WORDS BY NEAL ANDREW EMIL GUSTAFSON AND JESSICA FORTUNE FENNER A strong relationship exists between the spiritual sounds of Chicago and the mechanical sonics of Detroit. The decades-strong alignment is rooted in their history of shared traditions within the Black American musical diaspora, their proximity, and their midwestern heart. Both cities contributed significantly to [...]
Desiree Taylor, 47, from Baltimore, came to Chicago for the first time with eight friends who go to house music festivals every year for the “funkier” and “more soulful” approach of house music. The Chosen Few picnic got off to a rainy start Saturday, but the rain couldn’t dampen the good vibes that brought thousands [...]
Chicagoans rarely suffer from a shortage of music festivals, but few such events make me feel like I’m participating in the city’s cultural fabric like the Chosen Few Picnic. The long-running house-music celebration began informally in 1990, and its roots extend even further back. Wayne Williams founded the Chosen Few DJ collective in 1977 [...]
In celebration of Pride Month, we're taking a rhythmic journey through time, tracing the transformative footprints of some of the world's most influential LGBTQ+ club spaces in the oasis of house music. From the disco-fueled dance floors of Chicago's Warehouse to the pulsing beats of New York's Paradise Garage; from Dublin's Mother, a cornerstone of [...]
Founder Joe Shanahan never intended to be in the live music business. But his passion for house music transformed his Chicago venue into a nightlife hotspot and a "beacon of hope" for US dance music. The story begins on the North Side of Chicago in 1982. In the aftermath of Disco Demolition and the advent of [...]
Founder Eric Williams said the annual show, which started as a small gathering of neighbors in a Wicker Park alley, has gotten too expensive to produce. The final edition will be July 29-30 at Oakwood Beach. OAKWOOD BEACH — After almost 20 years, one of Summertime Chi’s favorite street festivals is calling it quits. [...]
“The Warehouse,” at 206 S. Jefferson St., regarded as the birthplace of house music, could be granted historic landmark status by the city as early as Wednesday. Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Time From 1977 through the mid-1980s, the resident DJ at the Warehouse was Frankie Knuckles, a record producer and remix artist hailed as the “Godfather of [...]
The City of Chicago has announced the full line-up for the 2023 Chicago House Music Festival and Conference taking place on June 23 and June 24, 2023. The city previously announced that this year’s festival will be taking place on the Humboldt Park Boathouse lawn on June 24, 2023 from 11am to 9pm. The initial line-up [...]
Beyond Heaven is a series of books that serve as one of the best historical references to the early days of Chicago House Music that we have. Collecting flyers dating back as far as 1981, the books are stuffed with the names of DJ both prominent and obscure and forgotten, and venues that no [...]
Chicago’s Trax Records released some of the most influential records in house history, but decades later, many of the artists behind them are still waiting to be paid. Harold Heath investigates the long and complicated history of one of house music’s most infamous labels HAROLD HEATH Tuesday, March 7, 2023 The Trax Records saga [...]
