“His job is to make money out of you,” says Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters in this biopic about Leonard Chess, the founder of Chess Records, portrayed here by Adrien Brody. “You’re from Mississippi,” Howlin’ Wolf goes on, “I thought you would have known that.”

Well, Chess did make money — he paid his distinguished soul performers in Cadillacs — and the Chicago sound became known all over the world, so nobody died poor.

Darnell Martin’s film is distinguished by some more than adequate performances but drifts through the story of the record label. It’s as if so much history has to be accomplished that in the end nothing really stands out, except perhaps Chess’s affair with the druggie singer Etta James (in a full-throated approximation by Beyoncé Knowles). Maybe the fact that Beyoncé was executive producer has something to do with the casting.

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The film clearly steps gingerly over the sexual and financial peccadillos of Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Co, and tends to admire rather than investigate the musical phenomenon they produced.

Listen to that rather than try to follow the plotlines unless you want to get confused.