Before I Leave

Chicago is a city I’ve always known but never fully dove into. It’s safe to say that I have only stepped into what could be considered a few drops of water, and not nearly the whole body of metaphorical water that is the city of Chicago. I was born in Arlington Heights,  a little suburb outside of the Chicago zip code, and I lived in that area for the first two years of my new life. Fast forward roughly twenty years and I have visited Chicago over 25 times to see family, yet I have not been exposed to Chicago as a musical city other than by the bucket drummers who sit on State Street and provide a percussive soundtrack for the hurried shoppers and tourists.

Even though I have visited Chicago many times, my preconceptions are mostly based on media I have consumed. Through scattered but thoughtful music research over the past five years or so, Chicago has been brought to my attention many times due to the talented musicians and genres that have come and continue to come from the windy city. I feel slightly at a loss because I don’t have any social connections in Chicago. I have loads of family members in all parts of the state of Illinois, but none of them are going to provide me with much information or give me many anecdotes. That is fine though, although that added resource would be useful to have, my family members are helping me out tremendously by putting me up and likely feeding me copious amounts of food and I am super grateful for that, and my bank account is thankful as well.

Some expectations that I have of my time spent in Chicago are that I will talk to a lot of different people. I am making it a goal to challenge myself and talk to as many (willing) strangers as I can muster up the courage to approach. I expect to talk to people who have seen Chicago’s music scene grow as they have grown in their own lives. I expect to talk to tourists and visitors and find out what they think of Chicago as a musical city from an international perspective.

I also expect to feel overwhelmed, both positively and negatively. I anticipate that I will push myself to make the most of my time in Chicago. I do not want to waste a moment and I am going to have to be ambitious if I want to complete everything I yearn to do. Some preparations that I am making logistically for my trip are the seek out the Chicago music “experts” that live in Chicago, or can be contacted via email. Since a lot of the people that were major players in the Chicago house music scene are no longer as involved in the scene, or as famous, it will be a little bit easier for me to secure contact with them.

While I am reading articles and watching documentaries, I am writing down names of people that are being mentioned as pioneers in the scene. I also am extremely curious to contact record store owners as well as local show bookers. Folks of these occupations often get looked past as contributors to a music scene. I think these people will be able to give me  some behind the scenes insight on how the city has grown musically over time.

Sketch of my living room
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