname of Leonard and Phil Chess when they arrived in America from Poland. [4]
In the year 2000, Marshall, his son Jamar Chess and Juan Carlos Barguil founded Sunflower Entertainment, a specialty music publishing and licensing house that focuses on independent Latin music and iconic American songs.
Marshall has been on Sirius Satellite Radio's Blues Channel since 2007 hosting the Chess Records Hour, a three times a week show featuring the music and history of Chess Records. Chess was executive music producer on two movies which dramatise the history of Chess Records: Cadillac Records (2008), and Who Do You Love? , (2008) directed by Jerry Zaks. [5]
In 2012, Marshall co-founded Revolution Songs, a music publishing and sync licensing company. [6]
He is married to Robin Chess, a cooking teacher; they have a son, Jamar Chess. [7]
Chess's relationship with his father was a tough one. He described Leonard as "a rough character. He never played catch with me. Instead, he taught me how to shake hands." And when Marshall, age 21, first started working at Chess records, he asked his father what he was supposed to do, and Leonard told him: "You stupid motherfucker, your job is watching me." [2]
William James Dixon was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.
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".
Chester Arthur Burnett, better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer and guitarist. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chicago blues, and over a four-decade career, recorded blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and psychedelic rock. He is regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time.
Leonard Samuel Chess, best known simply as Leonard Chess, was a Polish-American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago blues, and rock and roll.
Chicago blues is a form of blues music that developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but is performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of African Americans of the first half of the twentieth century. Key features that distinguish Chicago blues from the earlier traditions, such as Delta blues, is the prominent use of electrified instruments, especially the electric guitar, and especially the use of electronic effects such as distortion and overdrive.
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat Records, founded in 1947. It expanded into soul music, gospel music, early rock and roll, and jazz and comedy recordings, released on the Chess and its subsidiary labels Checker and Argo/Cadet. The Chess catalogue is owned by Universal Music Group and managed by Geffen Records and Universal Music Enterprises.
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.
Rotary Connection was an American psychedelic soul band, formed in Chicago in 1966.
Moanin' in the Moonlight is a compilation album and the first album by American blues artist Howlin' Wolf, released by Chess Records in 1959. It contains songs previously issued as singles, including one of his best-known, "Smokestack Lightning". Rolling Stone ranked it number 477 on its 2020 list of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
The Anthology: 1947–1972 is a double compilation album by Chicago blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters. It contains many of his best-known songs, including his R&B single chart hits "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man", "Just Make Love to Me ", and "I'm Ready". Chess and MCA Records released the set on August 28, 2001.
Blues Jam in Chicago is a studio recording by the British rock band Fleetwood Mac, originally released in two single-LP volumes by Blue Horizon in December 1969. It was the result of a recording session in early 1969 at Chess Records in Chicago with Fleetwood Mac, then a young British blues band, and a number of famous Chicago blues artists from whom they drew inspiration. The album has also been released, with slightly different track listings, under the titles Blues Jam at Chess Volumes One and Two and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, the latter by Sire Records in 1976.
"Spoonful" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin' Wolf. Called "a stark and haunting work", it is one of Dixon's best known and most interpreted songs. Etta James and Harvey Fuqua had a pop and R&B record chart hit with their duet cover of "Spoonful" in 1961, and it was popularized in the late 1960s by the British rock group Cream.
Philip Chess was a Polish-born American record producer and company executive, the co-founder with his brother of Chess Records.
"Little Red Rooster" is a blues standard credited to arranger and songwriter Willie Dixon. The song was first recorded in 1961 by American blues musician Howlin' Wolf in the Chicago blues style. His vocal and slide guitar playing are key elements of the song. It is rooted in the Delta blues tradition and the theme is derived from folklore. Musical antecedents to "Little Red Rooster" appear in earlier songs by blues artists Charlie Patton and Memphis Minnie.
"I Ain't Superstitious" is a song written by bluesman Willie Dixon and first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1961. It recounts various superstitions, including that of a black cat crossing the pathway. The song has been recorded by a number of artists, including Jeff Beck, whose blues rock adaptation in 1968 was named one of Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".
The Howlin' Wolf Album is the first studio album by Howlin' Wolf, released in 1969. It features members of Rotary Connection as his backing band. The album mixed blues with psychedelic rock arrangements of several of Wolf's classic songs. Howlin' Wolf strongly disliked the album, which is noted on the album's cover art. The album peaked at number 69 on Billboard magazine's "Black Albums" chart.
Charles Stepney was an American record producer, arranger, songwriter and musician. Stepney is noted for his work with artists such as The Dells, Ramsey Lewis, Rotary Connection and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Jamar Chess is an American music publisher. He is president and co-founder of Sunflower Entertainment Group, a music publishing firm and record label that focuses on independent Latin music and manages a catalogue of music, including work from Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Ike Turner, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding, Frank Sinatra, Thelonious Monk, Marvin Gaye, Alan O'Day, Duke Ellington, and Charles Stepney.
Samuel Julian Lay was an American drummer and vocalist who performed from the late 1950s as a blues and R&B musician alongside Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Paul Butterfield, and many others. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
Jeffrey M. Carp was an American blues harmonica player. He was best known for his work with Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Howlin' Wolf. He played harmonica on numerous charting blues albums. He was also for a period of time, a side man in Earl Hooker's band.
Mr. Chess, 37, is a founder of the Sunflower Entertainment Company and Spirit Music Latino, both music publishers in Manhattan. He graduated from Manhattanville College.
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