Live Now Die Later looks back at Chess Records and pays Tribute to 2 of the best record producers in Blues music them been Leonard Chess and Phil Chess this show comes with a warning that that is just comply with racial and viable conduct and also swear words that we have done are best to reproof with beads Just will say the word n**** we do not mean to offend or harm here at Live Now Die Later we say we are all one race and we are here to support music and keep it going for a long time.

So onto nights show we are looking back on the life of Chess Records and pays Tribute to 2 of the best record producers in Blues music them been Leonard Chess and Phil Chess

 

Leonard Chess (March 12, 1917 - October 16, 1969) was an American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago blues, and rock and roll.

Chess was born Lejzor Shmuel Czyż in a Jewish community in Motal, Poland (now in Belarus). He and his brother, Fiszel, sister, Malka, and mother arrived in New York in 1928 from Poland. They quickly went to Chicago to join their father, Joseph, who was already engaged in the liquor business. The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming Philip.

 

Leonard and his brother Phil became involved in the black nightclub scene on the South Side of Chicago in 1938 running a series of jazz clubs, culminating in the Macomba Lounge. In 1947, Leonard became associated with Aristocrat Records, increasing his share in the company over time; eventually he and Phil would acquire complete control. The Chess brothers moved the company away from black pop and jazz and other genres into down home blues music with artists such as Muddy Waters. In 1950, the Chess brothers renamed the company Chess Records. "My Foolish Heart" (Gene Ammons), "Rollin' Stone" (Muddy Waters), and "That's All Right" (Jimmy Rogers) were among the first releases on the new label. Leonard Chess played bass drum on one of Muddy Waters' sessions in 1951.

 

Chess contacted Sam Phillips (of Sun Records) to help find and record new artists from the South. Phillips supplied Chess with recordings by Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, and Doctor Ross among others. Of these, Howlin' Wolf in particular became very popular, and Chess Records had to vie for him with other companies which had also been supplied with Wolf recordings by Phillips. In time, other important artists signed with Chess Records, including Bo Diddley and Sonny Boy Williamson, while Willie Dixon and Robert Lockwood Jr. took on a significant role behind the scenes. In the 1950s, Chess Records' commercial success grew with artists such as Little Walter, The Moonglows, The Flamingos, and Chuck Berry, and in the '60s with Etta James, Fontella Bass, Koko Taylor, Little Milton, Laura Lee, and Tommy Tucker, as well as with the subsidiary labels Checker, Argo, and Cadet. As the 1960s progressed, Chess's recording enterprise branched out into other genres including gospel, traditional jazz, spoken word, comedy, and more. In the early 1960s, Chess became involved in the broadcasting business as part owner of WVON-AM radio and later acquired WSDM-FM, both in Chicago.

 

In October 16, 1969, a few months after selling his namesake label to General Recorded Tape, Leonard Chess died of a condition known as broken heart syndrome (also known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy). 

Music industry historian John Broven has written that "Leonard Chess was the dynamo behind Chess Records, the label that, along with Atlantic and Sun, has come to epitomize the independent record business. […] Leonard Chess set new standards for the industry in artist development, deal making, networking, and marketing and promotion

• Marshall Chess - Leonard's son, eventually became President of Chess Records after the GRT acquisition in 1969.

• Jamar Chess - Leonard's grandson, continues the family legacy, co-founder of music publishing companies Sunflower Entertainment and Revolution Songs.

 

 

Phil Chess, co-founder of Chess Records, has died at the age of 95. Chess Records launched the careers of Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, and Howling’ Wolf, among others. Chess started the company with his brother, Leonard, in Chicago in 1950. They are credited with raising Chicago’s reputation as the capital of blues. The record company was also sighted as inspiration for many British artists in London’s blues scene of the 1960s, including The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Both brothers have been inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.

Phil Chess, co-founder of a Chicago’s Chess Records, the label that amassed the most influential blues catalogue and has been credited with helping to invent rock’n’roll, has died at home in Tuscon, Arizona. He was 95.

Nephew Craig Glicken told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday that Chess died overnight at his 30-acre ranch and said his uncle had been in good health.

 

In 1950 on the Southside of Chicago. It went on to become a label that served as a launchpad for the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry and Etta James, bringing their blues sounds to the world.

The music Chess Records released was known as “race music” at the time and was rooted in rhythm and blues, a sound that would influence the likes of the Rolling Stones and lead to the emergence of rock’n’roll. The brothers released music from other giants of blues including John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon.

The blues guitarist Buddy Guy told the Sun-Times that the brothers’ impact on blues and rock’n’roll was huge and that it changed Chicago and turned it into a hotbed for the sound.

He said: “Phil and Leonard Chess were cutting the type of music nobody else was paying attention to … and now you can take a walk down [Chicago’s] State Street today and see a portrait of Muddy that’s 10 stories tall.”

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How the blues brothers behind Chess Records made all the right moves

 

Phil Chess (whose birth name was Fiszel Czyż) was born in Poland in 1921 before his family emigrated to the US in 1928, eventually changing their name to Chess, with Phil joining his brother in the record business after a spell in the army.

The brothers started out with a liquor store, then ran a nightclub and music venue, which was known for its great R&B music, and eventually got into the music recording business, though neither had ever played an instrument.

Their label’s first release was a Gene Ammons’s version of My Foolish Heart. Then came Muddy Waters’s Rollin’ Stone, a song so influential it became the name of the British rock band and the American music magazine.

The Rolling Stones also named a track 2120 S Michigan Avenue after the headquarters of the label whose artists provided the bedrock to their early sound, and whose origin story involves a young Keith Richards approaching Mick Jagger because he spotted a couple of Chess LPs under his arm.