Chess Records

            The Chess record label, founded by Phil and Leonard Chess in 1950, contributed to the evolution of the blues style after the Great Migration, and it was fundamental in the development of the urban blues style. A “stellar roster” of blues musicians recorded for Chess (including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and others) and these musicians and their recordings were influential in propelling the blues revival. [1]   Additionally, Chess Records helped to pioneer a musical style that became archetypical of the post-war blues, and would be subsumed into other styles by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and the Rolling Stones.

             Although the recording industry in general standardized and popularized the blues style, often stripping it of its “soul” (and Chess was no exception, as Jon Spencer illustrates), Chess productions also made use of certain recording techniques that allowed blues musicians to preserve the rawness and power of the Delta style. [2]   For example, heavy reverb was created by placing singers in bathrooms or hallways or by having musicians play into sewer pipes, which dirtied the soundscape of the recordings; similarly, singers and guitars were recorded at a very close distance and at high gain levels, creating signal distortion and recalling the gritty sound of early blues music and the African musical tendencies that preceded them. [3]   Distortion became a central feature of many subsequent styles; Chess, therefore, remains a crucial historical bridge between many contemporary styles and their roots in the early blues.

 Bibliography       [1]   Victor Coelho, Week 4 lecture 5: “Chess Records.” Crossroads: Musical and Cultural Perspectives on the Blues: course notes. Boston, Massachusetts: Boston University, accessed 22 June 2014, https://onlinecampus.bu.edu       [2]  Spencer, “Diminishing Rural Residue,” 36; Coelho, “Chess Records.”       [3]  Coelho, “Chess Records.”