Switch to the mobile version of this page.

- Username
- View Profile
- Edit Profile
- Log Out
- Log in
- Create Account

The Chicago Reader

Articles

Loading...

Music, Music Review Feb 22, 2021
Recommended Video
R&B wizard Pink Sweat$ will take over the galaxy with his Pink Planet
- By Salem Collo-Julin
- Tags: Music Review, Pink Sweat$, Pink Planet, Atlantic Records, R&B, pop music, Philadelphia, David Bowden, Sigma Sound Studios, Tierra Whack, Volume 1, Human Resources, Honesty, At My Worst, Recommended, Video

Music, Music Review Dec 24, 2020
Recommended
Chicago polymath Cam Be melds funk, R&B, and hip-hop to lift up struggling spirits
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Review, Cam Be, Summer in September, Camovement, funk, R&B, hip-hop, Joshua Griffin, Sam Trump, Chris Paquette, Recommended

Music, Music Feature Nov 12, 2020
Bless the Mad share their private pantheon of Black Chicago music

The production duo discuss the classic hip-hop, soul, gospel, and jazz records that inspired the reverent sonic collage on their debut album.
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Feature, Bless the Mad, Ibrahem Hasan, Matthew Rivera, Philip Cohran, Kelan Phil Cohran, Artistic Heritage Ensemble, Maxwell Street, gospel, soul, spiritual jazz, R&B, funk, hip-hop, Gaia Earthpeace, Stay the Course Records, Pastor T.L. Barrett & the Youth for Christ Choir, Like a Ship . . . (Without a Sail), Curtis Mayfield, Curtis, Common Sense, Resurrection, the Awakening, Mirage, Earth, Wind & Fire, Maurice White, Ken Chaney, Black Jazz Records, Zulu Records, Pharaohs, George Benson, Andrew Brearley, Meaty Ogre, Dusty Groove

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Nov 5, 2020
Video
Girl group the Lovelites hit big but never became stars outside Chicago

They had their biggest success with “How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad,” which came out when they were so young they could barely tour.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Lovelites, Patti Hamilton, girl group, soul, R&B, Clarence Johnson, Sequins, Opals, Gems, Rozena Petty, Rosena Hamilton, Barbara Peterman, Carver High School, Altgeld Gardens, Bandera Records, I Found Me a Lover, You Better Stop It, Ardell McDaniel, How Can I Tell My Mom and Dad (That I’ve Been Bad), Chi-Lites, Lock Records, Joni Berlmon, Uni Records, MCA, Who You Gonna Hurt Now, Herb Kent, This Love Is Real, With Love From the Lovelites, Johnny Cameron, Lovelite Records, northern soul, My Conscience, My Baby Loves Me, Bumpy Road Ahead, Cotillion Records, Rhonda Grayson, Patti & the Lovelites, Muscle Shoals, Love Bandit, Is That Lovin' in Your Heart, 20th Century, Theresa Davis, The Lovelite Years, Deniece Williams, Denise Chandler, Niecy, Stevie Wonder, Wonderlove, I'm Not Like the Others, Grapevine, Sisters of Soul: The Sweeter Voices of Soul, Video

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Oct 23, 2020
Video
The Artistics belong in the top tier of Chicago soul and R&B

They could match the quality of the Impressions and the Chi-Lites, but not their chart success.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Artistics, soul, R&B, Chi-Lites, Impressions, Five Stairsteps, Curt Thomas, Larry Johnson, Jesse Bolian, Aaron Floyd, Robert Dobyne, Major Lance, The Monkey Time, Life Begins at Sixteen, One Way, S&G Records, Carl Davis, Okeh Records, I Need Your Love, What’ll I Do, Brunswick Records, Get My Hands on Some Lovin’, Marvin Gaye, Charles Davis, Marvin Smith, Patty Cake, Curtis Mayfield, This Heart of Mine, Barrett Strong, Loveland, I’m Gonna Miss You, Tommy Green, Girl I Need You, Hard to Carry On, You Left Me, The Articulate Artistics, What Happened, Eugene Record, Fred Pettis, Morris Williams, Make My Life Over (I Want You To), Willie Henderson, She's Heaven, Look Out I'm Gonna Get You, Look Out, Motorcity Records, Outta Sight, This Heart of Mine, So Much Love in My Heart, Video

Music, Music Review Oct 16, 2020
Recommended
Chicago soul man Nate Barksdale makes smooth sounds to get us through the city’s coldest months
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Review, Nate Barksdale, Summer Was Over Before It Started, soul music, neosoul, R&B, Recommended

Music, Music Review Sep 19, 2020
Recommended
Zora Jones’s Ten Billion Angels is an electronic fantasy inspired by tentacle porn
- By Joshua Minsoo Kim
- Tags: Music Review, Zora Jones, Ten Billion Angels, Fractal Fantasy, tentacle porn, Austria, Spain, footwork, Japan, CGI, R&B, electronic music, Recommended

Music, Music Review Sep 7, 2020
Recommended Video
Paulette McWilliams’s A Woman’s Story shows why stars have always relied on her voice
- By Aaron Cohen
- Tags: Music Review, Paulette McWilliams, BluJazz, A Woman's Story, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Quincy Jones, Off the Wall, Get It Right, Harlettes, Bette Midler, Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, singer, R&B, Kamau Kenyatta, Etienne Charles, Recommended, Video

Music, Music Review Jul 17, 2020
Recommended
Lianne La Havas moves between love and loss on her new self-produced, self-titled album
- By Jamie Ludwig
- Tags: Music Review, Lianne La Havas, Warner Music, England, London, UK, Is Your Love Big Enough?, Green & Gold, alt-pop, R&B, Recommended

Music, Gossip Wolf Jul 14, 2020
R&B singer Ifeanyi Elswith makes a star turn on the new Everything Festyle

Plus: Hardcore trio Warrior Tribes turn a posthumous record into a benefit, and Warm Human drops a fresh album of bedroom pop.
- By J.R. Nelson and Leor Galil
- Tags: Gossip Wolf, Ifeanyi Elswith, Rosebud Allday, Everything Festyle, Fefestyle, XO, Warrior Tribes, The Con, hardcore, R&B, David Wolf, Bill Molloy, Daylight Robbery, My Block My Hood My City, Assata’s Daughters, Warm Human, The Bummer Album, Meredith Johnston

Music, Music Review Apr 24, 2020
Recommended
Chicago pop experimentalists White Ppl offer a brief glimpse of their huge promise on their debut EP
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Music Review, White Ppl, experimental music, pop music, Ano Ba, Filipinx, Filipino, Filipina, Philippines, Cado San, Logan Square, Elly Tier, Ilovemybb, The Way U Move, R&B, Recommended

Music, Music Review Mar 27, 2020
Spend quality time in quarantine with your new favorite Chicago albums

Close your eyes and picture yourself at your favorite local venue while listening to these new releases.
- By Jamie Ludwig
- Tags: Music Review, album reviews, avant-garde, concerts, coronavirus, COVID-19, Deeper, Drama, Facs, Helen Money, hip-hop, indie rock, Melkbelly, music, musicians, noise music, postpunk, punk rock, R&B, Radiohead, rap, records, Sampa the Great, shelter-in-place, Sterling Hayes, Stuck, Thom Yorke

Music, Music Review Mar 26, 2020
Recommended
Drama’s new Dance Without Me is for sad-but-sexy folks everywhere
- By Jessi Roti
- Tags: Music Review, Drama, Dance Without Me, electro, R&B, Gallows, Na'el Shehade, Via Rosa, 7:04 AM, Lifetime, Recommended

Music, Concert Preview Mar 6, 2020
Recommended Video
Blood Orange brings his intimate R&B pop indoors
- By Jack Riedy
- Tags: Concert Preview, Blood Orange, Dev Hynes, R&B, pop music, New York, Angel's Pulse, Negro Swan, Dark & Handsome, Gold Teeth, Baby Florence (Figure), Vic Theatre, Recommended, Video

Music, Concert Preview Jan 31, 2020
Recommended
After a bout of self-doubt, Chicago rapper Kembe X re-emerges with a star’s brightness
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Concert Preview, Kembe X, Dikembe Caston, rap, hip-hop, R&B, Kehlani, depression, I Was Depressed Until I Made This, FocusGroup, Empire, Self Rule, Lyrical Lemonade, Schubas, Recommended

Music, Concert Preview Jan 31, 2020
Recommended
With Piece of Mind, Hxry brings a laid-back vibe to Chicago’s R&B scene
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Concert Preview, Hxry, HXRY, R&B, Subterranean, hip-hop, Soundcloud, Piece of Mind, Reasons, Majestic Casual, YouTube, Mr. Freeze, Recommended

Music, Concert Preview Jan 10, 2020
Recommended
New York R&B singer Samoht searches for pop music’s unknown paths
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Concert Preview, Samoht, Exit, Mxxn Wave, R&B, Reason, Promontory, New York, Recommended

Music, Concert Preview Jan 3, 2020
Recommended
Chicago’s Bad Ambassadors use hip-hop as the glue for their genre-jumping debut
- By Leor Galil
- Tags: Concert Preview, Bad Ambassadors, Rich Jones, Joseph Sepka, Walkingshoe, ShowYouSuck, Qari, Ness Heads, hip-hop, Who Me, R&B, Recommended

Music, Concert Preview Dec 21, 2019
Recommended Video
Avery Sunshine brings in the new year with her bright neosoul
- By Noah Berlatsky
- Tags: Concert Preview, Avery Sunshine, Denise Nicole White, Dana Johnson, neosoul, soul, Stalker, Twenty Sixty Four, Bigshine, Shanachie, Used Car, Come Do Nothing, gumbo, R&B, Recommended, Video

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Nov 19, 2019
Video
Pieces of Peace cut most of their brilliant soul-funk for other people’s records

The only album this Chicago band made at sessions of their own didn’t come out till 35 years after they broke up.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Pieces of Peace, soul, funk, R&B, Bernard Reed, Constellations, Chess Records, Smash Records, Roulette Records, Phil Upchurch, Reggie Boyd, Johnny Pate, Artistics, Danny Reed, Brunswick Records, Carl Davis, Jackie Wilson, Chi-Lites, Barbara Acklin, Gene Chandler, Eugene Record, John Bishop, Hal Nesbitt, Jerry Wilson, Michael Davis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Twinight Records, Syl Johnson, Fred White, King Johnson, Benjamin Wright, Michael Jackson, Pass It On, Pharaohs, Scarab Records, Fred Crutchfield, Joel Brandon, Numero Group, DJ Shadow, Eccentric Soul, Cali-Tex, Quannum Projects, I Still Care, Pollution, Video

Music, Music Feature Oct 23, 2019
Summoning the ghosts of Record Row

For two decades, a short stretch of Michigan Avenue hosted a concentration of creative entrepreneurship whose influence on Black popular music is still felt today.
- By Aaron Cohen
- Tags: Music Feature, Record Row, soul, R&B, blues, gospel, jazz, Move On Up, Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power, Michigan Avenue, Roosevelt, Cermak, Chess Records, Cadet Concept, Brunswick Records, Vee-Jay Records, Constellation Records, Mama Batt’s Restaurant, Jerry Butler’s Songwriters Workshop, Jerry Butler, Garmisa Distributing Company, One-derful Records, Otis Clay, Alvin Cash, Jackson 5, King Records, Curtom Records, Motor Row, WVON, Universal Recording, Ebony, Willie Dixon, Blues Heaven Foundation, Jackie Ross, Mitty Collier, Fontella Bass, Raynard Miner, Rescue Me, Louis Satterfield, Terry Callier, the Dells, Rotary Connection, Peace, Occasional Rain, Freedom Means, Charles Stepney, M.S. Distributing, Ron Alexenburg, Columbia Records, the Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Vivian Carter, James Bracken, Beatles, Carl Davis, Dakar, Jimmy Reed, Staple Singers, Swan Silvertones, Wayne Shorter, Impressions, Betty Everett, Gene Chandler, Shirley Wahls, Chi-Lites, Barbara Acklin, Jackie Wilson, Tyrone Davis, Willie Henderson, Thomas “Tom Tom” Washington, Sonny Sanders, Argo Singers, Ewart Abner, Curtis Mayfield, Just Be True, Motown, Stevie Wonder, Mar-V-Lus, George Leaner, Ernie Leaner, Halo, Five Du-Tones, Shake a Tail Feather, Ray Charles, Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Larry Wade, The Love We Had (Stays on My Mind), Chuck Jackson, Marvin Yancy, Independents, Leaving Me, Natalie Cole, Richard Steele, Marshall Chess, Leonard Chess

Music, Concert Preview Oct 17, 2019
Recommended Video
JPEGMafia offers an escape from single-genre monotony on the eclectic All My Heroes Are Cornballs
- By Matt Harvey
- Tags: Concert Preview, Jpegmafia, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, Barrington Devaughn Hendricks, Peggy, hip-hop, Baltimore, Alabama, Brooklyn, R&B, Pitchfork Music Festival, Bottom Lounge, Recommended, Video

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Sep 24, 2019
Little-known Chicago blues-rock wizard Zach Prather has found his crowd in Europe

Thanks in part to a long partnership with the late Cash McCall, Prather has played with the likes of Willie Dixon, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Etta James.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Zach Prather, Cash McCall, funk, soul, blues, R&B, Willie Dixon, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Etta James, Cook County, Released, the Tribe, Kings of Soul, James Monroe 2, Vicious Circle, the Who, Small Faces, Curtom, Black Panthers, Minnie Riperton, The Stanley Behrens/Willie Dixon Project, Luther Allison, Never My Love, Luke Gasser Band, Mick Jagger, Aardvark Records, We, Everland Music

Music, The Secret History of Chicago Music Jul 30, 2019
Video
Johnny Pate is one of the great unsung architects of Chicago soul

This 95-year-old living legend has played jazz, written blaxploitation soundtracks, and arranged for Stan Getz, B.B. King, and most famously Curtis Mayfield—but he's probably most widely heard via hip-hop samples.
- By Steve Krakow
- Tags: The Secret History of Chicago Music, Johnny Pate, arranger, composer, producer, bassist, R&B, soul, jazz, John William Pate, Chicago Heights, Oscar Pettiford, Stuff Smith, Jay-Z, Red Saunders, Club DeLisa, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Carl Davis, OKeh Records, Brunswick Records, Impressions, Sad, Sad Girl and Boy, Curtis Mayfield, Super Fly, We're a Winner, Keep on Pushing, ABC-Paramount, Betty Everett, B.B. King, Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, MGM/Verve, Brother on the Run, Bucktown, Shaft in Africa, Bee Gees, Peabo Bryson, Natalie Cole, Las Vegas, Video

Music, Pitchfork Jul 16, 2019
Video
Why haven’t the Isley Brothers conquered the rock market?

The legendary R&B band can rock hard too, but they’ve never crossed over like Sly Stone or Prince.
- By James Porter
- Tags: Pitchfork, Pitchfork Music Festival, Pitchfork, Isley Brothers, Ernie Isley, Ron Isley, O’Kelly Isley, Shout, T-Neck Records, R&B, rock, Isley-Jasper-Isley, Get Into Something, Givin’ It Back, The Heat Is On, That Lady, Live It Up, Fight the Power, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Video

1 2 3 4 5 next »

Issue Cover

Browse by Issue

Other Searches