| Chicago’s “Music Lives Here” Project |
 (CHICAGO, IL) – Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs launched “Music Lives Here” this summer, a list and map of 50 historical music sites around town. Music Lives Here is a multi-media project that includes an informative website, print publication guide and 50 unique graphic landmark markers that celebrate events in the blues, jazz, R&B, house and steppin’ music history of Chicago, and pop-up performances throughout the year. Music Lives Here is part of the City of Chicago’s Year of Chicago Music initiative. “Music Lives Here” pays tribute to the spaces, places, and people that have shaped Chicago’s music landscape, past and present. Compiled by Aaron Cohen, author of Move on Up: Chicago’s Soul Music and Black Cultural Power, the project organizes Chicago’s vast musical history into an easy format for learning and enjoyment. Some of the landmarks include Chess Records where many of the best blues, soul and jazz artists found a home. Muddy Waters’ House where he eventually relocated to from the Mississippi Delta. Delmark Records which is one of the world’s most significant independent jazz and blues labels that still operates. Soul Train Studio, the original home of Don Cornelius’ groundbreaking television dance show, Soul Train, where Chicago music royalty would show up for Cornelius and play their songs. Vee-Jay/Brunswick Records who came about before Motown and was America’s primary African American-owned record company, distributing John Lee Hooker, The Impressions, The Staple Singers and even, briefly, The Beatles. |
