Cans of paint and crumpled dropcloths are scattered everywhere. Bare windows and half-empty walls stare at a couple of dusty cabaret tables and a few wooden chairs.
But come Thursday, if all goes according to plan, this space-in-progress will emerge as ground zero for jazz in Chicago.
Or perhaps we should say “re-emerge," for Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal has been presenting music in this city for 61 years.
He has done it in nondescript halls at Roosevelt University, starting in 1947, and in borrowed showrooms from the South Side to the North. Along the way, his son Wayne joined the cause, the duo bringing the world's greatest jazz stars--and local icons, as well--to celebrated spaces in the Blackstone Hotel and, more recently, at 59 W. Grand Ave., in River North.
Now comes the latest and potentially the most sumptuous home yet for the Jazz Showcase, which was forced to find new quarters after losing its lease on Grand Avenue in 2006.
“This is the last place," says Segal, 82, sitting alongside Wayne in their new spot, in Dearborn Station at 806 S. Plymouth Ct., the afternoon sun pouring in through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Sun? In a jazz club?
“Don't worry--we're getting curtains," says Wayne Segal, though the light might be a welcome feature for the Sunday family matinees that long have been a draw.
The mere fact that the Segals have ordered window treatments--"burgundy and chocolate-colored drapes," brags Wayne--says a great deal about the ambition of the enterprise, and how it stands apart from much of what came before.
“So many places we walked into, they were built out already, and we just hung up the pictures," says Wayne. “Here, we could decide where the walls would go, where the stage would stand, what the colors would be. Everything."
But come Thursday, if all goes according to plan, this space-in-progress will emerge as ground zero for jazz in Chicago.
Or perhaps we should say “re-emerge," for Jazz Showcase founder Joe Segal has been presenting music in this city for 61 years.
He has done it in nondescript halls at Roosevelt University, starting in 1947, and in borrowed showrooms from the South Side to the North. Along the way, his son Wayne joined the cause, the duo bringing the world's greatest jazz stars--and local icons, as well--to celebrated spaces in the Blackstone Hotel and, more recently, at 59 W. Grand Ave., in River North.
Now comes the latest and potentially the most sumptuous home yet for the Jazz Showcase, which was forced to find new quarters after losing its lease on Grand Avenue in 2006.
“This is the last place," says Segal, 82, sitting alongside Wayne in their new spot, in Dearborn Station at 806 S. Plymouth Ct., the afternoon sun pouring in through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Sun? In a jazz club?
“Don't worry--we're getting curtains," says Wayne Segal, though the light might be a welcome feature for the Sunday family matinees that long have been a draw.
The mere fact that the Segals have ordered window treatments--"burgundy and chocolate-colored drapes," brags Wayne--says a great deal about the ambition of the enterprise, and how it stands apart from much of what came before.
“So many places we walked into, they were built out already, and we just hung up the pictures," says Wayne. “Here, we could decide where the walls would go, where the stage would stand, what the colors would be. Everything."
For more information contact All About Jazz.
