1. CHESS STUDIOS
Jo and I flew in to Chicago and checked in to our hotel on the famous South Michigan Avenue, original home of the historic Chess studios which may have first come to the attention of many of us when the Rolling Stones recorded much of their second album there in 1964-65 - and also an instrumental track named after the studio's address - 2120 South Michigan Avenue (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQQUFW_yfCg).
The studios were owned and run by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil. They sold the business in 1969 but the studios were designated as a Chicago Landmark in 1990 and were acquired by Willie Dixon's widow, Marie, in 1993 and turned in to a museum which opened in 1997. It's now designated as Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation (https://www.bluesheaven.com/)
I had arranged a tour of the studios and we were extremely fortunate to be given a personal tour by Janine Judge, the Executive Director of the Foundation. Here's some of the photos I took of the various exhibits there:
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| Muddy Waters |
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| Chuck Berry |
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| Bo Diddley |
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| Janine took us in to Leonard Chess' office - just as it was |
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| Willie Dixon's bass |
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| "The" studio |
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| Willie, Muddy & Buddy |
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| Wall of face masks of musicians who recorded there |
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| 2120 South Michigan Avenue |
2. BUDDY GUY'S LEGENDS CLUB
We had been here a couple of decades ago but, on that occasion, we were too jet-lagged to enjoy it. There were no famous names on when we were there - although Buddy himself - at the age of 88 - apparently turns up fairly regularly and when he does, they can't get him off the stage again!:
We opted for the early evening semi-acoustic slots and listened to Carlos Showers the first night and he was joined later on by Ron Simmonds, a vocalist who gave an uncanny impression of Louis Amstrong:
The second night we saw Matt Hendricks, who was excellent and he was joined by a superb harmonica player whose name I have forgotten:
Here's some of the wall exhibits:
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Of course, we can't forget that Chicago is the start of the most famous road trip in USA:
(Detroit and Cleveland to follow)
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