Mondays with Mike: Jazz lives in Printers Row

Joe Segal founded what morphed into Jazz Showcase in 1947. He was also named 2015 Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Awhile back I wrote about an especially kind musical instrument maker and repairer. The short of it was, after a valiant effort to repair my upright bass, the effort failed. He kindly agreed to take it off my hands and save me lugging it back upstairs, and he even refunded, in full, the repair fee I’d paid.

“I’d like to pay you something,” I said.

“No, keep it,” he insisted. “When you can, use it to go out and hear live music.”

Last Thursday night, we did just that.

Of all the local businesses that have been hit by covid, we most dreaded that Jazz Showcase, a Chicago institution, would not reopen. The Showcase has lost leases and moved several times over several decades. We feared that covid might be too much.

But Beth got an email last week: They would open. With live music. Dee Alexander, another local institution, would appear with a trio.

Advance reservations only. Temperatures taken at the door. Mandatory masks. Six feet. You know the drill, and if you don’t, I don’t want to know you.

The place seats enough people that it was easy for them to simply use table tent signs to indicate what tables were off limits. It was day one, and we were among a total of maybe 15 people. It was good to see Wayne Segal, founder Joe Segal’s son who now runs the place, as well as the still familiar crew.

We felt completely safe, and we kept masks on except when we were sipping while we listened.

As the saying goes, this group had not missed a beat. It was as if there was no layoff. It was their first time in front of people in forever and clearly, they loved it as much as we did.

We have a really nice stereo system, and we love our CD collection. But in the first 30 seconds, we got the glorious reminder that nothing’s like live music.

Let’s all behave so we can see some more.