Results tagged “blues”

Jesse Fortune, known the "Fortune Tellin' Man" and a contemporary of many Chicago's most famous blues legends has died. Fortune, 79, collapsed on stage during his first performance at Gene's Playmate Lounge (4239 W. Cermak). Fortune was pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital at 12:51 a.m. According to his biography, he performed with many of Chicago's all-stars, including Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. Fortune is one of several notable blues deaths this year including Koko Taylor on the eve of Bluesfest.

          

After the death of blues legend Koko Taylor at age 80 this year, we were struck by Chicago's (arguably) most famous musical form can too easily slip between the cracks in favor of things like, well, Lollapalooza. So after Bluesfest, we took to the clubs - and we've been photographing bluesmen hard at work, all over the city, ever since. This week: the dueling bands at Kingston Mines.

                     

We know it's Obama's birthday today but we can't forget about those other famous Chicago Leos. Buddy Guy, one of the city's most famous living bluesmen celebrated his 73rd birthday in style last night at his blues club, Buddy Guy's Legends, 754 S Wabash. (See the rest of the night's photos.)

                                 

There may only be three chords in a typical blues song - but that was no limit to musical variety this weekend. More than 600,000 people were expected to attended the annual free festival in Grant Park. And no matter what stage (or what club) the house was rocked. The best concert we saw (of the more than 60 acts who performed) was blues icon Bettye LaVette. Now 63, LaVette has been in the music business for more than 45 years, a fact she spent several minutes discussing as she transitioned through her set. Age has not proved a barrier though - LaVette even dropped the mic to sing unaided at some points Saturday night.

The NHL announced today that the Chicago Blackhawks would be one of four teams opening the 2009-2010 season in Europe as part of a special series. The 'Hawks will head to Helsinki, Finland to take on the Florida Panthers in a two-game "home and home" series while the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues will tangle in a pair of games in Stockholm, Sweden. Not so coincidentally: Finland and Sweden are the top two countries in terms of non-North American visitors to the NHL's website. While the Panthers have never played a game outside of North America in their existence, the 'Hawks have skated on the other side of the pond before. In September 1992, the Blackhawks and the Montreal Canadiens faced off in a pair of exhibition games at London's Wembley Arena. It will be the third straight year the NHL has opened a season overseas.

The Blackhawks dug themselves an early hole, allowing two goals in the first seven minutes and finding themselves down to St. Louis 3-1 just a hair over halfway through a fight-marred first period. They fought back and forced overtime, but the Blues pulled out the victory in overtime, 4-3. Down 3-1, Dave Bolland brought the 'Hawks back with a short-handed goal in the second period, and then the equalizer in the third, his first two goals of the season. But a controversial hooking penalty called on Bolland in overtime led to the game-winner from St. Louis' Andy McDonald. Coach Quenneville said, “It was a tough call there at the end. I don’t think [Bolland] did anything wrong on the play. It was just a hard play.” Jonathon Toews reflected on the 'Hawks stumble out of the gate: “I think we dug ourselves a hole tonight. We battled back and had a chance to win. We can’t blame anybody but us for the slow start and the penalties that we took. It’s pretty simple to see what we didn’t do tonight.” Nikolai Khabibulin was in goal, allowing all four goals out of 30 shots.

the shift is abrupt.

We don't know about you, but if we managed to escape 63 counts of involuntary manslaughter after being hanged in the court of public opinion, we might try to go back to our lives, shut the hell up, and count our lucky stars.

If you saw a haze hanging over downtown this morning...nevermind, that joke's too easy. The Doggfather kicked off a two-night stand at the House of Blues last night on his current tour promoting his new record, Ego Trippin' (due out March 11th), and left our ears ringing.

Two years ago, in our review of Eleven City Diner on South Wabash, we compared Brad Rubin's tribute to classic Jewish delis and diners to the Blues Brothers. We said it was "too good to be a parody, not good enough to be the real thing." That still holds true, which is a blessing and a curse. Shortly after ours and other reviews started pouring in, Rubin pulled the plug on all night weekend service, which would have brought Eleven City closer to the genuine article. The prices are nothing to laugh at, either. We've had more than one friend chew us out on the prices after recommending the place.

We love to read and write, and not just our own posts here on the World Wide Webs. We’ve been working on our first novel for years. It’s a love story involving time-traveling unicorns and so far we have about 850 pages of it written, but we don’t know when we’ll get it published (fingers crossed!). As such, we have a soft spot in our heart for local writers who have been a tad more successful. Luckily we live in a city that gives us a chance to here these talented scribes read!

Common is playing a benefit at House Of Blues tomorrow night (along with OFFICE), and another Chicagoist turned us onto this sweet remix to help us get in the mood.*

Lucky enough to get a few days off for the Chrismukkah holidays? Several Chicago area music entities have been kind enough to give you time-filling options.

Man is there a lot going on tonight. Are you sure it's only Wednesday? Because it sure feels like the party is already kicking into high Friday mode. The last few weeks have been a tad lackluster, music-wise, but December is taking this year out with a bang! Here are just a few of tonight's options. Evan Dando resurrects The Lemonheads tonight at Double Door. We caught him last time he came through town and...

Tatsu Aoki might be best known for his steady bass playing alongside Fred Anderson and Yoko Noge's Jazz Me Blues. He's also an educator (he teaches film at the Art Institute), founder and artistic director of the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival, record label head and producer, and a tireless musician exploring the limits of his instrument and himself. Aoki's endeavors earned him designation as a "Chicagoan of the Year" by the Tribune in 2001.

We HATE the term Black Wednesday.

Ah, it's like shootin' fish in a barrel over at Chicagoist EOYW headquarters. We know how passionate you guys can get about these things, so we'll cut right to the chase:

We're always skeptical of the "farewell tour" phenomenon, but Ministry seems to mean it. On the heels of their surprisingly good swan-song The Last Sucker, the band has announced the final North American tour dates of its loooong career.

Got the itch to do something fun tonight, given the unseasonably warm weather? We feel you. Options: One of Chicagoist's favorite charities, Mustaches for Kids, has its kick-off get together tonight at Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap, 41 East Superior St. The "growing season" starts Nov 19, so tonight's get-together is all about planning and making pals. 'Stachey! The International Interior Design Association has its Bizarre Bazaar in the Teknion Showroom on the 10th floor of...

Tired of Halloween yet? We've been celebrating "Christmas for Adults" since some time last week and admit that the parade of costumes is starting to turn into one long mental blur. But we ain't complaining; oh no! We love it. One tradition we were afraid we were going to miss this year was the annual Local H-led Halloween show at Double Door. When we heard last year was Scott Lucas and company's swan-song, we admit...

Everyone knows puberty is the #1 most awkward and mortifying stage of growing up, but what if it hit you before you were even 8 years old? According to today's Sun Times, kids as young as 4 are experiencing early-onset puberty. Precocious puberty, which is not as fun as it sounds, is more common than you'd think. According to the Oak Park-based Magic Foundation, between 1 in 5,000 and 1 in 10,000 kids become gangly...

The Blackhawks are three games into their 2007-2008 NHL Campaign, and so far it looks like it could be another tough year for hockey fans here in Chicago. They've yet to find a way to sound the horn on power plays--hell, they've have had trouble scoring at all, with just four goals in three games, none while having the man advantage. No surprise though as the Hawks have been the worst in the NHL on...

Here at Chicagoist, R&B superstar and alleged water-sports enthusiast R. Kelly has given us more than our fill of laughs and head-scratching moments. Now it looks as though the "sexasaurus" has discovered the power of YouTube. His completely staged "Real Talk: Behind the Scenes" is the best meta singsong since Screaming Jay Hawkins had the "Constipation Blues." It's also loaded with profanity, so if you're at work, keep the volume low. "Profanity represents how real...

Of all the city-sponsored music festivals, few utilize as much of the city limits like the World Music Festival (check out the festival's Myspace page, also). In its nine years, World Music Fest has become a showcase event, even though it lacks the resources the city pours into Blues Fest, Jazz Fest, and Viva! Chicago. Its drawn visitors to the city from around the world, done a remarkable job in shining a much-needed spotlight on...

- In case you've missed the previous screenings of local film Crime Fiction, produced by former U of C students, you've got another chance to see it this evening at this month's edition of the Midwest Independent Film Festival. That's at the Landmark Century. There'll be an afterparty just around the corner at Cousin's. - Starting this Wednesday night at 6, Jonathan Rosenbaum presents a weekly series of film screenings and lectures at the Siskel...

Each morning we're going to highlight five bands playing at Lollapalooza that we think are worth seeing. Some will be popular, some less known, but we believe they're all worth your time. And for those not making it to the festival itself, we'll round it out with an additional show going on after the grounds close down for the evening. The Switches We are sure we'll be cursing this band from England throughout the day....

There is nothing more that we want to get done than this installment of Empty Out Your Wallet, so we can get outside and enjoy this day. Leave it to the Ticketmaster gods to curse us once again with numerous great shows making our job harder. The show that our readers were looking forward to last week, The Flaming Lips at the Aragon, goes on sale at 11 a.m. on Saturday. This should be a...

If it hasn't been drilled into your heads yet, street festival season is kicking into high gear. This week, we'll highlight a couple to check out, as well as feature one of the more humorous press releases to reach our inbox this week. Strap it on! We'll Call Ours the "Triple Bypass": Wendy's is hosting an online contest to see who can design their next burger. Folks who log on to www.thisismyburger.com can choose from...

Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. We were so busy between scouring the Printer’s Row Book Fair and lounging at the Chicago Blues Fest that we almost forgot to pick just one book for this month, in fact, we couldn’t and had to let fate, otherwise known as the Post Office, decide. You guys had some pretty awesome suggestions and we almost thought there would be a throw down over whose author was more prestigious...