Phil Chess, co-founder of blues label Chess Records, dies
- by Paula Vaughn
- in Culture
- — Oct 21, 2016
Leonard Chess died in 1969 at age 52, a few months after Chess Records was sold to General Recorded Tape and three years before the label got its first Billboard-topping single (Chuck Berry's "My Ding-a-Ling").
Phil Chess, who co-founded the influential record label Chess records with his brother Leonard, has died at the age of 95.
The label which specialised in "race music" also signed Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson and Buddy Guy, with the pair also producing many of their artists' records.
Chess and his brother Leonard, who were Jewish immigrants born in Poland, started the label in 1950. In the '60s and early '70s, Chess Records would also release iconic soul, jazz, doo-wop, and even psychedelic rock releases, including recordings by Etta James and a fledgling Fleetwood Mac.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, lots of other rock superstars talked about the influence of Chess Records and it shaped their careers.
Chess' family is planning a private service in Tucson, Arizona, according to his nephew.
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Before launching the label, the brothers ran a Chicago nightclub, the Macomba Lounge.
He said: "Phil and Leonard Chess were cutting the type of music nobody else was paying attention to ... and now you can take a walk down [Chicago's] State Street today and see a portrait of Muddy that's 10 stories tall". Then came Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" a song so influential it became the name of the English rock band and the magazine. Neither of the two played an instrument but together they had golden ears for talent. When he returned home, he joined his brother working the bar and later forming Chess Records. Nadine Cahodas wrote the book on Chess called "Spinning Blues into Gold".
At 2120 South Michigan, a treasure trove American music was made right here.
Phil Chess' death comes almost over four decades after the death of this brother.
The Chess Records story was fictionalized in the 2008 movie "Cadillac Records". He was inducted to the Blues Hall Of Fame as a non-performer in 1995 along with his brother.
