Many people know the story of Curtis Mayfield, who achieved fame with the Impressions, founded his own label, Curtom Records, and launched a celebrated solo music career.
Some may even know about the Dells, who recorded the enduring hit “Oh, What a Night” on both Vee-Jay Records and Cadet Records, and inspired “The Five Heartbeats” movie.
But few know about Billy Chears, who released just one 45 rpm record, “Did You Miss Me, Girl?,” in 1978 on Rockford’s Chearston label. His career was cut short by a fatal car accident a few years later. The record became the label’s sole release.
Thanks to a new book, people will discover scores of Black artists and record labels of Illinois — obscure and popular alike. The Numero Group’s “Soul Music of Illinois” is a comprehensive overview of the state’s soul music from 1960 to 1990. Edited by Dante Carfagna, the 732-page, two-volume set includes artist and label indexes, a visual catalog of 45 records and LP covers, and a gallery of artist photos, concert flyers, letters and other ephemera. On Friday, Numero will release the collection and host a signing event at its Factory Outlet in Little Village.
The book features more than 3,200 artists, whose works Carfagna likened to “postcards from the past.” He said he hopes the collection is a meaningful tribute to the artists, especially the few who are still living, and their families.
“I wanted to put this book out so they could have a testament to their achievements, whether they were successful or not, just to let those people know that they’re not forgotten,” said Carfagna, 50, of the West Side. “In fact, their contributions are very important.”
A writer and researcher originally from central Ohio, Carfagna has spent 30 years collecting records by Black artists from the Midwest. Both his 2022 book, “Soul Music of Ohio,” and the Illinois edition sprang from that diligent work. Carfagna also met with artists or their family members to acquire or photocopy mementos.
“Illinois and Michigan are the two most prolific independent soul producers in the United States,” he said. “There are more records from those two states than New York, Texas, California and New Orleans.”
That abundance of talent in Illinois was largely due to the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Chicago during the early 20th century, Carfagna said.
Though he has a wealth of knowledge about the highlighted artists and labels, Carfagna intentionally left editorial content out of “Soul Music of Illinois.”
“My opinion on it does not matter, because what I think is a good record may not be a good record to your ears,” he said. “It’s really important for me to just put this stuff out there. You can open your computer and sit with the book in front of it and just poke around all of these things and put them into YouTube to listen to them or Google them. I put it out there as a map, and you can find your own trajectories through all of this art.”
The book is an effective guide. Readers can thumb through lists of record labels and see the artists featured on each one. For example, Brunswick Records takes up multiple pages with its releases by the likes of the Chi-Lites, Gene Chandler, Barbara Acklin, Jackie Ross and Detroit artist Jackie Wilson.
Originally based in New York, Brunswick had an extremely productive branch in Chicago that was managed by Carl Davis.
“The Brunswick output from the mid-60s to about 1970 is essentially Chicago’s Motown,” Carfagna said. “That’s the most talented writers, the most talented instrumentalists, the most talented vocal groups. And Carl Davis is probably as important to Chicago as Berry Gordy is to Detroit.”
By contrast, some labels, like the one owned by Bernadette Cash, may inspire readers to do their own digging to fill in the gaps.
“I tried to find her about 20 years ago,” Carfagna said of Cash. “She had a line of hair products in the ‘70s. And she had a label called La Cade. And it’s a very small label. There’s maybe three or four records on it. But in all of my research, she seemed to be a really fascinating woman, like a real take-no-bull. go-getter lady that owned multiple businesses.”
Readers will also be drawn in by the photos and flyers. For example, Google searches may be inspired by a funeral program for Bandit Records owner Arrow Brown, positioned next to a photo of his teenage son, Altyrone Deno. What they will find are some wild and unsavory tales about Brown, his label and his vocal groups, whose music is featured in a separate Numero Group collection.
“A lot of the twists and turns of that story are something straight out of Hollywood,” Carfagna said.
The book’s concert posters also provide a snapshot of Chicago’s Black nightclub scene of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. The featured venues, including the South Side’s Guys and Gals Cocktail Lounge and High Chaparral, have their own stories to tell.
Beyond the artists and their families, Carfagna said he wants locals to embrace the book, which he called “a celebration of 20th-century Black American art.”
And he said he hopes readers will reflect on the progression of Chicago’s Black music through the decades.
“It all comes from this same pot that has been boiling since the ’40s here,” he said. “And that’s important.”