Leaving Chicago: A Primer (Part 03)

By contrast, Cohran remained in Chicago and lives here today. As a result, the few sparse recorded efforts that he has released have not made too much of an impression on the record buying public. After leaving Sun Ra’s band, the trumpeter formed the Artistic Heritage Ensemble, which, oddly enough, would morph into Earth, Wind and Fire a few years into its career. A lack of touring could be cited as the reason for Cohran’s oeuvre being ignored, but being based in Chicago did not always help. His dedication to Chicago, as well as teaching needs to be considered equally important to future musicians from the Midwest as anything that his peers accomplished (6).

Improvisation, though, moves beyond the confines of the jazz genre. Beginning as the lone member of Big Black, then founding and disbanding Rapeman in a matter of a few years, Steve Albini has become internationally renowned for his work as guitarist and main songwriter of Shellac (11).

"There's a large improvisation element. We play different notes, I sing different words...literally every thing about [a song] is substantially different, but we still think of it as the same song," says Albini about his current band in an interview with the SF Weekly dating from June of 2009.

Beyond Albini’s conception of what a song is, the fact that he makes use of source material as unique as funk and hardcore make the recordings he has been involved with beyond the confines of a single genre. "Song of the Minerals" from At Action Park, which was released in 1994, begins with a slinky guitar appropriation that arrives sounding cribbed from an album by New Orleans funk band the Meters. As the rhythm section comes in, though, the bottom heavy elements inherent in early eighties’ hardcore serve to push the song towards its noisome end.

Lauded by a huge cross section of the music media, the guitarist and band leader still relies on his prowess as a producer to spur on his career. Working with everyone from Nirvana to the Japanese noise outfit Melt Banana, Albini has amassed one of the most impressive lists of production credits in music. Albini’s career has spanned a few decades thus far and with his producer fees remaining relatively reasonable, he has made himself available to any band that has a few spare dollars. Perhaps because of his approach to recording, which has more to do with incorporating musicians into the decision making process then lording over them, he remains one of the industries most sought after talents. The entirety of his career has been centered in Chicago. And with such a reputation, there does not appear to be any reason for Albini to leave.

There must be more than one example of a Chicago artist or musician sticking around town and receiving world wide acclaim. Albini can’t be the only one. Of course, if there are in fact other success stories out there, each might just be obscured by the distance from New York or Los Angeles.

01: http://www.vogueidea.com/abstract-paintings.html

02: http://www.theremin.info/-/viewpub/tid/12/pid/23

03: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:0iftxqy5ldje~T1

04: http://www.furious.com/perfect/sunra.html

05: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:39ftxqtgld0e~T1

06: http://philcohran.com/pc_wr_fr.htm

07: http://homepage.uab.edu/moudry/ra&aacm.htm

08: http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-06-10/music/steve-albini-is-built-for-the-long-haul

09: http://www.elrarecords.com/

10: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifwxqt5ld6e~T2

11: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:f9fexqe5ld6e~T1