Chicago is a city that is very proud of its blues music heritage, so much so that our unofficial anthem is the blues tune “Sweet Home Chicago.” Our tourist and convention trade guides thousands of travelers to our several blues clubs and through several blues-themed business meetings. As a local cameraman, I shoot plenty of these various doings every year. Blues music is big business, and the city of Chicago knows this very well.
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Although I am not a hard-core blues fan, I do, however, understand blues music as a descendant of the people who immigrated (or escaped) from the cotton fields and oppressive politics of the south to the slums and oppressive politics of the north, people who transformed their pain and longing for home into an internationally recognized art form.
Years ago I worked on a Viva! Chicago Latin Music Festival broadcast that was seen throughout Latin America, so why not broadcast our proud cultural legacy of blues music to the world? I am told that the city of New Orleans not only broadcast the Jazz and Heritage show, but also issued an audio CD of the local music. If any city could make a broadcast deal work, Chicago can. We are supposed to be the city that works.
