For
immediate release 7/26/04
Contact:
Piano C. Red, 312-437-0808; Steve Balkin
312-341-3696 Email: mar@REMOVETHIStopicbox.com
Blues Still Holdin On Maxwell Street
Piano
C. Red, who use to play in front of the Johnnie Dollar Thrift Shop on Old
Maxwell Street, has returned to the New Maxwell
Street Market with his Flat Foot Boogie Band.
He plays there every Sunday, weather permitting, at the far southern end
of the New Maxwell Street Market, on Canal Street,
on the bridge, by 16th Street. The 400 vendor Market operates every
Sunday. Piano C. Red is there from 10AM to 3PM. There is no admission to the market. There is usually available free parking on 16th
Street, just west of Canal.
Blues
fans are welcome to listen; musicians are welcome to sit in; and dancers are
welcome to strut their stuff, especially steppers, lindy hoppers, and
jitterbugers.
Piano
C. Red says “Blues still holdin on Maxwell Street. We working to keep the street tradition
alive. All my musicians played on old Maxwell
Street and I brought them here to here so that
people can hear and feel the sounds of the legends of that sacred place of
Blues. We want people to have a good
time. Just last week, Maxwell
Street regular Clarence ‘Little Scotty’ Scott and
a “sister” who has a Blues record company in Dallas
came to sing. This is the best deal in
town. Every Sunday, it’s a friendly,
free, grassroots street-funky party.”
Blues
critic David Whiteis comments, “The music is
bouncy and memorable alternating between Jump Blues, Rhythm and Blues, and
Chicago Blues. When Red plays his
keyboard, it’s a boogie woogie sound like Otis Span, Jimmy Yancey, or Little
Brother Montgomery played.”
Streve
Balkin, Vice President of Maxwell Street Historic Preservation Coalition, says,
“Slivers of Old Maxwell Street’s soul remain in the vibrant Sunday New Maxwell
Street Market and the live traditional street Blues still played there. The sorry thing is that no one knows about
this. There are Blues fans all over
Chicago and tourists who are Blues fans. Yet, few come to this because they do
not know this authentic Blues venue exists.
Musicians need an audience. This could die out soon if people don’t come
out to it. There are only two live Blues street
jams left: here and at Wallace’s Catfish Corner on the weekend evenings on the West
Side. I just heard that the
polish sausage stands from old Maxwell Street
on S. Union and Roosevelt Rd
will be allowed, thank God, to continue to exist. That and this Piano C. Red street Blues fest
is like an arm poking out from the grave of Old
Maxwell Street grasping to live on. Blues fans and those wanting an authentic Chicago
experience need to reach out to that arm and embrace it to keep this part of Chicago’s
culture alive. These are things to tell
your children and grandchildren about.”
Other
music playing at the market, at various locations and from time to time, include
a Mexican hard rock band, a Mexican accordionist and a violin player, an
Ecuadorian wooden flute ensemble, and Joe Patterson’s Cut Rate Blues Band.
For more information about Maxwell Street see
<http://www.openair.org/maxwell/preserve.html> and <http://www.maxwellstreet.org>.
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