Grand Finale

Worldwide

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A series of listening parties celebrating the life, music, and undersung legacy of the late and legendary composer, producer & arranger, Charles Stepney.

About

Across the summer of 2022, International Anthem has been working with The Stepney Sisters to arrange events and performances across Chicago, a series that they collectively dubbed the “Summer of Stepney.” For the grand finale, the Summer of Stepney is going global.

International Anthem has connected with independent record shops and music spaces in 40 cities worldwide to organize Charles Stepney listening parties, where local selectors in each location will play tracks from Step on Step in between records from Stepney's vast catalog of productions, arrangements, compositions, and samples. Curators, DJs, and Record Shop People in each community will take the concept and make it their own. Some parties will take place in a busy record store, some in a club over drinks. Most events will take place this weekend, around the album’s release date September 9th. Whatever the expression, each event will be unified by an admiration of Stepney and his work.

Participating Locations

Amsterdam / Netherlands - Rush Hour
Lisbon / Portugal -
Flur
Helsinki / Finland -
WeJazz
Paris / France -
Balades Sonores
London / UK -
Honest Jons
London / UK -
Stranger Than Paradise
Brighton / UK -
Resident
Sheffield / UK -
Beartree
Berlin / Germany -
Oye Records
Düsseldorf / Germany -
A&O Medien
Cologne / Germany -
Parallel Schallplatten
Hannover / Germany -
25music
Hamburg / Germany -
Groove City
Hamburg / Germany - RIIA
Nuremburg / Germany -
Mono-Ton Tonträger und Hifi
Tokyo / Japan -
Just Another Space, in partnership with RINGS and Epigram
Beijing / China -
BIE Music, in partnership with fRUITYSHOP
Chicago / IL -
Conservatory Shop with The Stepney Sisters
Los Angeles / CA -
Club Tee Gee with Jacknife Records
Portland / OR -
Bar Norman
Portland / OR -
Speck's Records
Detroit / MI -
Paramita Sound
Brooklyn / NY -
Legacy with Kultured Child
Winooski / VT -
Autumn Records
Bloomington / IN -
Orbit Room w/ Landlocked Music
Bellingham / WA -
ShBANG Festival
Shepardstown / WV -
Admiral Analog's
Oxford / MS -
Bar Muse with The End of All Music Oxford
Jackson / MS -
The End of All Music Jackson
Atascadero / CA -
Traffic Records
Philadelphia / PA -
Ars Nova Workshop
Pittsburgh / PA -
The Government Center
Kansas City / MO -
Mills Record Company
Nashville / TN -
Vinyl Tap
Bakersfield / CA -
Going Underground
Wallingford / CT -
Redscroll Records
Oak Park / MI -
Street Corner Music with Berkley Coffee
Golden Valley / MN -
Down In The Valley
Miami / FL -
Technique Records w/ Brainville (WDNA Miami)
Austin / TX -
Breakaway Records w/ rerunthedj
Atlanta / GA -
Criminal Records w/ DJ Swivel
Honolulu / HI -
Aloha Got Soul w/ Itzi
West Palm Beach / FL -
Rust & Wax Record Shop
Denver / CO - Sleepless Nights on AfterFM w/ CarlEd

AND MORE!


*We’ll be updating dates & details for each event as we have it.
Meantime we recommend checking with your local location listed above to get the info ASAP!

About

Chicago-born composer, producer and arranger Charles
Stepney
is known to some…

…for his work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Deniece Williams, and Ramsey Lewis, or for his work with Chess Records in the 1960s, where he was an essential creative force behind seminal recordings by Rotary Connection, Minnie Riperton, Marlena Shaw, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Terry Callier, The Dells, The Emotions, and many many more. In the decades since his untimely death in 1976, the presence of his name in liner notes and on vinyl labels has become a seal of quality for record collectors, music historians, and aficionados, while his sound has been used by countless samplers in the hip-hop world including Kanye West, A Tribe Called Quest, The Fugees, MF Doom, and Madlib. But in comparison to the post-mortem renown of his sound, or the music he created and the artists he supported while he was alive, Stepney is a greatly under-appreciated figure… a genius relegated to the shadows.

The New Album

Charles Stepney
Step on Step

2xLP/CD/Digital out September 9, 2022

On June 8th, 2022,International Anthem announces Step on Step, a double LP collection of rarely heard recordings created by enigmatic producer, arranger, and composer Charles Stepney alone in the basement of his home on the Southside of Chicago, sometime between the late 1960s and early1970s, before his untimely death in 1976.

Watch Episode One of “Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows”

Episode One from the new Wax Poetics documentary series follows Stepney into his basement studio on the South Side Chicago, where he workshopped, recorded, and created much of the music that would become gold & platinum selling hits, and even more music that would never see the light of day. It features interviews and testimonies from members of Earth, Wind & Fire, Terry Callier, the Dells, and Stepney’s daughters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté (aka the Stepney Sisters).

Watch Episode Two “The Next Plane”

Wax Poetics presents the second episode of Charles Stepney: Out of the Shadows – a four part web series directed by Chicago documentarian Brian Ashby (known for his work on Scrappers, The Area, Harry Who & The Chicago Imagists, and a forthcoming film about Damon Locks and Black Monument Ensemble). Where Episode One shed light on Stepney at work in his basement studio on the Southside Chicago, Stepney’s daughters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté (aka The Stepney Sisters) are the focus of Episode Two, “The Next Plane.” In the piece, Ashby highlights the circumstances around Stepney’s death, as recounted from historical, communal, and familial perspectives, and just some of the subsequent work The Stepney Sisters have been doing over several decades to archive, cherish, and celebrate their father’s legacy.

Tag + Follow Along

#summerofstepney