Chicago, the “Windy City“, which reportedly earned its nickname in the nineteenth century because of the cool breezes which came off Lake Michigan, is the home of the Blues. This distinctive style of music saw the emergence of Blues Clubs throughout the South Side of the City, and as the community of blues artistes grew, legendary clubs appeared on the City’s skyline, such as Silvio’s, Gatewood’s Tavern, the Flame Club and the 708 Club. These clubs were situated on Indiana Avenue on the South Side and Lake Street on the West Side, during the 1940s and served as community centres for the migrating African Americans, who were coming into Chicago in large numbers at that time. The “Great Migration”, between 1916 and 1970, changed the cultural climate in the City, greatly.

During the 1950s, the Chicago Blues genre flourished, with the addition being made of guitars, amplifiers, rhythm sections, and the harmonica, the distinctive sounds of its first generation artistes restructuring popular music and aiding subsequent genres, like Soul and Rock’n’Roll. During the 1960s, more Blues Clubs sprung up, on the South and West Sides, with Madison Street, Roosevelt Road and 43rd Street, becoming popular “Blues Haunts”. Despite all this, Blues Music lost its commercial hold to Soul, Gospel and other new genres of black popular music. Some of the older clubs began to close down and disappear in 1975, but in 1984, Chicago gave birth to an Annual Blues Festival, which serves as a living history, in both memory and hope for urban social life.

The City of Chicago Mayor’s Office still runs this Blues Festival today, in early June each year and always in Grant Park. It is the “World’s Largest Free Music Festival”, according to the City of Chicago’s billing, drawing around 750,000 people over the four days of its staging. The Chicago Blues genre lives on!