When Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings performed a hip-shaking, pulse-quickening, grin-inducing set in the Petrillo Music Shell at Lollapalooza last summer, I was instantly hooked and eagerly awaited my next fix of their searing soul and James Brownian funk. Little did I suspect I’d cop that fix in the exact same spot almost a year later, on the closing night of Blues Fest 2009. Jones and her seven-piece show band proved worth the wait.
A lively, assured shouter who dropped apt references to Brown and Tina Turner, Jones kicked off the tight, too-short set of straight-ahead, unapologetic soul by asking the Daps to “Give me some strutting music.” And strut she did, in and out of her sparkly gold heels, waist swiveling, hips grinding, arms waving, hair flying. “When the mic gets in my hand, my body starts to move,” she noted before showing off her best boogaloo (”I need to take you back to 1965″), pony, mashed potato (”Mr. James Brown, he used to do the mashed potato”), funky chicken and tighten up (prompting an Archie Bell & the Drells interlude from the Daps).
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Stole an hour this afternoon to catch Muddy Waters’s sons Big Bill and Mud Morganfield tear up the Front Porch Stage during the first day of Blues Fest. Mud gave off a bit of a big-ego vibe, but the dude sounds (and looks) a lot like his dad, and Big Bill was trading sweet guitar licks with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on the harp.
In what the emcee accurately noted was close to a reunion of Muddy Waters’s band as possible, Pinetop Perkins even sat in at the piano for a few songs. At 95, he looked frail but good-humored in his natty green suit, and he smiled while Mud and the rest of the crew helped him tuck into “Got My Mojo Workin’.” The set highlight, though, was their rollicking take on “What’s the Matter with the Mill.”
Here’s a clip of them playing “Hootchie Cootchie Man” at Westmont in ‘07:
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And on the twelfth day of June, the clouds gave way to a bright blue sky; the sun spilt its warmth upon us. The air was thick with mesquite smoke and the wafting scent of Robinson’s Ribs, and as I settled on a grassy knoll with an over-priced Lite beer of indiscriminate flavor and enjoyed a twelve-bar blues progression, the winter washed away and I thought to myself, “This is why I moved to Chicago.”
That’s right, ladies and gentleman, the Chicago Blues Fest is upon us yet again. See how the first day is shaping up in our online gallery.
Today, we take it for granted that female blues singers are cornerstones of the local scene and key to Chicago’s more recent blues lore. One club, Blue Chicago, has even made a subtle point of featuring mainly women. But long before the Shirley Johnsons, Mary Lanes, Katherine Davises and Big Time Sarahs, there was the one and only Koko. Most of the bios and articles on Koko Taylor make her sound as if she was the only female in a man’s game before the ’80s. While there were other blueswomen on the local panorama (like Bonnie Lee and Arelean Brown, both now deceased), Taylor was clearly the most dominant. With the great composer/producer/bassist/singer Willie Dixon mentoring her career, she was among the last of the great blues artists at Chess Records in the ’60s. And when she signed with the then-fledgling Alligator label in 1975, it was said that label head Bruce Iglauer doubted if he could market a female blues singer. She turned out to be a mainstay of the company, right up to her final disc, 2007’s Old School. Taylor rode the wave of the last “blues revival” as it sparked at the end of the ’70s and became one of the more popular entertainers in the field. Taylor enjoyed the same local celebrity factor as Buddy Guy; if you asked the most blues-ignorant person to name a blues act, Koko Taylor would probably be one of the names mentioned off the top of the head. She worked hard to get to that position, and seemed justifiably proud, if modest.
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The City of Chicago announced the lineup for the 2009 Blues Fest, going down June 12–15 at Grant Park. Two economic aftereffects—not entirely unwelcome—immediately stand out on the schedule. First, Thursday has been lopped off the traditionally four-day affair. Second, most of those groan-inducing corporate sponsorships are gone. Yes, the Zone Perfect Route 66 Roadhouse survives, but the (U.S. Cellular) Front Porch stage seems to have been trimmed to its brandless title.
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
This year has pinch of soul. She’s not exactly a blues act, but Sharon Jones is a killer headliner. You’ll hear no genre nitpicking from us. Other retro–R&B highlights include Sunday’s soul revue from local indie Rabbit Factory records. Rabbit owner John Ciba (partnered with TOC contributor James Porter) also spins vintage wax as East of Edens Soul Express in numerous slots throughout the fest.
The complete lineup follows the jump.
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