> 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent History of Chess Records
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Kings of the blues, Chicago style
Review: 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.
