Sites that shaped Chicago's sound: from Louis Armstrong's spots to Kanye's crib

[A Lark Ascending]

Sites that shaped Chicago's sound: from Louis Armstrong's spots to Kanye's crib

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I suppose it's to be expected that a piece of web journalism should be so lightweight.

I think you'd really appreciate 'The autobiography of black jazz' by Dempsey J Travis, Bev. It's unobtainable but you can get it ordered (like I did) from the local library.

Travis, in the late thirties/early forties, ran a big band in Chicago. One of his sax players was Nat Jones, later the straw boss and arranger of the James Brown band and a major soloist on 'Grits and soul'. So Travis' band did good training.

He gave up music in the late forties and became an estate agent, which led to him seeking to revitalize African American neighbourhoods in Chicago. Travis Realty Company, which he founded in 1949, and Sivart Mortgage Company, which he founded four years later, increased the availability of mortgages for African Americans. Together, the two companies worked to sell properties located in the Chicago area to African Americans who were being displaced by urban renewal projects.^[2] In 1961, Travis founded the United Mortgage Bankers of America and served as its president until 1974. During the late sixties and early seventies, Travis served on President Richard Nixon’s Housing Task Force and President Gerald Ford’s Task Force on Urban Renewal. He also wrote a number of books on black history.

As you'd expect of an estate agent, a lot of the focus of his black jazz book was on the actual locations and addresses where things were happening; dance halls, bars, churches, I think, as well as musicians' homes.

[A Lark Ascending]

Just put it up because it might be of interest. Like most things from the 'arts' pages of newspapers it's aimed at passing interest rather than the passionate aficionado. Only skimmed it myself. 

Edited March 2, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, DO read the Dempsey Travis book.

MG