So Long, Cool Gent
Hello, My Name is Robby
Robby Takac
He was known as“ King of the Dusties” and the“ Cool Gent” but these throwback nicknames sometimes obscured the relevancy and on-the-pulse musical significance of Herbert Rogers Kent. The iconic DJ ruled black radio for an unprecedented 70 years. He’ s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running DJ in radio history and his influence on Chicago culture is just as phenomenal. His velvety voice narrated the lives of generations of Chicagoans, from his‘ 50s and‘ 60s shows on WGES, WBEE and WJOB where he helped launch the careers of Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Curtis Mayfield and Minnie Riperton, to his groundbreaking time at WVON, where he was part of a legendary group of DJs called“ The Good Guys” and where he emceed Martin Luther King’ s Freedom Summer Rally in Soldier Field in 1966.
11 • 2016
In the‘ 70s and early‘ 80s, he hosted the cutting edge disco, new wave and punk show“ Stay Up and Punk Out” on WXFM. Later, the legendary House DJ Frankie Knuckles would credit Herb Kent as an early influence. By the‘ 80s, his flirty banter as“ Herbie Baby, and his“ Battle of The Bands” shows on WVAZ were as iconic as his signature cowboy hat. He schooled the city on the Chicago style twostep with frequent Steppers Sets and he regularly offered on-air musical history lessons with his behind the scenes tales of R & B and pop stars. Herb was so much a part of Chicago history that when he published his 2009 memoir, The Cool Gent: The Nine Lives of Radio Legend Herb Kent, it wasn’ t a music or broadcasting industry big wig who wrote the forward, but former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley. From the‘ 1940s, until last week, there was rarely a time when the voice of Herb Kent wasn’ t floating over the airwaves and into the lives of Chicagoans. His legacy of keeping dusties music alive and relevant for new generations will live on, but the man who so charmingly chronicled the music will be sorely missed.
– Rosalind Cummings-Yeates
Fire Guts Willowbrook Ballroom
You’ ll have to forgive Robby Takac if he sounds a bit distracted. The Goo Goo Dolls bassist is staying busy this fall with his band, which is back out on the road for a 29-date run backing its inventive new 11th album, Boxes, and a current video-filming contest – in partnership with Talenthouse-- for its latest single,“ Over and Over,” with the winning director getting an autographed guitar, $ 5,000 cash, and having their clip featured on the group’ s website. But the musician is also an entrepreneur, with his own bustling Japanese-favoring imprint Good Charamel Records, his own studio, GCR Audio, where the artists sometimes record, and annual event in his native Buffalo, NY called the Music is Art Festival. He just helped mix a rollicking new record from one of his signings, Pinky Doodle Poodle, and his roster also includes legendary all-girl combo Shonen Knife. So there is a lot going on, man, plus all the Goo Goo Dolls stuff,” he sighs. While his bandmate John Rzeznik anchored most of the Boxes material, Takac also wrote and sang two cuts,“ Free of Me” and“ Prayer in my Pocket.” And the two( minus longtime drummer Mike Malinin, who departed in 2013), sound more rejuvenated than ever, thirty years into their Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum career. Continued on page 8
Jerrica Paglia
Local Break-Out
Fire gutted the legendary Willowbrook Ballroom on October 28, ending nearly a century of historic concerts ranging from big bands to it ' s current incarnation as a wedding and banquet facility.
According to Suntimes. com, the fire at the Willowbrook was deemed a total loss and the cause remained under investigation, officials said. The original ballroom burned down in 1930, according to the ballroom’ s website. It was rebuilt at a then-staggering cost of $ 100,000, complete with a soda fountain, restaurant and flower shop. It also hosted some of the biggest bands of the day."
From the 1940s to the 1980s, the Willowbrook hosted a range of bands from the Artie Shaw Orchestra to Uriah Heep to the Brian Setzer Orchestra. As reported in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Ballroom " was also famous for an enduring ghost story reveloving around Ressurection Mary. According to legend, that is where a teen girl spent her last evening in 1927 before she was killed in a car crash on her way home. Going forward, there have been numerous accounts of“ Resurrection Mary” sightings in and around the ballroom: a girl dressed in a white gown and slippers. Those sightings were particularly common around Halloween." The ballroom celebrated its 90th anniversary last month.
Northwest Indiana-based country singer Jerrica Paliga had a breakout year in 2016, winning several local talent competitions including a Coors Light Big Break contest hosted by 95.5 FM and iHeart Radio. Jessica told local music scribe Tom Lounges at NWI. com she recorded in Nashville at age 19 to secure demos using studio session musicians. " I still live in Chesterton( Indiana)," she told Lounges. " This is where all my music contacts are and I think you have a better shot of trying to make it outside of Nashville. Where in Nashville it ' s hundreds of musicians, here you stand out a little more." Winning the prestigious contest, Paliga earned the opportunity to perform in July at The Country Thunder Music Festival in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Jerrica performs a rare acoustic show November 12 at the Hammond Civic Center, 5825 S Sohl Ave. in Hammond, IN.
Local heavy rockers Teeze recently celebrated their 25th anniversary as a band. The most recent incarnation of the band just released their single " Revenge " online. Yolking anthemic metal and alt-rock vocals, they perform November 12 at the Hard Rock Cafe and opening for Jackyl November 23rd at the Fuel Room. The current line up consists of Teeze includes Alex Tyler on vocals and bass, Dan Szkola on guitar, P. J. Alvarez on drums and & Martin Contreras on guitar.
6 illinoisentertainer. com november 2016