Chicago, Illinois - Entertainment

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Jazz and Blues

The Lower Mississippi River Valley is known for its music; New Orleans has jazz, and Memphis has blues. Chicago, though located far away from the valley, has both. Former New Orleans and Memphis residents brought jazz and blues to Chicago as they came north for a variety of reasons: the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 brought a lot of itinerant musicians to town, and the city's booming economy kept them coming through the Chicago#African-American history|Great Migration. Chicago was the undisputed capital of early jazz between 1917-1928, wih masters like Joe King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jimmie Noone, Johnny Dodds, Earl Hines, and Jelly Roll Morton. Most of Chicago's historic jazz clubs are on the South Side, particularly in Chicago/Bronzeville|Bronzeville, but the North Side has the can't-miss Green Mill in Chicago/Uptown|Uptown.

The blues were in Chicago long before the car chase and the mission from God, but The Blues Brothers sealed Chicago as the home of the blues in the popular consciousness. Fortunately, the city has the chops to back that up. Maxwell Street [1] (Chicago/Near West Side|Near West Side) was the heart and soul of Chicago blues, but the wrecking ball, driven by the University of Illinois at Chicago, has taken a brutal toll. Residents have been fighting to save what remains. For blues history, it doesn't get much better than Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation (Chicago/Near South|Near South), and Chicago/Bronzeville|Bronzeville, the former "Black Metropolis," is a key stop as well. Performance venues run the gamut from tiny, cheap blues bars all over the city to big, expensive places like Buddy Guy's Legends (Chicago/Loop|Loop) and the original House of Blues (Chicago/Near North|Near North).

But don't let yourself get too wrapped up in the past, because Chicago blues is anything but. No other city in the world can compete with Chicago's long list of blues-soaked neighborhood dives and lounges. The North Side's blues clubs favor tradition in their music, and are usually the most accessible to visitors, but offer a slightly watered down experience from the funkier, more authentic, and more prolific clubs on the South and Far West Sides, where most of Chicago's blues musicians live and hang. If one club could claim to be the home of the real Chicago blues, the Chicago/Southwest Side|Southwest Side's Lee's Unleaded Blues would probably win the title. But there are scores of worthy blues joints all around the city (many of which are a lot easier to visit via public transport). A visit to one of these off-the-beaten-path blues dives is considerably more adventurous than a visit to the touristy House of Blues, but the experiences born of such adventures have been known to reward visitors with a life-long passion for the blues.

Although playing second fiddle to the blues in the city's collective consciousness, jazz thrives in Chicago, too, thanks in no small part to members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and their residencies at clubs like The Velvet Lounge (Chicago/Near South|Near South), The New Apartment Lounge (Chicago/Southwest Side|Southwest Side) and The Hideout (Chicago/Logan-Bucktown|Bucktown), with more expensive national touring acts downtown at The Chicago Theater (Chicago/Loop|Loop). If you are staying downtown, the Velvet Lounge will be your best bet, as it is an easy cab ride, and its high-profile performances will rarely disappoint.

Fans should time their visits to coincide with Blues Fest in June, and Jazz Fest over Labor Day Weekend. Both take place in Grant Park (Chicago/Loop|Loop).

Beaches

Lake Michigan is the largest freshwater lake located entirely in the United States, and Chicagoans take full advantage of it. Anyone can show up and swim — virtually none of Chicago's lakefront is spoiled by "private" beaches. Oak Street Beach and North Avenue Beach (in the Chicago/Near North|Near North and Chicago/Lincoln Park-Old Town|Lincoln Park) are the fashionable places to sun-tan and be seen, but Chicago/Rogers Park|Rogers Park has mile after mile of less pretentious sand and surf. Rainbow Beach in the Chicago/Far Southeast Side|Far Southeast Side is actually one of the city's nicest, although it is rarely visited by sun lovers from outside the neighborhood.

Parks

Where there are beaches, there are lakefront parks. During the summer months, the lakefront parks are a destination for organized and impromptu volleyball and soccer games, chess matches, and plenty more. There are also a couple of tennis courts in Chicago/Lincoln Park-Old Town|Lincoln Park, Chicago/Lakeview-North Center|Lakeview, and Chicago/Rogers Park|Rogers Park. There are also terrific parks further away from the lake. In the Chicago/Loop|Loop, Grant Park hosts music festivals throughout the year, and Millennium Park is a fun destination for all ages, especially during the summer. On the Chicago/South Chicago Shore|South Chicago Shore, Midway Park offers skating, and summer and winter gardens in the shadow of the academic giant, the University of Chicago, and Jackson Park has golf, more gardens and the legacy of the city's shining moment, the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition. In Chicago/Bronzeville|Bronzeville, Washington Park is one of the city's best places for community sports. And that's just a brief overview. Almost every neighborhood in Chicago has a beloved park.

Theater

Modern American comedy — the good parts, at least — was born when a group of young actors from Chicago/South Chicago Shore|Hyde Park formed The Compass Players, fusing intelligence and a commitment to character with an improvisational spark. One strand of their topical, hyper-literate comedy led, directly or indirectly, to Shelly Berman, Mike Nichols & Elaine May, Lenny Bruce, M*A*S*H and The Mary Tyler Moore Show; another strand, namely The Second City, led to Saturday Night Live and a pretty huge percentage of the funny movies and television of the last thirty years. Still in Chicago's Chicago/Lincoln Park-Old Town|Old Town (and few other places as well), still smart and still funny, Second City does two-act sketch revues followed by one act of improv. As the saying goes, if you can only see one show while you're in Chicago, even if you have no particular interest in theater, Second City is one to see.

Improvisational comedy as a performance art form is a big part of the Chicago theater scene. At Chicago/Lakeview-North Center|Lakeview and Chicago/Uptown|Uptown theaters like The Annoyance, I.O., and The Playground, young actors take classes and perform shows that range from ragged to inspired throughout the week. Some are fueled by the dream of making the cast of SNL or Tina Fey's latest project, and some just enjoy doing good work on-stage, whether or not they're getting paid for it (and most aren't). There's no guarantee that you'll see something great on any given night, but improv tends to be cheaper than anything else in town, and it can definitely be worth the risk. Another popular theater experience is the comedy/drama hybrid Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, offering 30 plays in 60 minutes every weekend in Chicago/Uptown|Andersonville.

Steppenwolf, in Chicago/Lincoln Park-Old Town|Lincoln Park, is Chicago's other landmark theater. Founded in 1976, they have a history of taking risks onstage, and they have the ensemble to back it up, with heavyweights like Joan Allen, John Malkovich, and Gary Sinise. Steppenwolf isn't cheap any more, but they mix good, young actors with their veteran ensemble and still choose interesting, emotionally-charged scripts. It's the best place in town to see modern, cutting-edge theater with a bit of "I went to..." name-drop value for the folks back home.

Most of the prestige theaters, including the Broadway in Chicago outlets, are located in the Chicago/Loop|Loop or the Chicago/Near North|Near North. Tickets are expensive and can be tough to get, but shows destined for New_York_(city)/Theater_District|Broadway like The Producers often make their debut here.

One theater to see, regardless of the production, is The Auditorium in the Chicago/Loop|Loop. It's a masterpiece of architecture and of performance space. Designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, who were on a commission from syndicate of local business magnates to bring some culture to the heathen city, it was the tallest building in Chicago and one of the tallest in the world at the time of its opening in 1889, and it's still an impressive sight, inside and out.