Chess Brothers – Chess Records
Chess Records was a legendary music label, founded by the Chess Brothers. Pioneers of blues, jazz, and rock and roll, as well as rhythm and blues, they came to Chicago from the Polish countryside.
Chess Records creates the groundwork for contemporary American music. The brothers promote artists who will inspire the next generations. Leonard himself often goes to the South to look for new voices for the label. Meanwhile, Phil watches over the finances.
The Chess – originally Czyż – Brothers come from a poor Jewish family in Poland. They are of a similar age, just four years apart. The older one, Lejzor, is born in the village of Motal in the Polish eastern borderlands (currently Belarus).
The younger brother, Fiszel, is probably born in Częstochowa. Supposedly, the family moves there in the early 1920s to avoid the Polish-Soviet War. Little is known of the duo's childhood, but it is certain that on 1st January 1927, Madame Cyrla Czyż disembarks the Mauretania ship, which has docked at Ellis Island with two very young sons and an adolescent daughter.
In the United States, Józef Czyż is waiting for his wife and children. In Poland, he was a carpenter, but he went abroad looking for work. After some time, he is able to bring the rest of the family over to the US.
Initially, the Czyż family end up in New York, and then in Chicago, among thousands of Polish immigrants. Józef operates a small junkyard. He hopes that in the future, his sons will take over his business.
The adolescent brothers have other plans, however. They quickly assimilate into American society. They change their names: Lejzor becomes Leonard and Fiszel becomes Phil (Philip). They also change their foreign-sounding last name. Here, ‘Chess’ sounds better than ‘Czyż’.
The brothers spend their leisure time in churches, where they listen to the electrifying music of their black neighbours. In Chicago, the blues can be heard everywhere. The city by Lake Michigan develops rapidly, and new workers from the South appear in factories. Many of them are strong singers.
The older Chess brother invests in a liquor store at first. When Phil returns from army service and they create a company, they start thinking about something bigger. They open a music club called the Macomba Lounge, which becomes one of the city’s most popular venues.
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Cover of Etta James's Rocks the House, Chess Records, photo: Dagmara Smolna
Whilst running the club, the brothers discover a niche in the music industry. Jazz bands playing bebop and jump blues get all of Macomba’s locals dancing, but the music labels themselves are not interested in black musicians. Racial segregation is still in force.
When in 1950, Macomba gets burned down in a fire, the brothers focus on a music label: Aristocrat Records. At first, Leonard is the only shareholder, but soon, Phil also invests in the music business.
Chess Records is formed with its trademark chess piece logo. Muddy Waters’s blues record is its first success. The work of the black musician from the South is a completely new frontier: it is a sound yet unknown to American listeners. The Chess brothers have professional equipment, they plug the instruments into the amplifiers, experiment with sound.
Moreover, they effectively promote their musicians: even if sometimes, that means bribing a white radio operator who is reluctant to play black music during his shows.
The Chicago-based label grows at an outstanding pace. The brothers create some other labels with different profiles: the jazz-focused Argo (later Cadet) or Checker Records focussed on working with radio stations. They all belong to the wider Chess Records family.
The Chicago label discovers Etta James: the mother of rhythm and blues. Here, Muddy Waters creates a new sound of Chicago-based blues with the help of his electric guitar. He is accompanied by Little Walter on harmonica. The entire pressing is sold out in two days.
Chuck Berry’s single Maybellene from 1955 also becomes an instant hit: it is one of the first rock and roll songs. Berry introduces original inspirations from country music. The audience loves his concerts because of his freedom on the stage. He invents his so-called ‘Duck Walk’, a distinctive guitarist move.
The future founders of The Rolling Stones also love the records published by the Chess Brothers. The band’s name is in itself a tribute to Muddy Waters and his song titled Rollin’ Stone. In 1964, the British band will also record in the brothers’ Chicago studio. They will even immortalise the famous label’s address in the title of one of their songs: 2120 South Michigan Avenue.
The golden years of Chess Records were the 1950s and the 1960s. In 1969, the brothers decide to sell the label. Leonard dies of a heart attack in the same year. Phil will live another 47 years.
Originally written in Polish by Karolina Dzimira-Zarzycka, translated by Patryk Grabowski
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