Both the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers could be headed for change in the coming weeks. Thursday night, the Steelers put on one of the worst single-half performances many have ever seen when they fell down to the Minnesota Vikings 23-0 after two quarters. The Steelers made it a game in the second half, but […] Mike Tomlin would be a great coaching fit with the Chicago Bears – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Parker Lee Williams, aka DJ P-Lee Fresh. | Dave Herrero

He admired old-school beats and hip-hop artists, working with Grandmaster Caz, Grandmaster Melle Mel and Chuck D.

Chicago hip-hop pioneer Parker Lee Williams, who went by the name DJ P-Lee Fresh, died Wednesday of a heart attack at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, his music licensing company announced on Instagram.

His business partner, Dave Herrero, confirmed his death at 54.

The New York City native, who also went by the name Parker Lee, started out as the founder of a Chicago crew of graffiti artists known as the X-Men, Herrero said. They were an offshoot of a storied New York crew. He was still a teenager when he helped open the hip-hop club STEPPS. It operated in the mid-1980s at 6459 N. Sheridan.

In 1990, he graduated from Columbia College Chicago and became an intern for the Oprah Winfrey Show.

There, “He moved from tape room assistant up to assistant editor, all the while selecting and organizing music for the show’s edits,” according to a biography from his Northwest Side music licensing company, Who’z the Boss.

“He started working so much overtime,” Herrero said, “that they were forced to put him on salary.”

Eventually Mr. Williams became music director for Harpo Productions. “In this role he DJ’d for ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ daily until the final episode in Chicago, and also selected music which would evoke the emotion and set the mood of every minute of every episode,” his biography said.

He went on to create the Harpo Music Sounds Library, which brought in new revenue to the Oprah empire, Herrero said.

He also worked as a music supervisor for Oprah specials, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” and Wanda Sykes’ comedy special “Herlarious,” among other projects, according to IMDB.com.

The two-time Emmy nominee had a golden ear, said Herrero, a blues guitarist himself: “He did everything he did very well.”

Dave Herrero
Parker Lee Williams led the Northwest Side music licensing company Who’z the Boss.

Their company-Who’z the Boss-handles licensing and custom music for commercials, video games, movies and TV. It represents artists who’ve written tunes for Coca-Cola, CNN, ESPN, MTV, PBS, Southwest Airlines, VH-1 and Wendy’s. Its talent roster includes Jimmy Johnson, Barry Levenson, Dave Specter, Nicholas Tremulis and Chihsuan Yang.

Herrero said he is survived by his mother, Flora, and his father, jazz drummer Lee Williams. Mr. Williams named the record label he started Jazz Child.

Dave Herrero
Parker Lee Williams, aka DJ P-Lee Fresh, with guitarist Gary Clark Jr.

He admired old-school beats and hip-hop artists, working with Grandmaster Melle Mel, Chuck D and Grandmaster Caz. He recorded and appeared in music videos with rapper Akbar as part of the duo Mental Giants.

Grandmaster Caz posted a Facebook tribute that said, “Parker saved my life and helped renew my interest in music and recording.”

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The Chicago Blackhawks have been a major disappointment so far in 2021-22. Luckily, one of the team’s bright spots has been Marc-Andre Fleury who they acquired during the summer ahead of this season. He won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie last year and will go to the Hall of Fame as one […] Marc-Andre Fleury has his 500th career NHL win – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

Two people were killed and nine others wounded in shootings in Chicago Thursday. | Sun-Times file

An off-duty Chicago police officer was taken into custody Thursday morning after a woman was found fatally shot inside a home in Galewood on the Northwest Side.

Two people were killed and a 17-year-old boy was among nine others wounded in citywide shootings Thursday.

An off-duty Chicago police officer was taken into custody Thursday morning after a woman was found fatally shot inside a home in Galewood on the Northwest Side. Officers were called to the home in the 2100 block of North Nashville Avenue about 10:10 a.m. for a well-being check and found a 29-year-old woman dead from a gunshot wound to the head, police said. She was identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Andris Wofford.
Several hours later, Two men were shot, one fatally, Thursday night in Chicago Lawn on the Southwest Side. About 5:15 p.m., the pair was in the 2400 block of West 63rd Street, when they were struck by gunfire, police said. A male, whose age is unknown, was struck in the chest, and pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A second man, 36, was struck in the hip, and foot, and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition.
In nonfatal attacks, a 17-year-old boy was wounded in a shooting Thursday morning in South Shore. He was walking about 10:10 a.m. in the 2600 block of East 75th Street when two people approached him and fired shots, police said. The teen was struck in the thigh and taken to the University of Chicago in good condition, police said.

Eight others were wounded by gunfire in Chicago Thursday.

One person was killed and eight others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Wednesday.

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Ron Turano about to bite into a sandwich made with a rustic loaf of bread made by Turano Baking Co. | Provided

In one busy year, he made 59 trips to Italy to represent expatriates in that country’s Parliament.

Turano Baking Co. makes more than 250 bread products, supplies thousands of restaurants, grocers and mom-and-pop stores and provides hamburger and hot dog buns to fast-food chains.

With its challah, English muffins, French baguettes, German pretzel rolls and Italian focaccia, it also has offerings to satisfy yeasty yearnings for many ethnic varieties of bread.

Which was plenty to keep Ron Turano busy when he was president and chairman of Turano Baking Co. But he also served as an Italian senatore for about seven years, making 59 trips to Italy in one busy year to represent expatriates in that country’s Parliament.

Mr. Turano died Sunday of ALS at his Burr Ridge home, according to his daughter Lisa. He was 79.

Provided
Ron Turano at Turano Baking Co. of Berwyn.

Based in Berwyn, the company now also has plants in Bolingbrook, Georgia, Florida and Nevada and is run by a third generation of Turanos.

His daughter said its stability can be traced to a rule Mr. Turano learned from his father, founder Mariano Turano.

Even in his final weeks, she said, “My dad counseled us that, if you take good care of people, they will take care of you.”

An immigrant from the “instep” of the ankle boot-shaped Calabria region of Italy, Mr. Turano was 15 when he arrived in Chicago with his family. He graduated from St. Mel High School and attended what’s now the University of Illinois Chicago.

He learned English by watching TV sitcoms and Colgate toothpaste commercials. His Italian never got rusty because he spoke it at home and stayed in touch with relatives in his homeland via phone and frequent trips.

It paid off when he decided to run for the Parlamento Italiano to represent the Italian diaspora in North America and Central America. He realized how far he’d come after being elected to a term that began in 2006, he told Chicago’s Italian American newspaper Fra Noi.

“When I was a young man, my father told me that I should maintain ties with Italy because I might go back to work there some day,” he told the paper. “So there I was, walking down the corridors of the Italian Parliament with the guards calling me by my name, and my eyes were filling with tears as I thought about how proud my father would have been. He was right. I did return to Italy to work. But he never could have imagined that I would be returning as a senator!”

Provided
Ron Turano in the Italian Parliament. He was twice elected a senator, representing expatriates.

Young Ron grew up in the town of Castrolibero in the province of Cosenza.

His father Mariano was an espresso bean salesman and skilled baker. While being held by Nazi captors in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp for Italian soldiers, “He was treated better than most because he knew how to bake bread,” Lisa Turano said.

After the war, Mr. Turano’s father sensed economic recovery would take years and wanted more for his sons — Renato, Umberto and Giancarlo — that he thought they’d find if the family left Italy.

“He just felt there was more opportunity for his sons in the United States,” Lisa Turano said.

They settled in Chicago, where Mariano Turano worked underground, doing sewer construction. On weekends, he started baking bread at a food store owned by his brother Carmine.

At a time when squishy white bread dominated grocery shelves, Italian American families clamored for their familiar crusty loaves, Lisa Turano said.

Young Renato, who became known as Ron, was the oldest of the three boys and started out helping with deliveries.

After graduating from St. Mel’s, he studied engineering. But he put his education on hold to help with the baking business.

His father bought parts to MacGyver a bread oven and established a plant in the 6500 block of Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. The company still operates there on an expanded site.

In 1965, he married the former Patricia Filishio, a third-generation Italian American he met at a St. Mel’s basketball game.

They set off on a 62-day honeymoon to Italy, where, his wife said, Mr. Turano’s excited relatives picked them up at an airport, bundling him into one car and her into another. She didn’t speak Italian, so she couldn’t communicate with her new family during the six-hour drive to Castrolibero.

Mr. Turano, who held dual citizenship, campaigned for a seat in the Italian Senate by meeting with community leaders and ethnic organizations in places with sizeable Italian American populations, including New Jersey, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco and Toronto.

He represented 200,000 Italian expatriates in the United States and 150,000 in Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, according to a commendation from the Illinois General Assembly in recognition of his win. He served as a senatore from 2006 to 2008, a posting that was made possible by the support of his brothers, who acted as co-chairmen of Turano Baking Co., his daughter said.

Mr. Turano later was elected to a second term, serving from 2013 until 2018. He focused on issues including the preservation of la bella lingua and dual citizenship and improving consulates, his daughter said.

In 1991, he got a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

From 2004 to 2006, he was president of the American Bakers Association.

To unwind, he liked to visit a family getaway in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Raking leaves and power-washing the deck relaxed him.

He was “among the leaders, if not the leader, putting together Casa Italia,” a cultural center in Stone Park, according to historian Dominic Candeloro, curator of the center’s library.

Mr. Turano’s wife died in 2019. In addition to his daughter Lisa and his brothers, he is survived by his daughter Renee Novelle, son Mario and nine grandchildren.

Visitation is planned 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday at St. John of the Cross Parish in Western Springs, with a funeral Mass there at 11 a.m. Friday.

Provided
Brothers (from left) Renato “Ron” Turano, Umberto “Tony” Turano and Giancarlo Turano were the second generation to run Turano Baking Co., founded by their father Mariano Turano.

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Juice WRLD, who was a rising rap star at the time of his death in 2019, cracks a smile in a moment from the documentary “Into the Abyss.” | HBO

‘Into the Abyss’ draws from hours of footage of the late, Chicago-born rapper onstage, in the recording studio and hanging out with friends.

“Whether he knew it or not, Juice was a therapist to millions of kids,” music producer and songwriter Benny Blanco observes towards the end of the new HBO film “Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss.”

An unsparing yet ultimately celebratory portrait of the Chicago-bred, gone-too-soon rapper — a bona fide superstar in progress, but one who’d struggled with anxiety, depression and substance dependency over the course of his young life — “Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss” premieres Thursday as part of the “Music Box” documentary series.

Since Juice’s music is “so empathetic and vulnerable, it continues to resonate,” the film’s director Tommy Oliver told the Sun-Times in a Zoom conversation, pointing out, “He had more than 5 billion streams on Spotify this year alone.” In fact, the online music service’s 2021 list of most-streamed U.S. artists has Juice WRLD up at No. 3, behind only megastars Drake and Taylor Swift.

“His music makes the kids feel better,” says Carmela Wallace, Juice WRLD’s mother, on camera of her son’s artistry. Juice was born Jarad Higgins on Dec. 2, 1998, and grew up in Chicago’s south suburbs, graduating from Homewood-Flossmoor High School in 2017. He died of an accidental overdose upon landing at Midway Airport, six days after his 21st birthday.

Juice’s first posthumous album, “Legends Never Die,” launched five songs simultaneously into the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart — an achievement shared solely by the Beatles and Drake. Another album, “Fighting Demons,” dropped Friday.

“Into the Abyss” director Oliver has crafted a vivid collage of video snapshots — filmed during Juice WRLD’s final two years by videographers Steve Cannon and Chris Long — who were given intimate access to the newly wealthy rapper onstage, in the recording studio, hanging out with friends, partaking in copious amounts of various intoxicants, and dropping the dazzling freestyle raps for which Juice had become ever-more-widely renowned. Interspersed with this archival footage are contemporary interviews Oliver conducted with family members, hip-hop peers and music industry folk — including an exec from major label Interscope Records, which had signed Juice to a multimillion-dollar deal in 2018.

HBO
Juice WRLD (right) works in the studio in footage seen in “Into the Abyss.”

When approached about directing the Juice WRLD documentary, Oliver was already a fan of Juice’s music. “It was everywhere, and it was so catchy and interesting,” Oliver said. “I didn’t really know a lot about him at that point; I was just hearing these tracks that seemed like they had a lot behind them.” He’d also directed last year’s HBO documentary “40 Years a Prisoner,” which chronicled the infamous 1978 police attack on Black communal organization MOVE in Oliver’s native Philadelphia.

Upon agreeing to take on the Juice WRLD project this past January, Oliver said, “I got dumped a hard drive with a ton of footage” from the late rapper’s estate: “That was the start of the process.”

Oliver and his co-editor Joe Kehoe meticulously catalogued the raw material, the better to cut it together “as quickly as possible — at the speed of thought.” And as the director expressed it, “There was a lot of time where it was just me at the computer, living in the archival footage, watching this person. Weirdly, getting close to this person, because it was kind of like reading somebody’s diary. I would never meet Juice, never have a conversation with him, yet I now knew so much about him.”

Committed to telling Juice WRLD’s story “in his own voice,” Oliver eschewed narration, “so we don’t have somebody coming in and telling you how to feel about what you just saw.” This is also, Oliver stressed, why “there’s not a single piece of score in the whole film, not even a subtle push.” The only music heard is, naturally, Juice’s own.

“I worked very hard to make sure that we see him completely — the good, the bad.” What comes across indelibly, Oliver said, is that Juice “was such a good person. He was so kind and sweet and goofy, and went out of his way — at a concert with tens of thousands of people — to ensure that he told them to follow their dreams. A 19-, 20-year-old kid telling them to do what was important to them. He was as good of a person as he was talented. Which is just nuts.”

Cole Bennett, who directed Juice’s star-making video “Lucid Dreams,” notes in the film’s closing minutes that the artist’s legacy is his “timeless” and “incredible” music: “There are Juice WRLD fans that aren’t even born yet. He’s here forever; he’s not going anywhere.”

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