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Feature Thu Sep 13 2012

Soul Night in Chicago: Dancing Won't Die

By Jonathon Schaff

Around 11pm last Saturday night, it started to rain on the line of people waiting to get in to the Empty Bottle, the dive already jumping inside with an at-capacity crowd. I was out there attempting to conduct some interviews about the city's soul music scene when the weather arrived. The rain was unexpected, tacked on to the end of a long, cool day that felt like the first of fall. After five minutes, the rain turned into a mini-monsoon. But nobody in line budged.

They stood out there getting wet, waiting for a few people to leave, so they'd have their chance to dance to obscure old soul records, a throwback phenomenon sweeping Chicago that's straight out of the mod scene from 1960s London. Dressed in vintage shirts and pleated skirts, those in line were willing to brave the elements in order to experience the music of their parents' generation. It's nights like Saturday that seem to suggest the rebirth of soul music in Chicago is here to stay. Most of the people in line knew perfectly well that these days, another opportunity to attend another venue's soul night is right around the bend, but nobody budged.

Inside the Empty Bottle, the four DJs who make up Windy City Soul Club had been spinning records for hours, working the packed house into a sweat. WCSC accounts for one half of the major Chicago soul music DJ outfits. The other half is called Soul Summit, and their soul night is held at the Double Door in nearby Wicker Park. A week before last Saturday's show, I sat down with the WCSC DJs to get a better idea of what they were doing, how it compared to Soul Summit's soul night, and how all this soul came about.

WCSC-1-by Jordan Cinco.jpg
Dancers pack the floor at a previous Windy City Soul Club event (Photo by Jordan Cinco)

"We play northern soul, which is an up-tempo, Motown-y sound. Records that were pressed in limited numbers in the '60s and '70s," said Jason Berry, one of the club's founding members. "[Soul Summit] does a lot of late '50s, early '60s, and funk records." He added, "[Soul Summit] likes that sort of sound, a little cleaner, a little more produced." Windy City Soul Club plays original 45s, exclusively, records cut mostly in Chicago by bands trying to make it big in nearby Motown. For this set of DJs, geography counts as much as the time frame. For instance, don't expect to hear any Otis Redding from the Windy City Soul Club DJs — Otis recorded on Stax Records, based out of Memphis, and, despite attaining legend status, the sound just doesn't vibe.

Banning Otis (and his many excellent contemporaries) from soul night might come off as pretentious, but these DJs have the luxury of being picky; each member of the quartet owns thousands of hyper-specific soul records, their unique collections acquired over the course of a lifetime. Some of their particularly rare 45s are reportedly worth small fortunes. DJ Nick Soule drives up to Detroit once a month to pick over their record stores. The original cut records have a fuller quality of sound to them, which makes for better listening and euphoric dancing. And, as Nick points out, "It's like fine art collecting. It's always better to have an original."

[Check out this mix, provided by the Windy City Soul Club.]

Windy City Soul Club and Soul Summit are different in other, less nuanced ways. Soul Summit spins at the Double Door, a substantially bigger venue than the Empty Bottle, which means more room to move, but less intimacy. At the Double Door, Soul Summit occasionally hosts live music acts such as JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, whereas WCSC is a strictly vinyl affair. But rest assured, the two outfits are on good terms. They each host their own soul night about once a month, and they try to be conscientious with their scheduling. That means willing Chicagoans can hit up a high quality soul music dance party nearly once every two weeks.

The official motto of Windy City Soul Club reads "Chicago's Rare Dance Soul Party." Those under the age of 30, which was most everyone at the Empty Bottle last Saturday, might not recognize more than one or two tracks all night long. The penchant for obscure song selection is one way that WCSC differentiates itself from traditional Top 40 dance clubs, where predictability is king. According to Jane Flotte, 25, who came to dance on Saturday night, the unpredictable music makes for a more positive experience. "The energy is different. Everyone here is just really happy. At other bars there's always someone crying. Boyfriends and girlfriends fighting. Normal bar things. Here, everyone is in a good mood. It's the cheeriest place."

So how did it all come about? Like all good stories, Windy City Soul Club's began in an illegal speakeasy above an antique shop. Their first official show was held on November 1, 2008 at Heart of Gold, an "unofficial venue" stashed in a fourth-floor Lincoln Park loft. Eighty-five people showed up, few of them knowing quite what to expect. A month later, the DJs did it again, and 350 people packed into the loft. Word had spread. At their January show, Chicago magazine was on hand to take photographs. The resulting article they published led the city to shut Heart of Gold down permanently.

With a suddenly uncertain future, Windy City Soul Club bounced around town, looking for a more permanent home. They tried out the Viaduct Theatre, but the theater lacked the proper paperwork for dancing, something WCSC attributes to Chicago's "crazy licensing" regulations. "We got Footloose'd," said Nick Soule. They played Club Foot, Darkroom, and Liar's Club, often on weeknights to empty dance floors. Then, for a few months they inhabited Sonotheque, where they began to build a steady fan base until the bar shut down to become the Chicago outpost of the Beauty Bar chain. But a Sonotheque connection came through, and the group relocated to Empty Bottle, where they've held court since December 2009.



Approaching their three-year anniversary at Empty Bottle, it's worth asking if this is all meant to last forever. Are two soul nights sustainable? Is Chicago really a dance city? When will we get bored? DJ Xavier Velez curtailed my anxieties. "It's soul music for a reason. Everyone can feel it in their heart and their bones." Jason Berry chimed in. "Chicago gave the world house music. There's a great dance music legacy to uphold." DJ Aret Sakalian simply said, "Dancing won't die."

Every soul night I've attended — around ten of them — has been a landmark party, nights worth remembering long afterwards. Last Saturday was no exception. After the people waiting in line that got rained on finally made it inside, they brought the rain in with them, and the humidity inside the already warm Empty Bottle spiked. Dancers were soaked through. Aret laid down "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," the first universally recognizable track of the night, and the night crested. The crowd went bananas, and I imprinted the moment in my memory.

The last song played at the end of every Windy City Soul Club is "Southside Chicago" by Otis Brown. The song is short and sweet; Otis sings in a mellow tenor that gets everybody smiling. Early Sunday, as Otis Brown faded out, the ragged 3am crowd knew that they'd shared in something uncommon. Everyone filed zomebie-like out of the bar and into the cool morning, where all was quiet, and where it had stopped raining.

~*~

Windy City Soul Club's next show is Sunday, September 23, 2012 at the free "What's Happening!!" block party, sponsored by Longman & Eagle and Old Style. The event takes place from from 4-10 pm, on Schubert, at Kedzie, adjacent to Longman & Eagle in Logan Square (Details in Drive-Thru). Soul Summit's next show is on September 22 at the Double Door, with guest DJ Brad Hales of Ann Arbor Soul Club. The show is free.

About the author: Jonathon Schaff is a Chicago-based writer and dancer. Follow him on Twitter @jonschaff.

 
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Otis / September 13, 2012 11:16 AM

Excellent piece

your mom / September 13, 2012 11:43 AM

this is the worst blog i've ever read. #yawn.

MC RAD / September 13, 2012 6:09 PM

"YOUR MOM" must be one of the soul summit DJs. #soulsummitistotallylame

BzNeez / September 13, 2012 7:43 PM

Ur writing is handsome

Chris Johnson / September 14, 2012 3:16 AM

@MC Rad, why must "Your Mom" be one of the Soul Summit DJs? What is your stake in this? "MC Rad" is a totally lame handle, now what?

Bill Guerriero / September 14, 2012 10:40 AM

Great article but you left out the best and longest-running soul dance party in Chicago--East of Edens Soul Express. D'oh!

Northen Soul is nice for beginners and amateurs, but those of us who really wanna get down love the platters from New Orleans, Birmingham and Memphis served up by the East of Edens crew.

Amateur / September 15, 2012 8:47 AM

Haha. The "northern soul" DANCE music scene have popularized many records by unknown artists from New Orleans, Birmingham and Memphis ... not to mention every other city that had a thriving rnb music scene from the 50s onward. Only an amateur wouldn't know that.

Also, i will be sure to let anyone that i know who will be attending a Windy City Soul Club night in the future that they dont really want to "get down" and that they know nothing about REAL soul music.

Twat.

Kevin Jones / September 15, 2012 9:10 AM

I wrote this in an article for Midwest Shuffle in 2011 ... its unfortunate to say that many of the sad predictions about the "progression" of the soul scene in American are now coming to pass:

"With new soul nights popping up every month across this country, new collectors digging deep to work with the records that we have left and a wide-eyed, enthusiastic audience who has had next to no exposure to this music, we are positioned with the opportunity of a fresh start. We must take what we know and do the best we can, without relying on a scene that we can never fully understand to dictate how we should operate. We are Americans (and therefore separatists by nature)!

By embracing our own and making connections with each other, supporting the like-minded and sharing the knowledge we have, we can start to ignore what’s happening thousands of miles away and concentrate on developing a “faith” of our own. Elitist attitudes and rockstar mentalities will only succeed in making sure that any attempt to create some kind of scene based around the music that we love (if indeed, a scene is the end-goal) will fail."

Of course, everyone at the time thought i was just blowing smoke out of my ass (including most of my friends ... go figure).

Kevin Jones / September 15, 2012 9:12 AM

I wrote this in an article for Midwest Shuffle in 2011 ... its unfortunate to say that many of the sad predictions about the "progression" of the soul scene in American are now coming to pass:

"With new soul nights popping up every month across this country, new collectors digging deep to work with the records that we have left and a wide-eyed, enthusiastic audience who has had next to no exposure to this music, we are positioned with the opportunity of a fresh start. We must take what we know and do the best we can, without relying on a scene that we can never fully understand to dictate how we should operate. We are Americans (and therefore separatists by nature)!

By embracing our own and making connections with each other, supporting the like-minded and sharing the knowledge we have, we can start to ignore what’s happening thousands of miles away and concentrate on developing a “faith” of our own. Elitist attitudes and rockstar mentalities will only succeed in making sure that any attempt to create some kind of scene based around the music that we love (if indeed, a scene is the end-goal) will fail."

Of course, everyone at the time thought i was just blowing smoke out of my ass (including, most of my friends ... go figure).

Janice / September 16, 2012 2:43 PM

Soul Summit is super fun!! One of the best soul dance parties i've ever been to!

Chachi / September 16, 2012 11:47 PM

What's up with some blends? This isn't directed at these soul "djs" in particular, but at a lot of the "djs" i see at all these different clubs and bars.

Blends!

Transitions!

Otherwise, an iPod could do as good of a job.

Bill Guerriero / September 17, 2012 11:44 AM

Amateur,

Windy City Soul Club and Soul Summit are fine if you like songs with vibraphone. Lotsa vibraphone. Douche-nozzle.

Kevin Jones / September 17, 2012 1:47 PM

@Chachi -

You know what really sucks on a $3000 45?

cue burn!

--

The rare soul scene isnt really about DJing in the hiphop tradition, one's reputation (for lack of a better word) as a DJ is based on the quality/rarity of records that you have in your box. There are some records that received such a limited run that only a handfull of DJs will own one, and thusly fans of the music, both in Europe/UK and some here in the states will travel great distances just to hear those exclusive records in a club setting.

Sure, many of these tunes have been comped on CDs, and could be played out on an ipod or whatever, but that kinda kills the appeal, right?

Bill Guerriero / September 17, 2012 2:24 PM

Also Amateur,

My objection isn't to Northern Soul. I like Northern Soul. I've been to Windy City and Soul Summit and had a good time. But I'm saying that I like my dance records groovier and grittier. That's why I keep going back to East of Edens.

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Feature Thu Dec 31 2015

Our Final Transmission Days

By The Gapers Block Transmission Staff

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