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| Marshall Chess / Photo credit: Alex Healy Marshall Chess, son of legendary Chess Records co-founder Leonard Chess, along with his son Jamar and partner Richard Ganter, have launched a “one-stop shop” outlet for vintage video music clips for genres ranging from Blues, Soul and Jazz, to Rock ‘n ‘Roll and Gospel with the rollout of the Chess Records Tribute Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChessRecordsTribute. |
“The Chess Records Tribute Channel on YouTube is a deep excursion into the vast Chess Records history, featuring hundreds of rare videos, personal stories and experiences with constant content additions,” says Chess. “There is a podcast section, too, where I play Chess music with added comments. If you love the blues, you have got to check out The Chess Records Tribute YouTube channel.”
Now in his eighth decade, Marshall Chess continues to be at the vanguard of music innovation with the new channel, which follows the successful release of New Moves: The Chess Project, a trailblazing new album collection from his CZYZ Records label. CZYZ was the original family name of his father and uncle before they came over to the USA in the 1920s and had their name “Americanized” into “Chess,” which set the brothers on a path to create their own music history.
Partnering with Marshall Chess on these projects is long-time friend Richard Ganter. Over the years, Ganter was in contact with Marshall after both promoted the “Legendary Masters” series in the mid- 1990s. They hit it off on a friendship that has lasted for several decades. Richard suggested a bunch of ideas for a Chess book to pay tribute to the Chess family legacy to Marshall, which in 2019 came to the concept of an illustrated coffee table-style high-quality photo book. When 2020 came around and Covid 19 hit, Richard used the time to finalize the concept of the book with Marshall’s foreword and full authorized support.
Realizing that the world pretty much stood still in 2020 with the Chess Records Tribute Book finished, Richard started the YouTube channel Chess Records Tribute to support the book release and produce the most unique channel to showcase the legacy of the Chess family and beyond with Marshall’s full support. Marshall at that point revived The Chess Project album he produced with his son Jamar and with several major artists and finalized the album in 2023. Thus, several major Chess projects came together to feature on the YouTube channel with the album now hitting the promo trail in 2024.
“The Chess Records Tribute channel pretty much evolved from launching the book and with such a vast array of music and Marshall’s direct and deep association with Chess and beyond we quickly realized we will produce original and unique content not seen anywhere on YouTube,”” adds Richard Ganter. “The vast and deep combined knowledge we bring to this makes the pods, special features and videos the go- to channel in Blues, and of course, across all other genres. The channel covers Blues, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Soul, Gospel and Jazz, plus Comedy – the entire Chess history; plus we go beyond and cover Marshall’s later Rolling Stones involvement and his productions that take us right up to current times.”
After the initial launch in July, 2020, and the full launch in January, 2024, the YouTube channel boasts over 500 videos-and-counting to date. A unique offer for any music fan to learn and view, listen to some of the most amazing music ever recorded. The channel has over 20 playlists and features some of the most unique Blues videos and special documentaries ever made on the subject.
“The Chess Records Tribute YouTube channel reaches the far corners of the globe,” summarizes Ganter. “More specials are planned for 2024/2025 featuring Marshall Chess and his unique broadcast style to captivate and audience with the stories of his life in the music business that are truly one-of-a- kind. We have in-planning further special series that will become pod style tidbits of Marshall Chess folk tales covering artists and music, life and more.”
About the Chess Records Tribute Channel
The Chess Records Tribute Channel is the only dedicated video channel on all things Chess Records, its legacy and beyond, fully authorized by Marshall Chess. Currently the channel has 5k permanent subscribers and growing.
The channel boasts to date over 500 videos under several key genres such as Blues, Rock, Gospel, Soul, Jazz and Comedy, plus key Chess artist playlists where you get the most exclusive and rare videos seen on YouTube, refreshed every few days with new videos. The channel features over 70 exclusive podcasts by Marshall Chess, produced with Richard Ganter.
In addition to Blues, all other genres that Chess was famous for are covered in depth, including Soul and R&B. Dedicated playlists feature key artists such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, Etta James, Little Walter and Chuck Berry, to name a few.
The channel further boasts special films and features including the specially re-colorized and digitized “Bo Diddley Legend” documentary produced by Marshall Chess.
The channel also features exclusive videos produced by Richard Ganter and Marshall Chess on the Grammy-nominated album Hip-Hop –influenced The Chess Project, produced by Marshall and Jamar Chess and Keith LeBlanc, featuring a stellar artist lineup of Bernard Fowler, backing vocalist of The Rolling Stones, world-class percussionist LeBlanc, Skip “Little Axe” McDonald (Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five) and Eric Gales (Santana, Gary Clark Jr., Lauryn Hill) on guitar; Paul Nowinski (Keith Richards, Patti Smith) and MonoNeon (Prince, Ne-Yo) on bass; Reggie Griffin (Kenny” Babyface” Edmonds, Chaka Khan) on keys; Alan Glen (Jeff Beck, Peter Green) on harmonica; and Mohini Dey, an up-and-coming young bass player from India.
Stats:
Videos: Over 550 videos live to date, with new videos published every week.
Podcasts: Over 70 podcasts published to-date every other week paying tribute to the Chess legacy hosted by the special Marshall Chess show covering all things music, social and tales from a lifetime of extraordinary experiences in the business of music, artists and beyond only available on this channel.
Shorts: Special artist and songs featured on short video format.
Community/Posts: Posts to all subscribers happen almost daily across all linked social media platforms such as X, Instagram and Facebook.
Merchandising: A dedicated tagged Merchandise Shop features exclusive designs, which helps maintain the channel production costs. Visit: https://www.youtube.com/@ChessRecordsTribute/store
Key Marketing Stats:
Subscriptions: 5k; The channel was soft launched 3 years ago and started to rack up nearly 600k views in the past 12 months, 30k likes and over 10k comments/interactions with viewers across social media.
Core channel audience markets worldwide: US, Canada, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and South Africa
About Marshall Chess
After spending his early years alongside his father and uncle in Chicago studios and record pressing plants, Marshall Chess made his mark at the family label in the late '60s with his own label Cadet Concept producing the groundbreaking albums Electric Mud (Muddy Waters) and Rotary Connection (self-titled). Marshall continued his innovative work as the founder and head of Rolling Stones Records and president of music publisher, Arc Music. The Chess family continue to be pioneers in the industry today; as this new collection is co-executive produced by Marshall’s son, Jamar Chess: a Billboard "30 Under 30" alum, 2019 ASCAP award-winner, and co-founder of Sunflower Entertainment and Wahoo Music Fund One, partnered by Marshall and Jamar.
Now living in Upstate New York and at 82 years old, Marshall Chess is still a record man above all - tending to the Chess Records legacy for his grandchildren and generations to come. He maintains The Chess Records Tribute YouTube channel, which features recorded live performances of Chess Records artists and a multi dozen-part Chess podcast hosted by Marshall where he chats about producing classic Chess albums and songs, many of which are reinterpreted on New Moves.
About Richard Ganter
Richard Ganter Started his career in publishing and studio/live productions covering several continents. During his career, he worked for various Polygram Record labels, MCA Records and Universal Music International, amongst others. A former executive at Universal Music Group International, he conceived the Legendary Masters series to reestablish the Chess Records catalogue to a global audience culminating in the production of the critically-acclaimed 15 CD Chess Story box set in 2000. He also produced several million-selling TV albums such as B.B. King Ultimate Collection. A former executive at Vivendi Universal Mobile, he marketed the first wireless mobile digital content portals globally across all genres from hip-hop to pop, including Eminem’s “8 Mile” film, Mary J Blige, Jay Z, Snoop Dog, The Rolling Stones European tour 2004, Sting, million-selling MTV Frog tune among others.
Richard Ganter is a published author running his own global digital media content management company focused on OTT platforms, video music production and channels .He divides his time between Europe and Africa.
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