The smartly styled crowd sipped their drinks, leaned back in their chairs and greeted old friends as they gathered in the atrium performance space of Kenwood\u2019s Little Black Pearl for Chicago Blues Revival’s annual spring gala.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBlues is more than music,\u201d said Dr. Jacqueline Samuel, board chair of Chicago Blues Revival. “It’s storytelling, it’s resilience, it’s the truth. It is a living art form and manifests the soul of communities and the history of a people whose voices shaped American culture.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some in the crowd wore iconic trilby fedoras with short, or “stingy,” brims and nodded in assent.<\/p>\n
Chicago Blues Revival (CBR) is one of a handful of organizations, including the Muddy Waters Mojo Museum and Building Bronzeville, working to revitalize blues culture in the Bronzeville neighborhood. It was founded in 2018 to \u201csupport blues and blues-inspired music\u201d on the South and West sides, where the genre first flourished locally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“There is something special about this music,” said Jeff Pinzino, CBR\u2019s founder. He spoke to the Herald while gala headliners Lynne Jordan and The Shivers got the crowd moving.<\/p>\n
“It’s deeply rooted in African American history and culture but has, at the same time, a universal appeal,” Pinzino said.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Billy Branch performs during the organization\u2019s spring gala at Little Black Pearl, 1060 E. 47th St., on May 14, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Chicago is where the blues of the South, particularly the Delta blues of Mississippi and Arkansas, met the electric guitar and exploded in popular culture. During the 1950s and 1960s, the sounds of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon were developed and refined in dozens of clubs in Bronzeville and on the West Side, including Lee’s Unleaded, Theresa’s and the Checkerboard Lounge. The artists were propelled into the national spotlight by labels Chess and Delmark Records, and later Alligator Records.<\/p>\n By the 1980s, the commercial center of the blues had shifted north to venues like Kingston Mines in the Loop, B.L.U.E.S. in Lincoln Park and Blue Chicago in River North. In 1984, the first official Chicago Blues Festival took place. In 1989, after leaving his partnership with L.C. Thurman at the Checkerboard, Buddy Guy founded his own club in the South Loop, Buddy Guy\u2019s Legends.<\/p>\n The South and West sides of Chicago were left with vibrant but diminished blues scenes, centered around venues like the Checkerboard, Lee’s Unleaded, 50 Yard Line on the South Side, and the Tar Heel and Delta Fish Market on the West Side.<\/p>\n The revival of blues across Chicago has come in fits and starts, perhaps most successfully at Rosa’s Lounge in Logan Square. Rosa’s was founded in 1984 and modeled after Bronzeville\u2019s Theresa’s Lounge<\/a> by Italian immigrant Tony Mangiullo, who came to Chicago after hearing the music of Junior Wells and Buddy Guy.<\/p>\n
\n Marc C. Monaghan<\/span>
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