Jazz Showcase Chicago/WDCB Free "Tribute To Bird" Featuring The Eric Schneider Quartet on 12AUG2009

Wednesday August 12th , 2009 from 8PM to 11PM...its WDCB (public radio) Night at the Jazz Showcase featuring Eric Schneider Quartet's Tribute to Bird. This event is being sponsored by the College Of Dupage radio station WDCB (located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois)...AND ITS FREE!!! The radio station hopes this will become a monthly event, being their first "WDCB Night at the Jazz Showcase"...and as August is Charlie "Bird" Parker Month at the Jazz Showcase... it is only fitting that we welcome the Eric Schneider Quartet in a Tribute to Bird!

The Jazz Showcase is located at: Dearborn Station 806 S. Plymouth Ct. (south of Polk St.) Chicago IL 60605 Telephone:
(312) 360-0234
Email:
jazzshowcase@jazzshowcase.com

Presenting Organization Name:
WDCB Public Radio
Telephone:
(630) 942-4200
Email Address:
WDCBMktg@cod.edu

History of Jazz Showcase

The Jazz Showcase is a famous jazz club in Chicago, a city that has had a prominent role in jazz history and still retains an influential jazz community. The club was first located at Grand Avenue and Clark Street, in the city's vibrant River North neighborhood. Founded in 1947 by Joe Segal, who still owns and runs the venue with his son Wayne, it is probably Chicago's most prestigious jazz club. Many famous musicians play at the Showcase on tour, including Chris Potter, Frank Morgan, Danilo Perez, Larry Coryell, Paul Wertico, James Carter, Winard Harper, McCoy Tyner and others. Ahmad Jamal recorded his trio album Chicago Revisited at the club in 1992. During the summer of 2006, Segal announced that the club was losing its lease, and would be moving out before the end of the calendar year. The club has relocated yet again, and (as of Summer 2008) is now located at Dearborn Station. (List of jazz clubs)

Review of Jazz Showcase

Its hard to imagine Edith Piaf crooning "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in a smoke-free jazz club, but were she still alive, the Showcase is precisely the kind of joint she'd play. Owner Joe Segal's been booking bands since the rock stylings of Elvis and Chuck Berry pushed jazz to the popular fringe. On any given night, Segal, who has hosted legends like Ornette Coleman and Duke Ellington, still holds court in his trademark baseball cap, introducing bands and cautioning the audience not to talk during a performance. Along with Segal, the ghosts of be-bop and jazz loom large. Huge portraits and small photos of Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Art Blakey line the walls. A Chairman Mao-size portrait of Charlie Parker backdrops the stage, along with a pair of velvet curtains that would be at home at Back to the Future's Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Unlike the typical smoky, cramped, dingy confines of most jazz clubs, the Showcase is a comfortable candle-lit space with ample tables and wide aisles. The focus is on the players and not the decor. While you can still catch the occasional legend like saxophonist Von Freeman blowing on a Saturday night, the showcase long ago opened its doors to young lions respectful to the genre such as Nicholas Payton and Joshua Redman.There's no minimum drink requirement, though tickets will set you back $20-$25 (if you hit the early show, you can sometimes stay for the second without purchasing another ticket). Jazz Showcase is 21+ unless accompanied by one's parents.

Eric Schneider Jazz Artist Featured At Jazz Showcase
Long an institution in the Chicago jazz scene, tenor-saxophonist Eric Schneider is an unsung jazz talent who, without garnering headlines, has been playing top-notch jazz for 30 years. Schneider originally did not plan a career as a musician, earning a degree in advertising in 1976 from the University of Illinois and planning to become a copywriter. But he had played his saxophone throughout college and found it easy to find work after graduating from college. He gained some recognition when he was a member of the Earl Hines Quartet during 1979-82 (also playing alto and clarinet), and he toured with the Count Basie Orchestra during 1982-83. After that, Schneider decided to stop touring and settle in Chicago. Schneider has since worked in a wide variety of settings in the Chicago area including regularly at Andy’s for years. Along the way he has performed with Benny Goodman, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney and Billy Eckstine, recorded with Jim Beebe’s Chicago Jazz Band (back in 1979), used Earl Hines as a sideman on his Eric and Earl album in 1981, and appeared on records with Count Basie, Sir Charles Thompson and Jeremy Monteiro in addition to playing with virtually all of the top local jazz musicians and singers. Eric Schneider also teaches at the Merit School of Music.