ARTICLE BY JEREMY GANTZ
PHOTO/SLIDESHOW BY PETER HOLDERNESS

Bronzeville returned to its musical roots February 8, when bluesman Fernando Jones appeared at Bronzeville’s Visitor Information Center to offer his signature sound to a small but enthusiastic audience.

The performance, billed as “A Blues Background” by the center, was open to the public and part of an ongoing series of events organized by the not-for-profit Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council.

Fernando, who teaches a blues history survey course and leads the nation’s first collegiate blues ensemble at Columbia College, sang a handful of soulful, stripped-down original songs accompanied by nothing but his red Fender Telecaster. The songs were pulled from his four albums, the most recent of which is “Whodoyuvoodu.”

“Chicago has got everything you need. We’ve got a Great Lake and gold-plated streets,” Jones sang in his song “Chicago, ” the city he calls “the Blues Capital.”

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Although the audience was small – Bronzeville residents, it seemed, were mostly at home with the dead-of-winter blues – Jones had no trouble persuading listeners to clap their hands and echo his refrains. He even managed to convince three young siblings, all suffering from stage fright, to accompany him with an impromptu backup vocal performance.

Bronzeville is hungry for blues music, according to Harold Lucas, president and CEO of the Black Metropolis Convention & Tourism Council and ePublisher of Bronzevilleonline.com. The council, which operates the visitor center, is dedicated to transforming Bronzeville into what Lucas called a “premier tourist destination.”

“We could very well lose the blues if we don’t continue to study it and know that this is the home of the blues,” Lucas said Thursday before Jones’ performance. “We’re happy to have [Jones].” Lucas regularly leads historic neighborhood tours and is currently applying for a federal “Preserve America” matching grant to bolster Bronzeville’s economic and cultural redevelopment.

In July 2001, the Palm Tavern, a venerable nightclub that opened in 1933 at 446 East 47^th Street, was declared unsafe and closed by the city, which then evicted the tavern’s longtime owner and took the building by eminent domain. It remains closed.

Bronzeville has been without a blues music venue since April 2003, when the legendary Checkerboard Lounge on 43^rd Street was also shut down by the city due to building code violations. The Checkerboard, whose stage once hosted such blues legends as Willie Dixon and B.B. King, reopened three years ago in a University of Chicago-owned Hyde Park building amid a flurry of protests from Bronzeville community activists.

But Jones, who performs regularly around Chicago, is optimistic Bronzeville will soon revive its storied past and once again become a musical destination.

“It’s on the upswing,” Jones said, referring to Bronzeville’s blues scene. “Once it’s down, it can only go up.”

For more information about Fernando Jones and Bronzeville’s Visitor Information Center, visit www.fernandojones.com and www.bronzevilleonline.com.