Vote: Who belongs in Chicago’s all-star band?
February 10, 2012 4:46PM
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Updated: March 13, 2012 8:09AM
At Sunday’s Grammy Awards, the music industry crowns its best performers for the year. Next month, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its latest class of music legends. How would you like to get in on crowning some of that glory?
Think of it as a fantasy music league: We’ve selected some of the biggest and best figures from Chicago’s rock and pop music history — singers, MCs, instrumentalists — and lined them up as auditioners for the ultimate Chicago all-star band. You can pick one from each category and compile your dream local band.
You could go the rock route: Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan with rager Tom Morello, the Rolling Stones’ Darryl Jones and Cheap Trick’s Bun E. Carlos. Or the living legends route: Mavis Staples with Herbie Hancock, maybe with Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White. Or the super-smooth route: Lou Rawls and Dinah Washington duetting, backed by Curtis Mayfield. Maybe an eclectic showdown between Sam Cooke, Common and Dennis DeYoung?
Remix and rematch to your heart’s content, and submit your lineup for the show of the century!
Make your selections online at www.suntimes.com/entertainment from now until Sunday, Feb. 19. We’ll post the winning all-star band.
Our parameters: Fantasy football plays with living people, but we opted to consider rock/pop/hip-hop artists in selecting musical contenders, living or dead. Some nominees were not born in Chicago but either made their musical mark here or developed their fundamental talents and sound here. Yes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, we did not include. Feel free to comment online with your suggestions or write-ins.
Singer (male)
Nat “King” Cole: Raised in Chicago, this icon with world-famous velvety voice formed his first bands — and was christened “King” — in local clubs before shaping the genteel side of pop music: “Unforgettable,” “Mona Lisa,” “Nature Boy” and many more.
Sam Cooke: Gospel, pop, soul — he earned to sing it all in Chicago before scoring hits that had impact far beyond their chart positions: “Chain Gang,” “Bring It on Home to Me,” “A Change Is Gonna Come” and more.
Billy Corgan: As leader of the Smashing Pumpkins, this Chicago suburbanite helped wrestle the alt-rock mantle away from Seattle with a definitely unique voice on “Tonight, Tonight,” “1979” and “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.”
R. Kelly: One of modern R&B’s most famous and infamous voices, he gave us chart-topping, sexed-up singles like “Bump ’n’ Grind,” plus “I Believe I Can Fly” and the multi-part soap opera “Trapped in the Closet.”
Lou Rawls: No less than Frank Sinatra called this man’s voice the “classiest” around, and the Chicago native used it on smooth pop and R&B singles such as “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing,” “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” and “Natural Man.”
Singer (female)
Jennifer Hudson: The South Side native took the world by storm by belting her way through the role of Effie in the movie “Dreamgirls.” She followed her Oscar in that role with a Grammy for her debut album in 2008.
Chaka Khan: The Queen of Funk turned heads as the front woman of the band Rufus before striking off on her own for radio-saturating ’70s and ’80s hits like “I Feel for You,” “Through the Fire” and her own spectacular version of “I’m Every Woman.”
Mavis Staples: The gospel singer and civil rights activist stood out from her family group, the Staple Singers, in the 1950s and ’60s, leading classics like “I’ll Take You There” and “Let’s Do It Again.” On her own, she’s been a pillar of the Chicago sound and recently collaborated with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.
Liz Phair: A fearless and frank songwriter, she commands a bare voice that made her 1993 debut, “Exile in Guyville,” one of the alt-rock era’s best.
Dinah Washington: One of the most popular pop and jazz vocalists of the 1950s, she developed her talent in Chicago theaters and used it to propel songs like “What a Difference a Day Makes,” “Baby (You’ve Got What It Takes)” and “A Rockin’ Good Way (To Mess Around and Fall in Love)” into the Top 10.
MC
Common: Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr. is now an actor and author, but he’s had a unique rep as a rapper since the early ’90s, representing a bohemian and often spiritual angle of hip-hop on tracks like “Southside” and “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop).”
Lupe Fiasco: Wasalu Muhammad Jaco was signed up as a youngster by Jay-Z, and his spunky 2006 debut nabbed three Grammy nods. For his biggest single, “Superstar,” the rapper paired with a fellow Chicago singer, Matthew Santos.
Rhymefest: Before he was a candidate for City Council last year, Che Smith co-wrote the Grammy-winning “Jesus Walks” with Kanye West and carved out his own acclaim as a gritty, street-level rapper.
Twista: Carl Terrell Mitchell’s freestyle skills are in high demand as a collaborator. He once broke a Guinness record for rapping speed, which makes the title of his biggest collaborations a bit ironic: “Slow Jamz.”
Kanye West: Chicago’s best-known rapper started as a producer for Jay-Z, with whom he just collaborated on album and tour. Despite the headlines from his stormy personal life, West’s talent is undeniable on hot tracks like “Gold Digger” and “Good Life.”
Guitarist
Mike Bloomfield: Included on Rolling Stone’s list of all-time greatest guitarists, the North Sider cut his teeth in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band but then formed his own group, Electric Flag, and worked in the ’70s with numerous rock legends from Bob Dylan to John Cale.
Bo Diddley: Raised on the South Side, Mr. “Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits” was an architect of rock ’n’ roll, not only establishing a foundation rhythm for the genre but inventing his own trademark rectangular guitar.
Buddy Guy: He’s a blues legend, but so much more. Smilin’ Buddy Guy mixes mayhem and mastery in everything he plays (check “Stone Crazy” for both at once), and since he started playing in the ’50s, he’s influenced or worked with rockers including Jeff Beck, the Rolling Stones and especially Eric Clapton.
Curtis Mayfield: From Chicago soul group the Impressions to the “Superfly” music he made in the ’70s, the legend’s voice and especially his guitar are all over songs such as “People Get Ready” and “It’s All Right.”
Tom Morello: Suburban-raised, the guitarist made his name via alt-rock acts Rage Against the Machine (“Killing in the Name”) and Audioslave (“Cochise”) before styling a solo career as the Nightwatchman.
Bass
Peter Cetera: His skills on the bass guitar anchored many early local bands and added the crucial bookend to his high-pitched vocals that eventually led many of the hit songs of the band Chicago.
Willie Dixon: A foundational musician for rock ‘n’ roll, his blues bass playing — and the songs pinned on it, like “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You,” “Bring It on Home” and more — led to work with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, as well as inspiring bands from Led Zeppelin to Megadeth.
Darryl Jones: The Chicago native, mentored by Miles Davis, was an in-demand session bassist (Sting, Madonna, Cher, Eric Clapton) before replacing Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones in 1993.
Jimmy Sutton: A pillar of contemporary rockabilly, he’s a wicked upright bass player who still straddles the fence of rock ’n’ roll, having worked with folks from Wanda Jackson to Jimmy Rogers, but more recently leading his own band, the Four Charms, and recording with local alt-rock producers.
Verdine White: Born to Chicago musicians, he played in local sessions before joining Earth, Wind & Fire, where his versatile pop-funk style — not to mention trademark dancing and hair-flailing — has underpinned that band’s heyday hits and lengthy legacy career.
Drums
Bun E. Carlos: Rockford’s own Cheap Trick (“I Want You to Want Me,” “Dream Police”) always gravitated toward Chicago (where the band recently announced plans to build a music complex on the South Side), and the linchpin of the band’s beat has always been its ambidextrous drummer.
Jimmy Chamberlin: One of the best players in town, the drummer’s rock and jazz influences propped up the Smashing Pumpkins off and on, as well as his own projects, the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex and the great new band Skysaw.
Jack Costanzo: They called him “Mr. Bongo,” and that he was — the ultimate percussionist in the ’40s and ’50s, when the bongos ruled and pop music loved Latin lands. He played with Nat “King” Cole for four years before beating skins for a host of other stars.
Buddy Miles: George Allen Miles Jr. (nicknamed Buddy after jazz great Buddy Rich) was a founding member of Mike Bloomfield’s Electric Flag before he joined Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys in 1969. He later split with his own group to back others, including Carlos Santana and Bootsy Collins.
Maurice White: Also an influential producer (and the brother of Verdine White), he came to Chicago as a session drummer at Chess Records before joining the Ramsey Lewis Trio in the 1960s and founding Earth, Wind & Fire in the ’70s, as well as working with numerous pop and soul artists.
Keyboards
Dennis DeYoung: Roseland’s own teamed up with his neighbors to form the band that would become Styx, and while his voice is instantly recognizable, it’s his piano playing that made so many of his songs indelible hits (“Lady,” “Come Sail Away,” “Babe” and more).
Herbie Hancock: His talent was displayed early in jazz clubs and on the CSO stage before he joined Miles Davis’ best quintet. More than a jazz master, he has influenced rock and pop artists; his “Rockit” was an MTV staple in 1983, and his most recent Grammy came for his collaboration with Joni Mitchell.
Robert Lamm: “Saturday in the Park.” There’s your ’70s rock piano — he wrote that hit for the band Chicago, as well as several others (“Dialogue,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” and more). He’s a founding member of that band and still plays with the current lineup.
Ray Manzarek: The Doors’ keyboard player grew up on the South Side and learned to play music only after a basketball career was derailed. His bass-heavy organ parts are crucial to many of the band’s legendary hits (“Hello, I Love You,” “Light My Fire,” “Riders on the Storm” and more), and he’s still touring today.
David “Hawk” Wolinski: After a brief stint in a band with Ted Nugent, Wolinski joined funk’s Rufus (with Chaka Khan) and wrote several of the band’s signature songs (“Street Player,” “Do You Love What You Feel,” “Ain’t Nobody”) from his keyboard.
Contributing: Thomas Conner, Dave Hoekstra, Laura Emerick, Amanda Barrett.
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