It’s only appropriate to bring news of the new Chess Records revival today, for it was on March 12, 1917, that Leonard Chess, the label’s co-founder, was born. In truth, he was christened Lejzor Szmuel Czyż at the time, when the family lived just west of Pinsk on the Yaselda River, Poland at the time, now Belarus. When they moved to America, settling in Chicago with Anglicized names, Lejzor became Leonard and his brother Fiszel became Phil. Together they would go on to found one of the most groundbreaking and influential independent labels in the history of blues, jazz, and especially rock-and-roll.
Memphian Robert E. “Buster” Williams, whose Plastic Products Company pressed and distributed vinyl, was involved with the brothers early on, and it was Williams who suggested that Leonard and Phil name their new label “Chess.” (This and more can be found in Nadine Cohodas’ excellent history of the label). Indeed, the label had many ties to Memphis, from Chess Records hits like “Rocket 88” and “Moanin’ at Midnight” being recorded by Sam Phillips, to young Memphian Maurice White joining the house band.
That tradition only continues with the involvement of Memphis virtuosos Eric Gales and MonoNeon in a recent album by The Chess Project, New Moves, as detailed in this week’s music feature.
Yet the album is but a piece of a larger plan now being pursued by Leonard’s son Marshall, who was in the thick of the label’s business until Leonard and Phil sold the company in 1969. Leonard would die at the age of 52 later that year. Since that time, as ownership of the label’s catalog shifted over the decades, Marshall remained as the keeper of the family’s real legacy: their memories. And lately, he’s more committed than ever to telling their story.
Partnering with Marshall Chess on this mission is longtime friend Richard Ganter, who worked with Marshall to promote the Legendary Masters series in the mid-1990s. Five years ago, Ganter suggested they create a richly illustrated, high-quality coffee table book, and during the onset of Covid they made it happen, Chess Record Corp.: A Tribute, with Marshall providing the foreword.
Upon the book’s release, Ganter and Chess also started the YouTube channel, Chess Records Tribute, to promote the book and provide a multimedia venue to showcase the legacy of the Chess family — with Marshall’s full support.
“The channel covers blues, rock-and-roll, soul, gospel, and jazz, plus comedy — the entire Chess history,” says Ganter. After the soft launch in July 2020 and a fuller launch this January, the YouTube channel now offers over 500 videos. Recently the pair have started to produce podcasts concerning the history of Chess Records as well, sometimes touching on Marshall Chess’ time as the first president of Rolling Stones Records in the 1970s.
All in all, it’s a music historian’s dream, and a treasury of ripping good yarns as well — a fitting memorial to Leonard Chess and worth a visit on his birthday.