Gregg Parker is the curator of the Soul of Bronzeville exhibit at the DuSable Museum and is also the founder and CEO of the Chicago Blues Museum and Record Row Foundation.

Parker grew up in the Ida B. Wells housing project in Bronzeville and went on to become one of the most in demand guitar players in the music business. He has played with Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Hendrix, and many more headlining superstars. He lived in Los Angeles and the Bahamas before moving to England in 1982 where he became an international performer. He has done shows with Santana, the Funkadelics, War, Bootsy Collins, Ozzy Osbourne, and many more.

Since his return to Chicago, Parker has focused on creating something he fiercely believes in - the Chicago Blues Museum and Record Row Foundation in Chicago. He has merged his contacts in Chicago, and in Europe to assemble a highly creative, professional team to implement the groundwork for this museum, launching a veritable one-man crusade to preserve Chicago’s blues legacy.

For ten years, he has collected, purchased and acquired blues and music memorabilia. These items represent one of the nation’s most sought-after traveling museums. He has been establishing the museum since 1991 through an enormous archival collection, continuous fund raising efforts, networking with the blues community, and historical traveling exhibits and workshops featured at festivals and events in Chicago, nationally and internationally.

His passion to preserve Chicago’s blues tradition is augmented by his association with some of the world’s most respected blues artists including Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and more. As a natural extension of his commitment to preserve Chicago’s Blues tradition, he founded the
Chicago Blues Museum, dedicated to promote the preservation and evolution of the Blues to foster world-wide appreciation of the Blues as an indigenous American art form.

Portions of Gregg Parker’s collections have been displayed in such prestigious institutions as the Smithsonian Museum, New York’s Schomburg Library and London’s Towne Hall.

Gregg has also distinguished himself as a founder and CEO of the Record Row Foundation, which is dedicated to foster wider recognition and cultural preservation of Chicago Blues, Soul, Jazz and Gospel music industry during 1960 - 1970 along South Michigan Avenue. The Foundation’s archive include collections of valuable Chicago soul and rhythm & blues memorabilia, oral histories, archival footage and its Record Row Chicago Soul - Rhythm & Blues Awards Program recognizes the legendary artists, A&R directors, distributors, writers, producers, deejays, arrangers, studios and labels that helped to put the city of Chicago on the map as an internationally famed soul music recording center.

To raise awareness and preserve a part of Chicago’s history, he also formed the Chicago Blues Museum All Stars, performing the music of the Legends of the Blues and Record Row while paying tribute to the artists that made it all happen. For Parker, the need to preserve the city’s blues, soul & jazz heritage is a matter of respect for the founders of the music that is at the root of modern rock.

The All Stars, led by Gregg Parker, feature some of the very best of Chicago’s blues, R&B, and jazz musicians such as Joe Thomas, Herb Walker, Keelan Jones, Shorty Mack and others, who have performed together at various music festivals.

For years they rocked the crowd at the Chicago Blues Fest; in 1999 their energetic and explosive performance caused the Queen of the Blues Koko Taylor to applaud “You guys are scandalous!” and in 2000 critics rave with "This ultimate sensational ensemble played up a storm with the zeal of a brutal hurricane."

Parker was just the right man to start the Chicago Blues Museum according to Benjamin Lawless, one of the nation’s preeminent museum designers, who has been working on the museum. “You need a guy who will not take no for an answer, and he won’t,” Lawless says. “Gregg called me right out of the blue after he read about me in Time magazine. He was very persuasive.”

PHOTO: METROPOLIS/LEILA KHALED

DuSable Museum CEO Dr. Carol Adams and Curator of The Soul of Bronzeville Exhibit Gregg Parker

The DuSable Museum’s new CEO, Dr. Carol Adams, has just extended Parker’s Soul of Bronzeville exhibit until the summer and she looks forward to an exciting year welcoming more tourists to the area.

As Parker continues his quest to promote the legacy of musical icons, what better location for the Chicago Blues Museum than Bronzeville?

He says, “After a lot of people turned their back on it, we happen to be lucky enough to have a few people who have tried or are trying to do something to keep Bronzeville’s legacy alive. Such as Oscar Brown, Jr. who was one of the greatest community leaders that we have produced. Oscar wasn’t afraid of the gangs, he worked with them. The next generation is going to make Bronzeville what it can be and that will be us. The kids in our community need to know their history and that’s why it’s important to keep it alive. Right now they are orphans of history while living in the most historic part of the city.”

Third Ward Alderman Pat Dowell said, “I am working with Gregg Parker to find him a permanent home in the Bronzeville community which is the only logical location for this great exhibit. The museum is filled with authentic artifacts from the Regal Theatre and other venues where African American talent and achievements were showcased. This is the real deal and it must be preserved.”

Metropolis Editor Leila Khaled contributed to this story.

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