Re: [Harp-L] Maxwell Street

["David Brown" <nonidesign@xxxxxxxxx>]

It's funny how Maxwell St. market was such an important part of why I picked
up harp. On Sundays I would go to Maxwell with my Dad to snoop out deals or
with an older friend who's dad had a stand selling stuff he would find while
doing board-ups for abandoned houses on the south side (the word "find" had
the broadest of definitions on Maxwell St.). Maxwell market was the first
place I ever heard blues *live* ( my dad played jazz trumpet so I heard
"jazzy" blues on his records first). The market was also the first place I
ever stepped into a band to play blues live on harp (in the backlot behind
Nate's deli off the Southwest corner of Maxwell and Halsted for the locals
reading this post).

What made Maxwell so special to me was that it wasn't a blues "museum". It
wasn't a ghost. It was a living, breathing blues environment. Smaller, but
still intact, from it's inception. When you walked among the crowds, heard
the  voices of vendors doing their hustle to the people, heard the music of
all styles blaring form crappy little speakers (8 tracks and vinyl, baby),
smelled the grilled polish sausage and wood burning barrel fires, and did
your best to "Jew-down" a deal (sorry for the ethnic insensitivity, but that
what everybody, including Jews, called negotiating)..... you were part of
"it". It wasn't "House of Blues". It was real.

And the blues? Oh man. Oh man.  So raw and so goooood. Cheap guitars and
cheap amps with a purity  that you wont hear on a Joe Bonamassa record or
anything currently on the Alligator label (Well maybe Lil Ed and old Hound
Dog Taylor... yassuh).

To this day I remember the gloriously rude sound a harp had struggling out
from under a rusty barrel used as a megaphone by someone who had no idea
what embossing reeds and alternate tunings are. " 5 pairs of socks for the
price of one, and don't forget to check for holes"....THAT'S what he knew
about (another insider joke for the locals out there).

I never let Maxwell leave me. After college I moved a lot. Every time I
moved or traveled I would search for that locale's equivalent of "Maxwell
Street". When I lived in LA I gravitated towards Venice Beach. I found
the "Combat Zone" in downtown Boston. Detroit had a market. Sydney Australia
had King's Cross. Bangkok had Kow San Road, East St. Louis, San Francisco,
Oklahoma City, Tijuana, Vilnius Lithuania, Rome, Venice, and on and on. All
those cities have (had?) run down areas and/or markets in places
with some leftovers from a disappearing past. By "leftovers" I mean
businesses off the corporate grid located in buildings built in a time
before Wallmart. Real character, not faux character. I played in bars or on
the street in each and every one of them (good thing a harp is smaller
than my drum set eh?).

Whenever I hear blues, especially Chicago blues, I'm drawn back to memories
of Maxwell. I can't pick up a harp without that market lurking somewhere
inside it. Is this all just one person's romantic nostalgia? After all, on
the surface Maxwell was really just some dumpy flea market. Maybe so, but
it's my nostalgia and I know it was real, and from the off-list responses I
got to my original post it seems that there are a lot of other list members
who have been there...or somewhere....who remember exactly why this
music, our chosen instrument, and a glimpse into the vanishing past is so
important to us.

Have a good New Year everybody
- and remember on Maxwell we "Cheat You Fair" (last of the local insider
jokes).









On 12/30/08, Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> On Dec 30, 2008, at 12:14 PM, David Brown wrote:
>
>>
>> Maxwell St. was "renovated" to expand the University of Illinois campus.
>>
>
> That's what they wanted everyone to believe.
>
> Apparently the city felt the need to destroy a hundred year old landmark of
>> the city's history, and a historic landmark of blues and rock & roll, so
>> that university students would have places to get coffee and pita bread
>> (I'm
>> getting old...and cynical).
>>
>
> It's a crime that the government does this in this country. This doesn't
> happen in other places (except Paris). Every city, town and village has a
> 'Dahn Tahn' section. Even a village has a place where 'what's happenin now'
> is de rigeur. In Baltimore, it was Baltimore st., in Pgh, it was the Hill
> Dist. In Mayberry it was the barber shop and in Pixley, it was Drucker's
> general store.
>
> Unfortunately, when a particular area seems to exude a particular level of
> crime, it is considered blighted and the paranoid city planners must do
> something about it. Sooo, instead of having the (admittedly) small number of
> resident riff raff all in one easy convenient location (where they can be
> watched), they are scattered about to 'seed' new neighborhoods. Yes, the
> govt. can't seem to do anything about the people who swindle and cheat us
> out of billions, but just let someone get taken in a shell game and holy
> hell, break out the Nat'l Guard.
>
> Not only does that destroy the birthplaces of local culture and nurturing
> grounds of the indigenous music and art, but it causes more problems than it
> solves. They do this in the interest of safety. What? Part of growing up is
> to learn how to deal with every day events. I mean, would you bungee jump
> 666 feet from the tip of the 999 foot Eiffel Tower? (consider the shape).
> Would you picknick on the lee side of the Tower of Pisa? (consider the
> plumbness). Would you swim in ANY Florida drainage canal? Would you run
> through the Oregon forests wearing a pork chop suit?
>
> They moved the famous polish suasage stands
>> around the corner....but if you visit Chicago don't leave without eating
>> one.
>> I miss the market. It is the first place I learned and played harp in
>> front
>> of an audience. I wish every blues fan and harp player on this list could
>> have visited it. The wealth of blues played at that market was
>> unbelievable.
>> I saw many myself and I wasn't even there during the heyday of the 50's (I
>> grew up in the early 70's)
>>
>
> I was there in 61. It was as good as you could get.
>
>>
>> The City moved the market across the expressway and cleaned it up
>> somewhat.
>> The blues bus still sells blues and CDs, and you'll even catch a harp in a
>> street band sometimes, but without the ancient buildings, snappy huckster
>> salesmen, and stolen goods it just doesn't seem the same.
>>
>
> In other countries, the buildings are still there.
> smo-joe
>
> The market is still open on Sundays and during business hours it is more
>> than reasonably safe. The location of the old market is as safe as any
>> other
>> modern gentrified business district. Find the corner of Maxwell and
>> Halsted
>> and consider it Mecca. Little Walter, Big Walter, and many many of the
>> Chicago greats played within a half block of that intersection. Muddy's
>> first record ( and I think Little Walter's) was sold from a store a
>> stone's
>> throw from that intersection too.
>> The Chess Studio building is on a few blocks East of the market on
>> Michigan
>> Ave.
>>
>>
>>