Customer Reviews

Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records

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This is the riveting story of Chess Records, the home of Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Etta James and other legendary blues artists. It the story of triumph. The story of a record label that took a genuine American art form, the blues, from the back porches and dusty streets and into the American mainstream. It is the amazing story of two Jewish brothers, Leonard and Phil Chess, who came into the USA as immigrants in 1928 and proceeded to build a record company that would influence the face of music for the next 72 years and beyond.

Cohodas does an admirable job in piecing together all of the events which lead the Chess brothers from Poland to the shores of America, and into Chicago, where they began their new life working in their father's junkyard. The Chess brothers would later operate a liquor store deep in the heart of the windy city's black community, where they were exposed to rough and tumble blues via a juke box in the store. The brothers went on to open the Macomba Lounge on Chicago's South Side, which would become a favorite after-hours spot for music lovers and red hot blues musicians.

It wasn't long before the brothers focused their acute business senses on the recording industry. Leonard hooked up with a fledgling record company called Aristocrat, and soon he met up and coming guitar player from Mississippi named McKinley Morganfield, who would come to be known the world over by his nickname, Muddy Waters.

The Chess brothers bought out Aristocrat in 1949, and changed the name to Chess Records. The company produced successful recordings by The Moonglows, Ramsey Lewis and even early rock and rollers like Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Later, the label would release LP's by comedians as diverse as Moms Mabley and Bob Hope.

This is the story of two brothers who were driven to succeed. Two men who never played a musical instrument, and knew absolutely nothing about the music industry or the blues, but possessed an innate inner drive and a real ability to make money.

For any fan of the blues, or anyone wishing to gain some real background on the very roots of the rock and roll family tree, Spinning Blues into Gold is a must read. Nadine Cohodas (who also authored The Band Played Dixie: Race and Liberal Conscience at Ole Miss and Strom Thurmond and the Politics of Southern Change has turned in an excellent history of a legendary record label, and a musical reference book of considerable magnitude.

-Michael B. Smith, gritz.net

As a newbie Blues music fan, I found Ms. Cohadas' book very informative and enjoyable. Thoroughly researched, she does a great job of explaining the factors that led to the growth of the Chicago music scene, and many of the men and women who made it possible.

When I listen to a recording of a song, I tend to think about the "creative" talent involved in making it, i.e. the writer, arranger and performers. It's easy to forget, however, that there are a lot of creative talents involved in producing, marketing and distributing the music, and their contributions are as important. The Chess brothers were clearly a central force in bringing a lot of great music to the public.

One aspect of the book that I found particularly interesting and well-researched was the author's description of the economics behind the music business. What seems like a simple business is actually pretty complex. While the author does not excuse practices such as royalty sharing arrangements and the informal way the Chess brothers paid their artists, she manages to show how these could be interpreted in the context of the industry at the time.

If nothing else, this book prompted me to purchase several of the great Chess reissues which are now available on CD.

Cohodas has done an amazing job of researching and telling the story behind the roots of rock! This proves that sometimes what's behind the scenes is often more interesting and entertaining than what's playing on the jukebox!

Ms. Nadine Cohodas has written a great book on the history of Chess Records and the Chess brothers. Her ability to combine a Jewish family history, the history of the record business in the 1940-1965 period, and the rise of black rock 'n' roll is a difficult task, but for her, an achievable one. Anyone who loves rhythm and blues records including those of the famous Chess, Checker, and Argo (mostly jazz) labels, whose rosters included Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Ahmad Jamal, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, and many others, will devour this book with great pleasure. I do find it interesting that the author's first name is Nadine, which is the title of a famous Check Berry record...and I also learned, for the Coronets on Chess Records.

One notable, to me anyway, omission comes in the author's'otherwise excellent bibliography. She does not site what is supposed to be 'the first book devoted to the Chess story', that is: THE STORY OF CHESS RECORDS, by John Collis, published by Bloomsbury Press in 1998.

My father distributed Chess/Checker/Agro records in the St. Louis area during the 1950's and got me interested in the history of this, and other R & B companies. Thanks to Ms. Cohodas and her book, SPINNING BLUES INTO GOLD, for the old and many new memories.

I grew up in Chicago and am JUST old enough to recall going to the South Side when there was still an operative Chess Records. My awareness of Chess has changed my life profoundly. This book details the rise and fall of Chess in great detail, and is truly a page turner. I have decided to read it slowly -- a chapter a night -- as to best savor it. For a second generation American native with Eastern European Jewish ancestors, and knowing all the Chicago and suburban spots (from taverns to deli's) referred to here, this is more than the story of the most important label in blues and rock history. Even though my father was quite different than Leonard Chess, it's the story of my people in the new land -- Jewish immigrants working together with African-American immigrants from the South in a new place for all...creating something that changed the world for the better.

My recommendation to serious fans is to buy and read <<Spinning Blues into Gold>>, then go on to other sources that greatly add color and substance to Ms. Cohodas' rather spare narrative. By all means check out <<Chicago Blues: The City and the Music>> by Mike Rowe, <<I Am the Blues>> by Willie Dixon, and <<A Life in Rhythm and the Blues>> by Jerry Wexler.

The key contributions of the Cohodas book are 1) its fresh emphasis on the marketing and production aspects of the Chess operation, and 2) its attempt to debunk some widely accepted derogatory tales about Leonard Chess. For example, she has several sources to refute Keith Richards' famous story about Muddy Waters painting the ceiling. Thought-provoking stuff.

This is the story of the Chess brothers and their record company located in Chicago. Phil and Leonard Chess were a couple of Jewish immigrants who wanted to make money and saw a way to do so through the recording of black music (mostly blues, r&b, r&r, soul--some jazz) in the windy city. The Chess roster was impressive and featured the best of the post-WW II blues singers (Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Howling Wolf, Little Walter, just to name a few). Leonard was a tough cookie willing to help his uneducated, living-on-the-edge stable of artists--help, but no charity. The company was sold in the late 60s and soon after collapsed. I had the good fortune to speak with Nadine Cohadas about this book (and the book she wrote about Dinah Washington), and she was dedicated to getting the facts right and tracking down every lead. She was fascinated by her subject, and I think she conveys that well in the book. Scholarly, but not stuffy.

A must read for any R & B fan. This book covers more territory than Cadillac Records and tells the whole story of Chess and all of the related record labels.

I bought Spinning Blues into Gold because I'm interested in the Chess record company and its musical releases. The story is mostly accurate and very entertaining. The text is readable and shows Cohodas to be a good writer. Probably the best book on the subject so far. It does not tell everything you perhaps want to know but then what book could tell the whole story in just a bit over 300 pages? Wholeheartedly recommended.

Ms. Nadine Cohodas has written a great book on the history of Chess Records and the Chess brothers. Her ability to combine a Jewish family history, the history of the record business in the 1940-1965 period, and the rise of black rock 'n' roll is a difficult task, but for her, an achievable one. Anyone who loves rhythm and blues records including those of the famous Chess, Checker, and Argo (mostly jazz) labels, whose rosters included Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Etta James, Ahmad Jamal, The Ramsey Lewis Trio, and many others, will devour this book with great pleasure. I do find it interesting that the author's first name is Nadine, which is the title of a famous Check Berry record...and I also learned, for the Coronets on Chess Records.

One notable, to me anyway, omission comes in the author's'otherwise excellent bibliography. She does not site what is supposed to be 'the first book devoted to the Chess story', that is: THE STORY OF CHESS RECORDS, by John Collis, published by Bloomsbury Press in 1998.

My father distributed Chess/Checker/Agro records in the St. Louis area during the 1950's and got me interested in the history of this, and other R & B companies. Thanks to Ms. Cohodas and her book, SPINNING BLUES INTO GOLD, for the old and many new memories.