Jazz and Blues Lounge

On Your Visit to Chicago

by balaspa on January 29th, 2008

Of course, if you do visit Chicago and don’t have a small fortune to spend on a place like Stub Hub for tickets to sold out shows, you can still have a great time.  That’s the cool thing about a city like Chicago.  We have music everywhere and there is a thriving jazz and blues music scene here.

The first place you may want to check is the Chicago Reader, which is a weekly alternative newspaper.  They have a website, as you can see from the link there, and they are probably the definitive place to look for live music. 

When it comes to the blues, you can find the House of Blues, Buddy Guy’s Legends and Kingston Mines.  However, there are smaller clubs all over Chicago.  Spend a little time doing some research.  Juts Googling “Chicago Blues Clubs” can provide you with dozens of places that have blues music.  Sometimes the places don’t have JUST blues music, but nights that specialize.

For jazz, there are clubs like the Green Mill, the Green Dolphin and the Velvet Lounge.   Once again, though, there are smaller clubs all over the city that have special nights with jazz music.  There are smaller clubs that you might get into quicker and easier, perhaps on the very night you decide to head out into the city that you could visit.  Then, more than likely, the only thing you will need to worry about is paying for parking.

Of course, you should not forget the suburbs as well.  I realize if you fly into Chicago, you probably don’t want to have to deal with renting a car and just want to walk around downtown.  That’s fine, but there are dozens of jazz and blues clubs that are quite fine in the quality of music they book all the way out in the ‘burbs.  Suburbanites like to listen to great jazz and blues too.

My favorite location to look for jazz and blues music all over the Chicago area is the pre-eminent jazz radio station WDCB’s website.  Since they are located way out west of Chicaog in DuPage county, they cover everything including jazz and blues performances way out in the ‘burbs.  Sure, you could end up on some suburban college campus somewhere, but it may be worth the trip to discover some  young new talent.

So, if you visit Chicago and can’t get in to see Buddy or the Velvet Lounge is too crowded, don’t get discouraged.  Take a little time, do some research, and visit a few websites and you can still have a great time.

Most importantly, have fun.  The journey can often be as much fun as the destination.

POSTED IN: Bands, Buddy Guy, Chicago, blues, jazz, jazz clubs, the Green Mill