in the beginning leonard chess was the producer, but later the business was handled by ralph bass for the gospel section and willie dixon for blues. dixon wrote a lot of songs which became hits and also played bass on many recordings. the label was also famous for its session musicans who played on most of the company's chicago soul recordings, such as drummer maurice white and bassist louis satterfield, both later shaped the funk group earth, wind, &amp; fire, guitarists pete cosey, gerald sims and phil upchurch, pianist leonard caston, later a producer with motown and organist sonny thompson. 1953 they begun to work together with sam phillips' memphis recording service. one of the musicians from memphis was howlin' wolf, who did many hits for chess.