Move On Up

Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power

Aaron Cohen

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780226653174
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

A Chicago Tribune Book of 2019, Notable Chicago ReadsA Booklist Top 10 Arts Book of 2019A No Depression Top Music Book of 2019 Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago's place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s was more than just a series of hits: it was a marker and a source of black empowerment. In Move On Up, Aaron Cohen tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived. Record producers and song-writers broadcast optimism for black America's future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions for the Dells and many others. Curtis Mayfield boldly sang of uplift with unmistakable grooves like "We're a Winner" and "I Plan to Stay a Believer." Musicians like Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used their music to voice Afrocentric philosophies that challenged racism and segregation, while Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chaka Khan created music that inspired black consciousness. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation: as Chicago's homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago's black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation, all against a backdrop of nationwide deindustrialization.Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic's passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil.

INDEX

AACM. See Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)

ABC-Paramount label, 27, 28, 50–51

Abner, Ewart, 18, 20, 24, 26–27

Abraham, Alton, 89

Abrahamian, Bob, 50

Acklin, Barbara, 10, 61, 62, 127, 128

activism, 37, 46, 98–99, 105. See also civil rights movement; and specific persons, organizations, events

Adderley, Julian “Cannonball,” 114

Adventures of Captain Sky, The (album), 146

Affro-Arts Theater, 44, 86–97, 103, 108, 109, 112–13, 148

AFM. See American Federation of Musicians (AFM)

Africa Calling (album), 26, 89

AFRI-COBRA organization, 92

Alexander, Eugene, 52

Alexander, Katherine, 52

Alexenburg, Ron, 152

Alfano, Dan, 78, 80, 81, 85

Ali, Muhammad, 23, 30, 92

Aliotta, Mitch, 72

Allen, James, 33–34

Altgeld Gardens, 13

Amazing Grace (album), 4

America Eats Its Young (album), 85

American Federation of Musicians (AFM), 31

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), 20

Anderson, Carol, 46

Anderson, Lawrence, 155

Andrews, Ruby, 48, 54–55, 98

Any Way the Wind Blows (documentary), 166–67

Armageddon (album), 90

Armstead, “Joshie” Jo, 53–54, 71

Armstrong, Louis, 117

Artistic Heritage Ensemble, 86, 88, 90–92

Artistics, 38–39

ASCAP. See Amer...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Introduction
• ONE / Hallways and Airwaves: Changing Neighborhoods and Emerging Media Inspire New Music
• TWO / I’m a-Telling You: Artists and Entrepreneurs Step Up in a New Decade
• THREE / We’re a Winner: Musicians, Activists, and Educators Build an Expanding Industry
• FOUR / Psychedelic Soul: Chicago’s 1960s Counterculture Redirects Social and Musical Cues
• FIVE / A New Day: Afrocentric Philosophy and Sharp Statements Answer 1960s Challenges
• SIX / Rhythm Ain’t All We Got: Organizational Drive Shapes 1970s Black Music, Commerce, and Politics
• SEVEN / Sound Power: Funk and Disco Highlight Connections, Divisions, and Aspirations
• EIGHT / Future Telling: Reissues, Sampling, and Young Artists Reconsider Soul History
• Gallery
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix: Interviews
• Notes
• Selected Discography
• Selected Bibliography
• Index