It becomes even more schizophrenic when other artists are introduced, including Howlin' Wolf, Hubert Sumlin and Willy Dixon (but there is no sign of Chess stars Buddy Guy or Bo Diddley). The film can't decide whether it wants to focus on Chess, Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Etta James (Beyonce Knowles), Little Walter (Columbus Short) or Chuck Berry (Mos Def). Unfortunately, Cadillac Records is an opportunity missed to tell a serious, cohesive story about Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody).
The story of Alfred Lion has many similarities to the story of Lejzor Czyz a Polish American who changed his name to Leonard Chess and founded Chess records. The label was not a lucrative undertaking for him and he had to sell Blue Note in the late 1960s. The more I read about Lion, the more I realized he cared deeply about the music and the musicians, paying them for practice sessions in addition to the recording sessions (which was unheard of at the time), going over each composition and in some cases inviting musicians to his home for dinner. I realized that those legendary sessions would have never been produced if not for Blue Note's founder, Alfred Lion. Were wealthy, privileged businessmen with little regard for the music taking advantage of poor, downtrodden musicians who didn't understand the value of their talent? The Blue Note label caught my attention because it had brought together the sidemen from John Coltrane's quartet and Miles Davis' quintet of the 1960s.
When I first got into blues and jazz, one of the more superficial observations I made was that my favorite artists were predominantly black and the record label producers were predominantly white. Behind every great record label is great music, great musicians and a great producer.
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