Maxwell Street
In our music there are plenty of references to ‘Maxwell Street - The
music the migrants played on the Street was different from the acoustic
blues they brought from the South. It relied on borrowed electricity
from businesses, run via extensions to the street, to amplify the
Mississippi Delta blues sound so it could be heard above the market
noise.
The idea of attracting crowds of
listeners appealed to business owners, too, these were potential
customers. The resulting amplified and distinct Chicago blues sound was
made famous by people such as Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, and Bo
Diddley—the latter of whom played on Maxwell Street with his band, the
Hipsters, who were later called the Langley Avenue Jive Cats.
The last blues performances on Maxwell Street occurred in 1999–2000, on a
bandstand erected by Frank "Little Sonny" Scott, Jr., near the
north-east corner of Maxwell and Halsted Streets, on land recently
vacated by the demolition of a historic building.[
citation needed]
The extension cord ran from the last remaining building in use, the
Maxworks Cooperative headquarters, 300 feet (91 m) east, at 716 Maxwell
Street. One day a university crew arrived and erected a chain-link fence
between the bandstand and the sidewalk, effectively banning the
performances though they continued a few weeks longer on the too-narrow
sidewalk.