Arts & Entertainment
Up For 16 Oscars, ‘Sinners’ Sparks Conversation on Chicago Blues History and Its Future
This Sunday, viewers around the world will tune into the Academy Awards where Ryan Coogler’s critically acclaimed film “Sinners” is in the running for Best Picture.
The record-breaking, 16-time-nominated film stars Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo, Wunmi Mokasu, Hailee Steinfeld and Miles Caton. The film shines a spotlight on blues music, introducing a whole new generation to the genre.
While the blues may be having a mainstream moment, the Chicago blues community has long been dedicated to the art form’s preservation, history and future.
WTTW News spoke with some of the guardians of the sound that continues to shape American music.
Billy Branch
An award-winning recording artist and blues harmonica player “extraordinaire,” Branch began playing Blues music in the early 1970s in Chicago.
The UIC alum went on to earn an Emmy award, three Grammy nominations and was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2020. Branch has traveled the world playing and saw how the power of music can reach people, regardless of the language they speak.
“It’s a universal feeling, you know — but the feeling of the blues transcends that and they get it,” Branch said. “I’ve done several tours in China and people had tears running down their faces just listening to the music.”
Branch has performed with some of the greatest the art form has to offer with legends like Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. However, the one he recalls was his time with icon Willie Dixon.
“I thought I was good, but then I found out I wasn’t as good as I thought I was real fast, and Willie taught-ate-slept-preached the blues constantly,” Branch says. “And it was with Willie Dixon that I really understood the importance of the blues as the most important musical, cultural resource of the music in this country.”
Despite Branch’s accolades, he still sees legends who never received their flowers for their contributions to a genre that defines the core of American music. Branch references a quote famously said by Dixon, “The Blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits.”
For Branch, there is not one genre of music in the United States that does not derive some of it’s DNA from the Blues.
Branch believes the city can play a larger role in acknowledging its role in the expansion of the art form. “Chicago has yet to embrace it’s blues cultural heritage,” he said.
Diamond Dixon
Part of supporting that heritage includes investing in the communities where the unique style of the Chicago blues comes from, said Diamond Dixon, executive director of the Chicago Blues Revival.
“Chicago Blues Festival, if it’s not like the biggest festival in the United States, maybe even the world when it comes to blues, and so Chicago gets a lot of commerce based on that,” Dixon said. “So I guess with this reemergence of interest of blues, I’m hoping that taps Chicago on the shoulder to begin to show up and invest in these communities.”
Her organization uses the blues as a tool to help support the communities the sounds originally came from. They offer educational outreach programs for youth as well as host events and support artists directly with mentorship and resources.
These resources are just one step in combating a long history of Black and African American blues musicians who struggled to own their music in an industry that was antagonistic of them.
Many had their music stolen and popularized by White performers without due credit.
“Black folks in history across the board have always had issues with owning music — that is why you see such ownership and such pride when people are speaking about blues specifically,” Dixon said. “Because we know that at the root of it as cultural carrier, we are trying to make sure those things don’t continue to happen.”
Melody Angel
Guitarist, vocalist and music producer Melody Angel has toured the world sharing her unique style of music that blends multiple genres.
Angel was originally inspired by Prince, who she grew up listening to after her uncle brought home the film “Purple Rain.”
From there, she became fascinated with the guitar and followed the roots of Prince’s music down to Jimmy Hendrix and eventually the blues.
At the age of 15, she began looking up blues records on YouTube and used it to teach herself the guitar.
“It made the guitar make sense, and I realized that basically, that’s because all the genres of music in America are derivative from the blues,” Angel said. “So, if you can learn how to play the blues, you can play anything.”
As Angel kept following the roots of the music, her mother revealed her cousin was blues musician Ottis Rush, who died before she had the chance to perform for him.
She often performs his song “Double Trouble.”
“I don’t know, it’s just my way of connecting with him, even though he never got to see me play, I know he would be proud that I’m playing,” she said.
Angel believes there is a call to action to ensure current artists are treated fairly, “but that our legends, the ones that are still here with us, still creating, that they get their due as well. And that’s gonna take all of us working together.”
Harell “Young Rell” Davenport
Originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the Delta, Harell “Young Rell” Davenport is making a name for himself as a young blues musician.
Davenport first started playing the blues at the age 7, learning the guitar shortly thereafter at the age of 8.
When Davenport, now 19, gets on stage, he takes it as an opportunity to teach those around him about the value of the musical tradition he practices.
“To me it feels great, it’s an honor and at the same time I think it gives me a chance to teach people my age, and even some people who are older than me, the history of what I’ve studied and the knowledge I’ve gained from the elders in the industry,” Davenport said.
Though he may be younger than some of his contemporaries, the blues serves as an outlet for him.
“It’s my world, you know, I’m a shy person but when I get on stage all of that disappears — for me it’s a feeling — and it just comes out I’m up there,” he said.
As for the future of the genre, he remains excited when he sees younger generations keeping the tradition alive.
“We’ve got a lot of people, especially young people playing the Blues like Steven Hall and Melody Angel, of course, young guys and young women and young African Americans who are getting into the Blues and so it’s really rising, and I think the movie ‘Sinners’ is probably helping catapult the next generation,” Davenport said.
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
