Chicago jazz plays through its blue period

Rarely a day goes by when owner Bob Koester doesn't hear a foreign accent in his store. Located on Illinois [1] Street between State and Wabash, the Jazz Record Mart "is pretty well-known throughout the world," he said. But even though the store's been a Chicago institution for 50 years, Koester said "a lot of people here don't know about it."

No city except New York has more historical importance to jazz than Chicago. Louis Armstrong forged his legend here, first with King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, then when he recorded his legendary records with The Hot Fives and The Hot Sevens. Jelly Roll Morton and Illinois native Miles Davis recorded some of their most celebrated works here. Even today, many acclaimed artists like Kurt Elling and Patricia Barber call the Windy City their home.

But the jazz scene has been changing for quite some time, and lately it's been especially volatile.

For the past decade, the entire recording industry has been reeling from falling sales. Koester's Chicago-based label, Delmark Records, has issued landmark albums like Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound" and Anthony Braxton's "For Alto." Despite being one of the oldest independent labels in business today, however, Delmark lost $28,000 in 2006.

"We had a little party to celebrate," Koester said, "because the year before we lost [$100,000]." He added that some major labels have deleted many albums in recent years in response to poor sales. "We happened to see the sales figures for 2005...An Ella Fitzgerald record sold 100 copies. I was astounded by poor sales of Lester Young product. I felt less down in the dumps by what we're doing."

Bobby Broom, guitarist with the Deep Blue Organ Trio, said, "When I was a kid, I'd listen to the radio…and that would inform me about what I was going to buy." Jazz is scarce on the airwaves these days, and just last year Chicago Public Radio abandoned its weekday jazz programming. Many in the business say the lack of radio support is contributing to declining record sales.

More troubling has been the loss of local performance venues. The Deep Blue Organ Trio plays regular gigs at The Green Mill, one of the country's most famous jazz lounges located in Uptown on Broadway near Lawrence. The trio's drummer, Greg Rockingham, said their group gets plenty of work nowadays, but he believes "the places to play are dwindling."

The legendary Jazz Showcase lost its lease and closed down a year ago. It's set to open soon in the South Loop at Dearborn Station but only after a long, hard search that left many supporters worried. Once a popular spot for avant-garde jazz, the HotHouse closed in July and is still searching for a new location. Buddy Guy's Legends lost its lease as well, but for now, it remains open in its South Loop space until a new home is found.

Still, there's plenty of reason to remain optimistic. The Chicago Music Commission, a non-profit organization seeking to promote the city's music industry, presented a study last month that ranked Chicago fourth behind Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York in the number of seats available at small, popular music venues. The number in Chicago is 28,467. Chicago has a total capacity of 408,420 seats at music venues of all sizes, second only to Los Angeles, which has 860,511.

Having said that, the report offered a brief but worrisome assessment of the local jazz scene. "When we look at consumption of recorded music…Chicago has a comparatively weak appetite for country music, jazz and gospel," the report stated. "That latter two findings are particularly surprising…more research would be needed to explain what lies behind unexpectedly low demand in these particular categories."

Commercially, jazz may be moving through an unstable phase in Chicago, but artistically, Broom compares it favorably with other cities.

"It's just burgeoning in terms of the energy," he said, citing the growing interest in jazz at local universities like DePaul, where he currently teaches. Last November, after a two-year search that accompanied the suspension of its jazz program, Northwestern University named Victor L. Goines the director of jazz studies. Goines had played extensively with the celebrated Wynton Marsalis Septet and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

While some established venues are facing troubles, this week Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place introduced a Monday night cabaret series that will bring jazz performers back to its theater.

"The difference between Chicago and New York is there are very few clubs in New York," says Koester. This makes New York's scene "extremely competitive…[Here it's] more of a fraternal thing, and I think it'll probably remain that way for quite some time."