If you are interested in more details about the record companies who supported the Chicago Blues, check out this interview with Bob Koester, the founder of Delmark Records and one of the many Chicagoans featured in Electrified and Cheat You Fair. He talks about how he got into business, his love of jazz and blues, and some of the challenges he’s faced over the years.
Tags: Bob Koester, Delmark Records
Just a quick reminder that the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago is showing Cheat You Fair this Saturday February 2 at 8pm. A live Q&A with director Phil Ranstrom follows the screening.
The final act of the film details the various conflicts of interest between state government officials and local private developers which allowed this historic market to be destroyed. Among those taken to task is William Cellini who is once again in the news as a conspirator in a possible corruption case involving Patti Blagojevich, the Illinois governor’s wife.
Tags: William Cellini, Patti Blagojevich, Phil Ranstrom, Cheat You Fair, Maxwell Street
Sundance is exciting. You are always on the move, on the phone, emailing or networking. Quite honestly, it is exhausting. I averaged about 4-5 hours of sleep for over a week. To make matters worse, I came down with a horrible cold right when I got there. By the second week, I think I came down with a new cold from someone else. Great place for a pharmacy. Lots of strangers shaking hands, coughing…a perfect place for the perfect cold.
We were all excited to keep daily blogs up while we where there. Unfortunately, our internet connection was not working for the last five days in town. Not the best time to lose connections to the outside world, especially when you are there to show the world what it is all about. So, this Monday, January 28th, Phil and I are the last of our big group to leave. Everyone else left either on Saturday or Sunday. When I woke up Monday morning, snow was falling. Did you know that it snows a lot in Park City?
Well, there was already about 8 inches of fresh snow from the night. My thought process was that it was tapering off. My thought process was way off. That was just the start. Phil and I left our condo around 11:30 am and had a couple of errands to run, before heading back to Salt Lake City to catch our 5pm flight. The snow kept getting harder, the wind kept getting stronger. By 12:30, we start to head out to highway 80, the only way back to the airport. Now, what would normally be a quick few minute drive really turned bad, fast.
It took us about an hour to go 2 miles. At one point, I couldn’t see the cars in front of us, and we weren’t moving. I get on the phone with my wife Erika and ask her to check weather and traffic. She then tells me that 80 is closed until further notice due to multiple accidents and weather. I tell Phil that at some point, we will have to decide if we should turn back and find a hotel for the night. We are two big tough bald guys from Chicago and the last thing I want to have to do is to have to cuddle next to Phil to stay warm at night. That sentence just gave me the willies.
We decide to sit it out and hope it gets better. A few hours pass and a sheriff walks by us and says that the highway will be opening up soon. Now, it’s about 3:30. Our flight takes off at 4:52m except for the fact that the planes are now delayed. My wife has been our emergency notification point person, who informs us that our plane is also delayed. Well, we make it on the highway and go about 30 mph most of the way. We see trucks, cars but mostly big 4×4’s with big lifts and tires that are of the road. The area already had about 3-4 feet of snow, so it really doesn’t matter what you drive, if you slip off the road into a snow drift, you are screwed. We even saw one of those huge highway snowplow trucks stuck in a ditch.
Below is a picture that I took with my iPhone, around 1pm. I had to brighten it up a bit, since it was even darker and it was hard to make anything out. The gods were angry that we were leaving. No worries, we’ll be back!
Yesterday our camera crew followed director Phil Ranstrom and executive producer Les Walgreen around Sundance.
Tags: Sundance, Phil Ranstrom, Les Walgreen
(image from Wikipedia)
Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright will star in Cadillac Records, a Sony BMG bio-pic about Leonard Chess, the founder of Chicago blues label Chess Records. Brody will play Chess and Jeffrey Wright will play Muddy Waters. Filming is set to begin in early March.
The Hollywood Reporter describes the film as
a tale of sex, violence, race and rock ‘n’ roll in 1950s Chicago that follows the turbulent lives of musical legends Waters, Chess, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and Elvis Presley.
It’s great to see this interest in the Chicago blues, and we’re looking forward to following the film as it progresses. It will be very interesting to compare the historical “interpretation” to the documented history in Electrified.
Tags: Chess Records, Muddy Waters, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Cadillac Records
Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street documents the last days of the historic Maxwell Street market. One of the largest, best known open air markets in the world, with more than 20,000 visitors per day, the home of the hotdog and the Chicago landmark that saw the birth of both the urban blues and rock-and-roll, the original Maxwell Street was the victim of urban gentrification in the 1990s.
The film premiered to critical acclaim at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival in April 2007, and was recently shown at the Amnesty International venue at Sundance from January 18-20. A screening and Q&A with director Phil Ranstrom is scheduled for the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on February 2.
Says Ranstrom:
Maxwell Street’s demise had to be investigated and told. While the gentrification of an historic neighborhood is not altogether unique, it is instructive for audiences to see how the forces come about to bring down such a vital and interesting area as well as the price we pay as a society when we lose places like Maxwell Street.
Last week, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and his band joined Fender at the NAMM show. Here are some YouTube clips of their performance.
Definitely something for us to look forward to!
Electrified- The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues will be launched at a party at Harry O’s in Park City on Friday January 25th. In addition to the screening of the film, there will be a live performance by acclaimed blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd and blues legend Hubert Sumlin. Actor Chevy Chase will be master of ceremonies. Fender has also donated a limited edition “Electrified” guitar that film executive producer Les Walgreen will present to online auction house Charity Buzz for an auction to benefit The Center for Environmental Education Online.
Electrified tells the definitive history of the Chicago blues. Written, directed and produced by Phil Ranstrom and narrated by actor Joe Mantegna, the film chronicles how the urban neighborhood of Maxwell Street created a unique environment of commerce and cooperation that led first to the hard-driving sound of the urban blues, and ultimately to rock and roll. Interviews with many of the legendary bluesmen who “studied at Chicago’s Maxwell Street school of music,” including Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmie Lee Robinson and the “father of rock and roll” Bo Diddley, complement the film’s historical narrative and create an exceptional history of this important era in American music.
A companion film, Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street, documents the last days of the historic Maxwell Street market. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival in April 2007, and is scheduled to be shown at the Amnesty International venue at Sundance January 18-20 and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago on February 2.
Both Electrified and Cheat You Fair were written, directed and produced by longtime Chicago resident and Emmy nominated producer Phil Ranstrom who began the projects in 1994 shortly before the Maxwell Street market was demolished.
We’ve put some short clips from both films up on YouTube. They are all great, but here are my two favorites:
"We come up the hard way…" Uncle Johnny Williams on how the blues were born
Eddie "Jewtown" Burkes performing "Step It Up And Go"
Tags: blues, urban blues, Chicago blues, Maxwell Street, Sundance, documentary, Phil Ranstrom, Les Walgreen
Maxwell Street Chicago.
It was unique socio-cultural phenomenon, where people of all races and religions came together to buy, sell, bargain and sing the blues.
The birthplace of the urban blues and “the music school” for blues legends like Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Howlin’ Wolf and the “father of rock and roll” Bo Diddley.
Where a black man could own a Jewish deli and Jewish merchants would help black musicians find a commercial audience for their unique Chicago sound.
This blog is the companion to the films Electrified: The Story of the Maxwell Street Urban Blues and Cheat You Fair: The Story of Maxwell Street, documentaries by Emmy-nominated producer & director Phil Ranstrom that chronicle the history of this remarkable, now demolished, urban space.
Electrified tells the story of the Chicago blues and Cheat You Fair documents the last days of the historic Maxwell Street market. This blog will bring you behind the scenes of the films, into the hearts and minds of the film-makers. And perhaps a few unexpected places as well.
All in the spirit of Maxwell Street Chicago.
