Move On Up

Move On Up Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power

by Aaron Cohen

University of Chicago Press, 2019
Cloth: 978-0-226-17607-9 | Paper: 978-0-226-65303-7 | Electronic: 978-0-226-65317-4
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYREVIEWSTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

A Chicago Tribune Book of 2019, Notable Chicago Reads

A Booklist Top 10 Arts Book of 2019

A No Depression Top Music Book of 2019

Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago’s place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s was more than just a series of hits: it was a marker and a source of black empowerment. In Move On Up, Aaron Cohen tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived. Record producers and song-writers broadcast optimism for black America’s future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions for the Dells and many others. Curtis Mayfield boldly sang of uplift with unmistakable grooves like “We’re a Winner” and “I Plan to Stay a Believer.” Musicians like Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used their music to voice Afrocentric philosophies that challenged racism and segregation, while Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chaka Khan created music that inspired black consciousness. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation: as Chicago’s homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago’s black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation, all against a backdrop of nationwide deindustrialization.

Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic’s passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Aaron Cohen covers the arts for numerous publications and teaches English, journalism, and humanities at the City Colleges of Chicago. He is the author of Aretha Franklin’s "Amazing Grace".

REVIEWS

"Move On Up is an extraordinary achievement, packed with deep research and vivid writing, with a backbeat so strong it thumps from every page. Cohen has written the definitive account of an important slice of American popular culture. Cue up the Chi-Lites, open this book, and enjoy!"

— Jonathan Eig, author of "Ali: A Life"

“With a journalist’s clarity, a scholar’s curiosity, and a local’s passion, the incomparable Aaron Cohen affirms why Chicago has always been more than its challenges. Move On Up shows how big-shouldered grit, astonishing talent, and entrepreneurial savvy combined to make ‘the Chi’ a powerhouse center for music and activism back in the days when the world discovered that black was, indeed, beautiful.”

— Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, author of "Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop" and "The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop"

“Chicago has long been a center of African-American political, cultural, spiritual, and economic power. Unsurprisingly, then, it has also been a center of musical power. From Muddy Waters to Jerry Butler to Curtis Mayfield to Earth Wind & Fire and beyond, the city has kept a fire burning at the heart of American music. In this history of soul music in Chicago, Cohen has brought together the voices of many of the most important postwar artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who created the city’s rhythm & blues and soul industry. Together, they made some of the most powerful and enduring contributions to twentieth-century American music, and this vibrant chronicle of Chicago soul is sure to endure as not only a work of tremendous scholarship, but as a bedrock contribution to the history of twentieth-century American music.”

— Michael E. Veal, Yale University, author of "Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae" and "Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon"

"A richly knowledgeable, deeply considered, and important addition to the history of African American music and its impact on Chicago and beyond."

— Booklist, Starred Review

“Cohen marries scholarly erudition with sincere musical affection in this intriguing look at Chicago soul.”

— Library Journal

“Rarely has the history of the town’s soul music received the deep-dive treatment. . . . Cohen is a nimble storyteller with a smooth way of delivering the goods, which isn’t easy, considering the often convoluted trajectory of the genre. . . . The author uses his journalistic skills and training to track the soul trail. . . . What’s clearly evident throughout Move On Up is Cohen’s intimacy with soul’s history and Chicago’s complex cultural matrix. . . . One of Mayfield’s tunes is a fitting conclusion to the discussion here: ‘I’m A-Telling You,’ this is a good book.”

— Herb Boyd, Downbeat

“A tremendous achievement. . . . A book that finally gets at the deeper, richer story of Chicago soul—the spirit of empowerment and pride that have always made us so honored to be part of the Windy City legacy! Cohen picks up where other soul writers have left off on Chicago—really looking at the shifts into the '70s, which included greater ties to the means of production, and an increased role in the social agenda as well—all part of an evolution in songwriting styles, production techniques, and the growing power of the full length album over the 7" single! . . . A delight to read throughout—easily the deepest work that Cohen's ever given us."

— DustyGroove.com

"Spanning the late 1950s to the 1980s, Move On Up is a meticulously reported and illuminating social history that has more on its mind than simply replaying greatest hits. . . . Cohen conducted just over one hundred interviews spanning two decades. They capture still vibrant living witnesses to this pivotal era in Chicago music."

— Donald Liebenson, Chicago Tribune

"Rather absorbing."

— Michaelangelo Matos, The Wire

"Many of the ten best arts books reviewed in Booklist over the past year reclaim or more fully appreciate artists whose legacies have been neglected or minimized due to their gender, sexual orientation, or race, while other titles offer new perspectives on icon figures and music itself. . . . Some of the biggest names in African American music populate Cohen’s vivid history of soul music in Chicago as he traces its evolution and profound and far-reaching social and artistic impact."

— Donna Seaman, Booklist, "Top 10 Arts Books: 2019"

"An essential guide to Chicago soul. It puts the life-changing music in a social context."

— Greg Kot, "Chicago Tribune" music critic, @gregkot

"Chicago’s role as a hub for innovative black musicians from the 1960s to the ’80s has been underappreciated."

— Mark Guarino, Chicago

"An absorbing approach. . . . Move On Up is a fascinating deep dive into a city’s evolving black presence. It avoids any stylistic squabbles or narrowing categorization, making it far easier to understand and appreciate such diverse acts as Ramsey Lewis, the Chi-Lites, Chaka Khan, and Terry Callier as part of the same rounded and often surprising movement."

— Lloyd Bradley, Times Literary Supplement

"Comprehensive and multi-layered. . . . Cohen has . . . produced a highly readable and entertaining, as well as jam-packed, informational saga, by operating at the street level, focusing on the reality of communities and their reflection in the identities of the artists who chose to represent them. . . . Certainly one of the finest ways to fully absorb and explore these divergent roots as they branched out all the way to contemporary soul and pop soul is the comprehensive discography that Cohen includes at the end of his book. . . . If you give these records a listen prior to picking up this book, you’ll be quite well prepared to hold on for the rocking roller coaster ride that awaits you. And, like Rhymefest said, you’ll be ready to get back to the future."

— Donald Brackett, Critics at Large

"The Chicago-based author of Aretha Franklin: 'Amazing Grace' has set his sights on Windy City soul music and how it helped fuel black empowerment in his new book, Move On Up. Cohen . . . talks about the hitmakers, like The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield, Chaka Khan, The Chi-Lites, The Dells, but his book, published by the University of Chicago Press, is more than just a romp through the R&B charts. Rather, Cohen seeks to tell the story of how folks like Mayfield and Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs made music aimed at uplifting black consciousness and boosting African-American pride."

— Bobby Tanzilo, OnMilwaukee

"You should buy this book. In a largely expert-free world, or where 'expert' is tantamount to a hollow term perpetually erroneously applied, Cohen is an actual, for real, expert on his subjects. How many times have I read his new book? I am closing in on twice."

— Colin Fleming, @colinfleminglit

"Maybe remarkably considering the attention foisted on its jazz and blues giants, there’s never been such an in-depth tome examining Chicago’s soul scene and its relationship to the major social changes of the ’60s and ’70s. . . . With thoroughness inherited from his historian father Sheldon, Cohen's eloquent flow [is] driven by fan’s passion as he starts by recounting the major role of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions in establishing the Windy City’s soul scene against a charged backdrop of civil rights and Black Power. . . . Unconditionally recommended."

— Kris Needs, Shindig!

"With the focus on musicians as 'change agents,' Cohen vividly captures the spirit and energy of a city in tumult forging identities and fighting the power."

— Lois Wilson, MOJO

"If you buy only one book on soul music this year, this should be it. . . . Cohen’s passion for this music imbues this history with a lively spirit."

— Henry Carrigan, No Depression

"Move On Up is an essential read not only for soul music fans, but for anyone interested in the social, cultural, and political history of Chicago during a key period in the twentieth century. This book will certainly be added to the reading list for many college music courses in the years to come. Highly recommended."

— Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Black Grooves

"Cohen’s short but impactful and insightful book covers nearly seventy years of black music history...Move On Up’s most significant contribution to music history is its examination of how the performers received their music training...if there is a manuscript-sized rationale for the importance of music education in the public school system, Move On Up is it."

— Robert M. Marovich, ARSC Journal

"Remember the Year of Chicago Music? Yeah, that was supposed to be happening right now. While some of the energy of that celebration may still exist and some of it may still happen, the virus has taken most of the wind out of the Windy City’s plans. But it hasn’t stopped people’s interest in our musical culture. A recent publication, Cohen’s book Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power, seems timed appropriately and provides a good read for anyone interested in the modern history of Chicago music. Cohen . . . has built a reputation for adroit research and insight. . . . Move On Up was a labor of love. . . . Anyone wanting to fill in knowledge gaps about this period would do well to read this volume."

— Jeff Cebulski, Chicago Jazz Magazine

"Move on Up takes its place alongside Charles L. Hughes’s Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, Suzanne E. Smith’s Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of Detroit, and Emily J. Lordi’s forthcoming The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience since the 1960s as a provocative exploration of soul music and its richly embedded history in a community. Cohen’s book stands alone, however, for its brilliant depictions of a vibrant musical community and the development of various musical styles that illustrate musicians’ attempts to reflect and to respond to the often rapidly changing social and political currents swirling around them."

— Henry Carrigan, No Depression

"Cohen's latest, Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power, looks at how the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Terry Callier, and The Chi-Lites (among many others) came to create beautiful music and black-owned businesses. Rather than simply provide potted biographies of the stars, Cohen shows how things developed in the studio and through negotiations."

— Rock'n'Reel

"...a good book that explores [its subject matter] with great specificity. Like a good book, it is rich in source material (e.g., interviews with artists and others involved in the scene, and here in particular is where the text finds its worth)."

— Record Collector

"Best Nonfiction Book By A Chicagoan."

— Chicago Reader's 2020

"Number One Music Book of 2020."

— Richard Williams, The Blue Moment

"The subject of Move on Up, Aaron Cohen insists in the first few pages, is Chicago soul music as a vector of social change. . . . Move on Upis less concerned with labels, venues, and fan behavior than it is with the shaping influence of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s strategic move into Chicago in 1966, or Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton’s speech at the Affro-Arts Theater in the late 1960s. Cohen’s most valuable contribution here is to demonstrate that the 'Black Cultural Power' of his subtitle was forged as a web of political, cultural, and social engagements."

— Journal of Popular Music Studies

"The stories that Cohen tells about the creation of so many records of that era—as well as his account of the business of music for the creators and distributors and of the intertwining of the civil rights movement and the music—is likely to move a lot of readers to create a playlist of some of the best of the tunes. I know that’s what I did. . . . Cohen’s book is a granular look at the Black music scene in Chicago. The author has little interest in sweeping musical or cultural pronouncements. His story is in the details. And he’s got a laser focus on the nuts and bolts of music and music-making and music-listening during the blossoming of Chicago soul between the late 1950s and the early 1980s."

— Third Coast Review

"Among DJs, hip-hop producers, record collectors, and other aficionados, Charles Stepney’s work has come to exemplify Black Chicago’s monumental contribution to American musical culture in the 1960s and 1970s: its mix of commercialism, tradition, and Afrofuturism. . . . Cohen expertly documents that contribution in Move On Up."

— New York Review of Books

Introduction
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0001
[Jerry Butler;media;activism;urban politics;methodology]
The introduction establishes the major themes that will run throughout the book and explains the author’s methodology. Using Jerry Butler’s early musical activities and later political careers as a framing device, this study will examine how art and activism became intertwined in black Chicago from the late 1950s into the early 1980s. The book addresses music’s evolution as it connected with advances in African American media, urban politics and everyday life in the city. Along with mentioning interviews as primary sources, the introduction also describes earlier works that set precedents for this study as well as the author’s background growing up in the Chicago area.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

1. Hallways and Airwaves: Changing Neighborhoods and Emerging Media Inspire New Music
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0002
[The Impressions;Great Migration;segregation;blues music;gospel music;public housing;black radio]
This chapter looks at late 1950s and early 1960s Chicago soul—especially The Impressions’ “For Your Precious Love” on Vee-Jay Records—and how myriad social and environmental forces impacted those records’ creation and release. These influences included different religious denominations, public housing developments and such traditional music as blues and gospel. All of these factors arose toward the end of the Great Migration that brought large numbers of African Americans to the urban north. The migrants’ children sought new cultural identities. Meanwhile, black radio personalities and emerging entrepreneurs brought these songs to expanding audiences. The chapter also describes how the youthful singers and older media voices confronted segregation just prior to the emerging civil rights movement.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

2. I’m a-Telling You: Artists and Entrepreneurs Step Up in a New Decade
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0003
[Gene Chandler;Syl Johnson;integration;WVON;Carl Davis;jazz;entrepreneur;gouster]
As Chicago-based R&B records reached a growing national audience in the early to mid-1960s, the city's black media became more numerous and powerful, especially radio station WVON as did rising independent record entrepreneurs. The music also included a growing range of influences, including jazz veterans who collaborated as arrangers for such producers as Carl Davis and artists like Curtis Mayfield. Other artists who discuss creating new sounds include Gene Chandler and Syl Johnson. While segregation persisted in the schools and everyday life, some African American educators created a positive impact on future musicians within their communities. Resistance to this structural racism ranged from a push for integration within city’s musicians’ unions, performers taking various stances on the civil rights movement, as well as black youths asserting their individualistic identities through music, dance and such fashion trends as the gouster look.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

3. We’re a Winner: Musicians, Activists, and Educators Build an Expanding Industry
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0004
[Brunswick Records;Martin Luther King;Operation Breadbasket;James Mack;classical music;Curtom Records;Chess Records]
While black executives rose up in such large record companies as Brunswick during the mid to late 1960s, musicians and music media responded to Martin Luther King and Operation Breadbasket’s growing emphasis on northern cities, especially Chicago. WVON served as a connector among the music, its audience and the wider movement. At the same time, music educators like James Mack showed young artists how learning different idioms, particularly classical music, can be a path toward their own artistic empowerment. Musicians like Curtis Mayfield also sought to establish self sufficiency through establishing artist-owned enterprises, like his own Curtom Records. Other artists, such as the Chess Records session musicians, asserted themselves within that company’s organizational hierarchy and through their own music.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

4. Psychedelic Soul: Chicago’s 1960s Counterculture Redirects Social and Musical Cues
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0005
[counterculture;Rotary Connection;Terry Callier;folk music;rock music;Baby Huey;racism;Charles Stepney;Minnie Riperton]
This chapter looks at how Chicago soul, rock and folk artists created new music during the late 1960s as part of an emerging popular counterculture, commonly described as the hippie movement. These musicians included singer/songwriter Terry Callier, experimental composer/producer Charles Stepney and his conceptual ensemble Rotary Connection as well as the band Baby Huey and The Babysitters. How much these racially integrated performers and audiences tried to transcend the entrenched segregation within Chicago is a major theme, as is describing how these groups gave rise to such internationally celebrated singers as Minnie Riperton and Chaka Khan. A consideration of how these artists generally influenced later generations of rock performers as well as hip-hop DJs and producers concludes this chapter.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

5. A New Day: Afrocentric Philosophy and Sharp Statements Answer 1960s Challenges
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0006
[Phil Cohran;The Pharaohs;civil unrest;Elijah Muhammad;Sun Ra;Afrocentric;Maurice White]
This chapter examines how musicians provided different rejoinders to African Americans' struggles in Chicago during the late 1960s. One response came from the Affro-Arts Theater and its founder, Phil Cohran. His teachings—and their connections to Sun Ra and Elijah Muhammad—are explored; so, too, is Cohran's influence on Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire founder) and Chaka Khan. The saga of the Affro-Arts Theater’s Afrocentric house band, The Pharaohs, and their colleagues The Pieces Of Peace are also described. After the assassination of Martin Luther King and the civil unrest that followed, Syl Johnson responded to the violence through his album, Is It Because I’m Black. Johnson’s story is woven into an analysis of this album and its aftermath.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

6. Rhythm Ain’t All We Got: Organizational Drive Shapes 1970s Black Music, Commerce, and Politics
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0007
[The Dells;Lowrell Simon;Operation PUSH;black capitalism;advertising;Johnson Publishing;nightclubs;Don Cornelius]
Organizational models comprise this chapter, which looks at the growth of Chicago’s African American music industry and how it engaged with other expressions of black capitalism during the early 1970s. These collaborations include musicians’ work with such organizations as Operation PUSH and its PUSH Expos, as well as in emerging black advertising firms. Within recording studios, musical influences and techniques from the previous decade informed work from The Dells, The Chi-Lites and Lowrell Simon’s group, The Lost Generation. Emerging media outlets for the music included Don Cornelius’ nationwide television program, “Soul Train” and Johnson Publishing entering the radio business. Meanwhile, older venues and outlets—nightclubs and jukeboxes—contended with changing local demographics.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

7. Sound Power: Funk and Disco Highlight Connections, Divisions, and Aspirations
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0008
[deindustrialization;FM radio;disco music;house music;Harold Washington;funk music]
As rapid economic changes hit Chicago, black musicians continued to create new work and gain wider audiences throughout the 1970s. Deindustrialization harmed the neighborhoods that had been home to an earlier generation of musicians, but younger artists and music media took advantage of new opportunities, including FM radio frequency. Funk performers, like Daryl “Captain Sky” Cameron, drew on a mix of idioms. A few artists who developed their craft earlier in Chicago helped create bestselling albums in the 1970s, such as Earth, Wind and Fire and The Emotions. Others, like Linda Clifford, recorded disco. This chapter also looks at the racial overtones of the subsequent anti-disco backlash in Chicago and the development of another form of dance music, known as house. The chapter concludes with an account of how musicians worked for Harold Washington’s mayoral election in 1983.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...

8. Future Telling: Reissues, Sampling, and Young Artists Reconsider Soul History
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226653174.003.0009
[hip hop music;sampling;archivists;Ravyn Lenae;Jamila Woods]
The book’s conclusion considers the ways in which the earlier eras of soul music in Chicago resonate today and how contemporary musicians in this city are responding to current social and cultural challenges. Independent reissue companies offer a new narrative to this history in ways that can be compared and contrasted to an earlier generation of blues archivists. Another way in which these sounds reverberate is through hip-hop samples and this chapter looks at ways in which artist who recorded in the 1960s and ’70s have, or have not, benefited from this development. At the end, connections are drawn to an earlier generation and younger Chicago artists such as Jamila Woods, Ravyn Lenae and Che “Rhymefest” Smith.
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...