DeRogatis On Emanuel Arts & Culture Team: Where The Little Guys At?

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 11, 2011 5:20PM

Vocalo.org's Jim DeRogatis took a look at the members of Mayor-elect Emanuel's Arts and Culture transition team and banged out one of his trademark impulsive missives faulting the team for having no one on it to voice the concerns of Chicago's small music venues. While he didn't come right out and say this is the death knell for smaller venues and independent promoters, and that we should kneel before our Live Nation overlords, the sentiment was there.

So, Boeing gets a seat at the table discussing the arts and culture in the new Chicago, but there isn’t room for the owner of a single independent rock or hip-hop venue, record label, recording studio, or record store, a major citywide concert promoter, anybody from the Chicago Music Coalition, or the Old Town School of Folk Music, or the Pitchfork Music Festival, or Girls Rock! Chicago, or the Chicago office of the Recording Academy, etc., etc., etc.?

Ah, well: At least there’s nobody from Ticketmaster/Live Nation or Lollapalooza co-owners C3 Presents and William Morris Endeavor, a.k.a. Ari’s company.

So we took a look at the team recognizing Emanuel, for what it's worth, has to have an eye on the big arts and culture picture, and found a few things of note.

First, let's address the Boeing issue. Boeing gets a seat at the table because they've underwritten a number of citywide music festivals over the years, namely World Music Festival. Boeing's Angel Ysaguirre has worked closely with the city to help bring in the acts necessary for the musical programs produced by the Chicago Tourism Office's Michael Orlove, back when Orlove was at the Department of Cultural Affairs.

As for DeRogatis's contention that local independent music isn't represented, we ask that he take a look at the resume of Sound Culture's David Chavez. Sound Culture promotes world music artists in smaller music venues throughout the city ranging from Martyr's to Mayne Stage and everywhere in between. Chavez's experience as a promoter goes back to his days DJing hip-hop and Latin music nights in dance clubs around town. He was also instrumental in bringing local hip-hop and indie bands to HotHouse, back when that organization had a brick-and-mortar venue. After the 2006 ouster of Marguerite Horberg as HotHouse's executive director, Chavez stayed on and booked bands to the end, the final months without pay.

Chavez's experience as a booking agent, his relationships with the venues where he books his shows and his understanding of what these venues go through could prove to be instrumental in bringing the concerns of local promoters, venue owners, record labels and smaller music non-profits like Girls Rock! Chicago to the attention of the Emanuel Administration. Just because DeRogatis said he's never heard of Chavez or any of the others on the list doesn't mean he's in lockstep with any plans Emanuel has to help enrich Live Nation or C3 Productions.

We're skeptical of Emanuel, but we're taking a wait-and-see approach to his transition before screaming "the sky is falling." We just ask that DeRogatis do the same.

(Disclosure: David Chavez and this writer were colleagues at HotHouse for years.)