Jazz Showcase is one of the oldest

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

clubs in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, founded in 1947 by NEA Jazz Master Joe Segal, whose son Wayne now owns and operates the venue. Segal's various showcases have served as a launch pad for a number of career jazz musicians.

Locations

Having changed location numerous times since its founding, the club last relocated in 2008 to a South Plymouth Court address on the side of the rebuilt Dearborn Station, in Chicago, Illinois. To honor Segal, South Plymouth Court was renamed Joe Segal Way by the City of Chicago at the behest of Alderman Bob Fioretti. One of its previous locations was in

The Blackstone Hotel The Blackstone Hotel is a historic 21-story hotel on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Drive in the Michigan Boulevard Historic District in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1908 and 1910, it is on the Natio ...

for 14 years from 1981 to 1995.

Club owner

Joe Segal (April 24, 1926 – August 10, 2020) founded the Jazz Showcase in 1947 in Chicago, Illinois and was the club's owner until his death in 2020. Born April 24, 1926 in Philadelphia, he grew up listening to

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, Sidney Bechet and

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

on the radio. When he was old enough, he would visit the Earl Theater to watch them perform. The Air Force drafted Segal in 1944 and he was stationed in Champaign, Illinois for a while. When he had leave, he rode the train to Chicago to attend live jazz performances at clubs on Randolph Street. Following his military discharge, Segal moved to Chicago, enrolled in Roosevelt College on the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

and worked at different jazz venues around the city. In 1947, he worked with his classmates, Gus Savage, who was chairman of the Social Activities Committee for Roosevelt, and Bennett Johnson to organize a weekly jam session. They presented jazz greats such Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Sonny Rollins and many others. For the next ten years he organized live jazz sessions on the school's campus featuring musicians he met working at various local jazz venues. Beginning in 1957, Segal ran his showcase shows in what he later estimated was 63 different locations over the years. By the 1970s, Segal opened a formal club called the Jazz Showcase on Rush Street. He gave performers a five evening run with a Sunday show to encourage young people to attend. In 2013, Segal received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Roosevelt University. In 2014, Segal was given the rare honor of being a club owner/presenter chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts as an

NEA Jazz Master The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the self-proclaimed highest honors that the United States bestows upon ...

. * Muhal Richard Abrams * Eric Alexander * Monty Alexander *

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* Ernestine Anderson * The Art Ensemble of Chicago *

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* Count Basie * George Benson *

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* Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers * Joanne Brackeen * Bobby Broom * Kenny Burrell *

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* James Carter * Richie Cole *

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* Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis * Joey DeFrancesco * Lou Donaldson *

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* Sonny Fortune * Von Freeman *

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* Barry Harris *

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* Philly Joe Jones *

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* Bobby Lewis * Joe Lovano * Harold Mabern * Pat Mallinger *

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* Howard McGhee * Jimmy McGriff * Marian McPartland * Charles McPherson *

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* Willie Pickens * Chris Potter *

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/ Al Cohn * Jimmy Smith * Lonnie Liston Smith *

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* Sun Ra * Stanley Turrentine * McCoy Tyner *

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* Paul Wertico *

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* Joe Williams

Live recordings

Gene Ammons Eugene "Jug" Ammons (April 14, 1925 – August 6, 1974), also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. The son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons is remembered for his accessible music, steeped in soul and ...

and Dexter Gordon, ''

The Chase! ''The Chase!'' is a live album by the saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons recorded in Chicago in 1970 and released on the Prestige Records, Prestige label. Reception In a review for AllMusic, Scott Yanow stated: "this CD is highly recommen ...

'' (1970) *

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, ''Live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase'' (

Concord Jazz Concord Jazz is a record company and label founded in 1973 by Carl Jefferson, the former owner of Jefferson Motors Lincoln Mercury dealership in Concord, California. The label was named after the city in the East San Francisco Bay area, and the j ...

, 1987) *

, '' Chicago Revisited: Live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase'' (Telarc, 1992) * Bob Lark/ Phil Woods, ''Live at the Jazz Showcase'' (Jazzed Media, 2006)NEA Jazz Masters 2015
/ref> * Marian McPartland and Willie Pickens, ''Ain't Misbehavin': Live at the Jazz Showcase'' (Concord Jazz, 2000) *

Danilo Pérez Danilo Pérez (born December 29, 1965) is a Panamanian pianist, composer, educator, and a social activist. His music is a blend of Panamanian roots with elements of Latin American folk music, jazz, European impressionism, African, and other music ...

, ''Live at the Jazz Showcase'' (Artistshare, 2003) *

and Stu Katz, ''A Family Affair: Live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase'' (Origin, 2010) * Phil Wilson and the Big Band Machine, ''Live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase'' (1984)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jazz Showcase Music venues completed in 1947 Jazz clubs in Chicago 1947 establishments in Illinois

Locations

Club owner

Live recordings

See also

References

External links