02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Chess Records: Birthplace of an Alternative American Sound
Seventy-five years ago, an upstart label called Chess Records began issuing electrified blues, thereby rewiring the sound of American music.
Founded in Chicago by two Jewish immigrants from Poland, brothers Leonard and Phil Chess, the label focused on black musicians, many of whom had journeyed north during the Great Migration. Since the 1910s, Chicago had drawn hundreds of thousands of Southerners seeking industrial jobs and greater freedom. Housing was crowded and racism persisted, but opportunity ran deeper than in the Jim Crow South. The newcomers brought with them jazz and blues, both of which took firm root in the city.
