The Secret History of Chicago Music: Renaldo Domino and the Heavy Sounds

Renaldo Domino blasted onto the fertile Chicago soul scene of the late 60s with a voice as sweet as sugar and deep grooves that sound just as fresh five decades later. Releasing singles on Mercury subsidiaries Smash and Blue Rock, and later Twinight records, Renaldo’s all-too-brief career has still managed to leave an impact to all those lucky enough to hear it. Renaldo returned to the spotlight in 2007 when the Chicago reissue powerhouse Numero Group put him on the cover of their deluxe box set Eccentric Soul: Twinight’s Lunar Rotation (which included other greats Syl Johnson, The Notations, and many more). Renaldo’s performing career began to flourish once again with shows around country. In early 2019 Renaldo teamed up with producer Jeremy Kay and arranger JB Flatt and set out to record new tracks that would live up to Renaldo’s great early records. Assembling a crack team of Brooklyn’s best they pulled out all the stops, creating a mix between the lush arrangements of Chicago’s early soul style and the hard-hitting beat of current Brooklyn soul. The new single “No Laggin’ & Draggin’” / “Give Up The Love”, released Feb 2020, is now available on Colemine Records. Backed by The Heavy Sounds, Renaldo’s live performances continue to deliver with passion and precision, making new fans young and old.

Aaron Cohen teaches humanities and English composition at City Colleges of Chicago and writes for numerous publications, including the Chicago Reader and Chicago Tribune. His most recent book, Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power (University of Chicago Press), looks at the social and musical changes that shaped R&B in Chicago during the 1960s and 1970s. His first book, Amazing Grace (33 1/3; Bloomsbury), analyzes Aretha Franklin’s popular 1972 soul-gospel album. Cohen has been a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar, DownBeat editor and is a two-time recipient of the Deems Taylor Award for outstanding music writing from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Secret History of Chicago Music has been an illustrated column by Plastic “Steve Krakow” Crimewave, dedicated to covering Windy City artists of every musical genre who might’ve slipped through the cracks of history. It has appeared in the the Chicago Reader since 2004, and a book collection, My Kind of Sound: The Secret History of Chicago Music Compendium was published by Curbside Splendor in 2015. 

ShoCM also became a successful concert series at the Hideout, providing showcases for artists as diverse as cosmic-jazz originator Phil Cohran, groundbreaking electronic musician Bil Vermette, and 70s progressive rockers McLuhan. We are proud to relaunch the series with a few new wrinkles, including an opening DJ/chat session with experts in the respective genre highlighted at the concert. 

For this relaunch, we are honored to have the legendary, honey-voiced, soul-deity Renaldo Domino–and his slammin’ back-up band the Heavy Sounds rock the Hideout. Aaron Cohen, will appear beforehand to play tunes and discuss the importance of this essential Chicago music strain with host/creator of SHoCM, Plastic Crimewave. 

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