Nearly a decade ago, Bonni McKeown, an Austin-based writer, decided to draft her first screenplay. Her script followed the life of Eddie Taylor Sr., a Chicago blues guitar legend in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, covering his family drama and relationship with the music industry as a Black guitarist.
Taylor moved to Chicago’s West side from Mississippi and, though he never achieved stardom like other blues musicians of the time, he played an important role in the Chicago blues scene.
“The music is the most important part of the story,” said Darryl Pitts, a Chicago-based producer who directed “The Rhythm and the Blues,” a film about Taylor that is premiering at the Pan African Film and Arts Festival in Los Angeles Feb. 14 and Feb. 17. “Blues is the foundation of every American music art form.”
Before McKeown wrote the script, she and Larry Taylor, Eddie Taylor Sr.’s stepson who lives in Austin, authored his autobiography together. The two met in the early 2000s, as McKeown helped Taylor book blues shows, occasionally accompanying him on the piano. They self-published “Stepson of the Blues: A Chicago Song of Survival” in 2010.
“It was probably one of the few books dealing with the West side at the time,” McKeown said. The book inspired her to write a script, so she signed up for a screenwriting class with Ytasha Womack, a Chicago author and filmmaker.
McKeown then hired Pitts to turn her script into “The Rhythm and the Blues,” and filming began in 2015. Parts of the movie were shot on the Cinespace lot, a studio on the West side of Chicago.
“It became more of an exposé of the corrupt and racist music business,” McKeown said of how her script evolved. “There were so many talented Black musicians, and I would say they’ve been discarded in that [the music industry doesn’t] promote them,” McKeown said, a sentiment that continues today.
“The national so-called blues festival scene is dominated by white artists,” McKeown said. “I’m a white artist myself, but what I really can’t stand is the idea that white artists can replace Black stars and accomplished artists. Because this really is Black music. It is derived directly from Black experience in this country,” she said of the blues.
“The music business has been corrupt for a very long time,” Pitts said. Taylor’s “story was a microcosm of the industry as a whole. Either you went along with what they were doing or you got shut out.”
McKeown said that Larry Taylor still feels this racist dynamic in today’s blues scene: “It’s systemic,” she said. “It victimizes all the other Black musicians as well.”
Although Pitts will attend the Pan African Film and Arts Festival, neither she nor Taylor will attend.
“When we look at music as a whole, Chicago has had some of the most iconic musicians and talents, and there’s no monument to them anywhere,” Pitts said. So, he tried to create one with “The Rhythm and the Blues.”
“We can’t afford to go,” McKeown said. “The Taylor family has been really ripped off by the music industry.”
But, McKeown added, the production team hopes to distribute “The Rhythm and the Blues” internationally within the next year, including bringing it to the West side of Chicago.
In the movie, the actor Leon plays Eddie Taylor Sr. and Guy Davis plays blues musician Jimmy Reed. The score contains music from Eddie Taylor Sr., Larry Taylor and his brother, the late Eddie Taylor Jr.
Watch the trailer for “The Rhythm and the Blues” and buy tickets to the Pan African Film and Arts Festival at https://www.paff.org/.
