On The Beat - The Real Soul Police Chicago style

Eddie Skipper Keyes

A great article was passed on by Chris, its on the Chicago reader website and concerns it self with Edward "Skipper"Keyes who is a currently serving Chicago police officer.

Written by Bob Mehr it concerns itself with the work soul fan 'Skipper' has done and the major part he has been playing in recently with some great recent cd releases from Grapevine plus earlier projects such as the well acclaimed independent "Lovelites" cd along with how he has earnt a deserved reputation as a a one-man clearinghouse for info on Chicago's neglected R & B heroes

a short clip and photo below, the full article is on the Chicago Reader Website (link below) and is well worth a trip over to read.

Quote

...In his free time Keyes, now 56, works as an archivist and consultant for Grapevine, a UK reissue label specializing in R & B -- most notably he's helped it establish a Chicago soul series that's yielded comprehensive anthologies on nearly forgotten stars like Johnny Moore, Ruby Andrews, Cicero Blake, and Jackie Ross. But even before he hooked up with Grapevine in 2002, Keyes was a one-man clearinghouse for info on Chicago's neglected R & B heroes, providing contact details, photos, studio logs, and the like to record collectors, journalists, and labels from around the world -- including Chicago-based writer Robert Pruter, who consulted Keyes while researching his authoritative books on soul and doo-wop. "He's the exceedingly rare case of someone who was truly on the scene back in the day who's still a collector and a fan," says Rob Sevier of the local reissue label the Numero Group. "He's still in touch with all the artists -- he never ever lost the love." ...

link to article

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/on-the-beat/Content?oid=923445