There was a time, back in the late 60s, when Butler was one of the biggest stars in soul music, a creative collaborator to icons including Curtis Mayfield and Otis Redding in an era that also found Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, and the Temptations at or near the peak of their careers. “I better roll with it.”īutler’s dignified carriage and unflappable demeanor are what earned him the nickname “The Ice Man.” Coined 50 years ago by WDAS Philadelphia DJ George Woods and later shortened to simply “Iceman,” the name is a product of a 1959 performance in Philadelphia where the public-address system went out and Butler kept singing, holding the audience and filling the theater with his big baritone. “OK, I’ll go along with the joke,” he told himself. Then a slow, sly, self-satisfied smile crept across his face. When he recognized the music and sensed the attention focused on him, he at first frowned. He started with some smooth, quiet jazz that wouldn’t have been out of place in an elevator, but then he got an impish look on his face and switched to something more suited to a Jackson Park barbecue: an old soul song called “Never Give You Up.” The few people familiar with the track immediately started murmuring to those around them, and with good reason: the impassioned singer was sitting in the room.Ĭommissioner Jerry Butler was at his desk with his eyes closed, perhaps sleeping, perhaps just resting. With many of them struggling to stay awake, Commissioner Robert Steele slipped a little music onto the sound system via the iPad on his desk. Reporters, staff, department heads, and others with an interest in the late-night proceedings were seated in the audience area, talking quietly. Only a few commissioners were on the floor of the board’s meeting room as they waited for the latest set of budget amendments to be printed and delivered to their desks. It was 3 AM on a Saturday in late February, and during a recess in the Cook County Board of Commissioners’ marathon session to pass its 2011 budget, a small reprieve arrived in the unexpected form of a 40-year-old ballad. 7/28: Lawyers for Social Justice Reception.Sommelier Series (paid sponsored content).
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