In 2010, a day after drumming before 27,000 blues fans, with pop star John Mayer’s trio at the Crossroads Guitar Festival in a Bridgeview soccer stadium, prolific session musician Steve Jordan retreated to a much smaller stage a few miles up the road. It was in a recording studio at 2120 S. Michigan Ave., where an old piano sat in the corner. One of the most famous sidemen in Chicago-blues history once played it here.

“We were playing this jam. The room started rattling. The piano started vibrating. I swear to you, I was hearing Otis Spann,” Jordan recalls. “The spirit is in that room.”

Jordan is referring to Chess Records, which Polish brothers Leonard and Phil Chess founded exactly 75 years ago. The label recorded Muddy Waters, Etta James, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Koko Ta

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