Bullring downtown T.J.
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BIOGRAPHY
Like the classic Otis Spann song, Chicago Red came up the "Hard
Way."
Born in 1955 on Chicago’s West Side, Red's grandfather, Sol "Kid
Willis" Weisman (1895 –1995) was a prizefighter when Jack Johnson was
champ. Red's father got the street name "Dempsey" by the time Jack
Dempsey was the champ, because he was a pretty tough kid too.
Growing up, Red's home life was rough to say the least and Red spent a
lot of his childhood with his father and his pals. His father would
take him around to all the poker rooms and gambling joints in Chicago
when he was a little boy and Red knew all his father’s gambling buddies
and “Outfit Guys." Some of his father's friends had names like "Eddie
The Flop," "Big Six," "Fat Peepee," "Monk," "Shoe Polish Joe" and "Mike
The Blade," One of his favorite uncles was "Two Gun Ike."
Red also spent a lot of time with his pugilist grandfather while his
father was out gambling, hustling or working trying to support the
family. He remembers his father often coming home after gambling for
two or three days straight.
Red was always much older than his years – he had to be to survive.
Music and art were always a part of his life.
When he was about 5 years old, his father took the whole family to the
Shriner’s Circus, and Red got so excited hearing a live band that he
got up and started conducting the orchestra in front of a full
audience! With the spotlight turned on him! That was his first break in
show business.
Later his father took him to an all night movie theatre at 2 or 3 in
the morning to see the movie "Music Man". There was an old upright
piano in the basement at home so Red started playing it by ear at and
soon began piano lessons.
In spite all the family chaos, Red recalls how his parents both really
tried to encourage him musically. The family had all kinds of 78 rpm
records, from Big Bill Broonzy to Beethoven, and every summer the
family went on weekends to hear the Grant Park Symphony or The Chicago
Symphony with Sir Georg Solti.
His father also encouraged him to listen to Mendelsohn, Mahler and
Mozart because he believed to know music, he had to learn and know all
about music history.
One of Red's fondest memories is when his Dad took him to hear and meet
Louis Armstrong and Count Basie.
There were also stories about his father taking his mother to see the
Mills Brothers at the Drake Hotel on their wedding night, and other
humorous tales about Jack Teagarden playing on the West Side with smoke
literally coming out of his horn. Sometimes, his father would take him
down to Maxwell & Halstead for clothes or hot dogs or Taylor Street
for Italian Beefs & lemonade. Blues music was all over the place.
Living in a Boy's Home in Chicago in the sixties and early seventies,
Red first saw Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters and the music connected
with him emotionally. He felt something in the sound and the words deep
inside and started to play the guitar and sing. His first guitar was a
used Harmony from Sears. He paid $10.00 for it. He still plays a
vintage 1960 Harmony Patrician, made in Chicago.
In the early seventies Red moved to Las Vegas, following his father and
his business there. In those days you would hear Ella sitting in with
Joe Pass at a little club off the strip. During the late seventies and
early eighties, Red hitchhiked across the U.S. and traveled throughout
Mexico several times – often lying in the back of a pick up truck in
the Mexican desert looking up at the sky on starry nights and listening
to the recordings of the old bluesmen he loved such as Big Maceo, Tampa
Red and Robert Johnson.
After traveling up and down the West Coast, he tried settling in Los
Angeles-homeless, sleeping in a park off of Sunset Boulevard and
Cherokee with only his guitar, one arm and leg draped over it so nobody
would steal it.
Back on the road again, he found himself in New Orleans, with its
fabled music, food & booze. He felt as if he’d died and gone to
heaven.... and he almost did, indulging in way too much of everything.
Limping, crawling, he returned to the hard streets of Los Angeles with
his guitar and music for solace and a newfound resolve to keep going.
Living the blues.
Shortly after returning to Los Angeles, a friend was walking across
Wilshire Blvd. when a car struck him and he bled to death In Red’s
arms. Soon after that, his father got brain cancer, seven other family
members and friends died and his sister got esophageal cancer. Then Red
was diagnosed with cancer himself and had half his stomach, part of his
liver, and esophagus removed. With the help of friends he recorded "IN
THIS LIFE" before he went through surgery, knowing this CD would either
be a legacy or an opportunity if he survived.
Now healthy and gigging around the country with his musical friends,
he's enjoying performance opportunities in Miami, Houston, Chicago, New
Orleans, & Hollywood as well as doing 'Live Sets' radio shows on
90.2 WWOZ FM in New Orleans, 90.1 KPFT Houston/Galveston, 91.3 WLRN FM
Miami and 90.7 KPFK FM Los Angeles.
When he's not touring, Red is guest-host or playing live on the
Wednesday afternoon radio show "Buffalo Bayou" @ KUCI 88.9 FM. You will
often find him playing around Hollywood with friends like Kenny Lee
Lewis (Steve Miller Band) and Jimmy Powers (Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie
Raitt, Buddy Guy, Robert Jr. Lockwood).
He's also worked with Ralph and Dave Fertig, Blase Bonpane (Office of
the Americas), played at a fundraiser for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa and had
his “Cipro Prescription Blues” (from IN THIS LIFE) played on Amy
Goodman’s nationally syndicated ‘Democracy Now’ program.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, Red loves to take the short trip to
Mexico – traveling about half way down the Baja Peninsula every year to
see the gray whales that come from Alaska and give birth in the
lagoons. He reflects that that's what life is all about, enjoying the
beauty of it, witnessing creation. And still finding the Blues. Once in
Mexico, Red left his guitar in the shower stall of an Airstream trailer
and forgot to open the sewage line--the guitar filled up with !@$%!
Red admits that the blues can be learned, but in its purest and most
honest form it only comes through the pain of life and living he adds.
If you can survive. San Francisco blues promoter Tom Mazzolini once
wrote a letter to Red stating: "Blues is life." And as Red’s father
used to say, "Where there's life, there's hope."
For Booking & information contact :
CHICAGO RED
(213) 384-6227
(310) 717-1217