Jazz, Ltd. was a Dixieland jazz band, nightclub and a record label in Chicago.
The band was active from June 1947 to April 1978 and was led and managed by Bill Reinhardt. The nightclub was active from June 1947 to February 1972 and was managed by his wife, Ruth Reinhardt. Bill and Ruth co-owned the nightclub. For 31 years Jazz, Ltd. renewed public interest in Dixieland jazz music—when swing music, then Bebop, then rock and roll were the dominant styles.
It was the first jazz club owned by a musician in Chicago. It provided a steady job to many jazz musicians at a time when they needed one. Bill and Ruth Reinhardt estimated that over 700 musicians played at Jazz, Ltd. Some were pioneers of Dixieland jazz. By hiring the best jazz musicians in the country, forbidding singing and dancing (which incurred a 20% war excise tax that put many jazz bands out of business), refusing business with the mob and playing only Dixieland jazz music, Jazz, Ltd. became one of the longest-running jazz clubs in the country.
Notable headliners
Sidney Bechet, Baby Dodds, Edmond Hall, George Brunies, Jack Teagarden, Muggsy Spanier, Clancy Hayes, Les Beigel, Lil Armstrong, Art Hodes, Don Ewell, Barrett Deems, Albert Nicholas, Miff Mole, Pete Fountain, Big Sid Catlett, Bill Johnson, Big Chief Russell Moore and many others.
Sidney Bechet
The most famous musician to headline at Jazz, Ltd. was Sidney Bechet. Although Bill and Ruth worked hard to feature him at the opening of their new club, he was unable to appear due to illness and the club opened with Doc Evans instead.
Although Bechet was then well known in Europe, he had not been in Chicago since 1919 and his engagements at Jazz, Ltd. reinstituted his popularity in the city. By the time he appeared at the club, he was no longer playing clarinet but soprano sax exclusively.Campbell, Robert L.; Robert Pruter, and Tom Kelly. "The Jazz, Ltd. Label." Red Saunders Research Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2022. He was known for his wide vibrato (wavering pulsations) and daring improvisations, exploiting the full range of the soprano saxophone. Down Beat editor, Paul E. Miller wrote "The sounds of jazz and the fullest implications of their meanings have never been more brilliantly delineated than by Bechet." As a virtuoso, he expected the best from other bandmembers. His engagements at Jazz, Ltd. between 1947 and 1949, drew big crowds, and he reveled in the praise bestowed upon him by guests after he completed a music set at the venue. Bechet was the headliner for four extended residencies at the club: November 1947 — June 6, 1948; a five-week engagement from August 25 to early October 1948; for nearly two months from November 1948 through January 15, 1949; and finally for a four week-engagement in September–October 1949. Unfortunately, his truancy led to litigation.
After having gone to live and work in France, Bechet made two tours of the United States, in 1951 and 1953. However, he had a long-term contract with Jazz, Ltd., giving the club an exclusive on his appearances in Chicago, a clause Bechet appeared to have forgotten. When Bechet appeared at another club in 1951, Ruth Reinhardt went to court for an injunction. On Bechet's return to Chicago in 1953, he was served with legal papers for breach of contract.
Frequent songs heard
Just a Closer Walk with Thee, Jazz Me Blues, The Charleston, Tin Roof Blues, High Society, Sensation, Original Dixieland One-Step, Royal Garden Blues, I've Found a New Baby, Slide Frog Slide, Wolverine Blues
Celebrity patrons
Carl Sandburg (writer), Eddie Foy Jr. (actor and one of the "Seven Little Foys"), Bert Lahr (actor), Tallulah Bankhead (actress), Miguel Covarrubias (illustrator), Nelson Algren (writer), Jan Sterling (actress), Sybil Burton (actress, wife of Richard Burton), Tom Ewell (actor), Mrs. Rose Movius Palmer (wife of grandson of Potter Palmer—retail magnate), Dr. John T. Reynolds (famous surgeon), Squirrel Ashcraft (jazz musician), Billy House (vaudevillian, actor), Jack Teagarden (jazz musician), Walter Cronkite (news reporter), Ernest Ansermet (Swiss conductor and composer who famously reviewed Sidney Bechet in 1919).
Unique club
When Jazz, Ltd. opened in June, 1947 it was the only jazz club in Chicago and was the first one owned by a musician in the country. It was also the first in the city to cut records on site. Bill based the format of Jazz, Ltd. on Nick's in New York. Jazz, Ltd. was a rarity in keeping the mob from infringing. When it closed in February, 1972, Jazz, Ltd. was one of the longest operating jazz clubs in the country—24 years, 8 months. There was a $2.50 minimum (equiv. to $27.30 in 2015) but no cover charge. The club featured a visiting headliner and a house ensemble patterned after the "hot five": (trombone, clarinet, piano, saxophone or trumpet and drums). Bill originally intended to hire Omer Simeon for the clarinet position but he was not available, so Bill took that position permanently. When Jazz, Ltd. moved to a larger location in 1960, Jazz, Ltd. had either six or seven musicians which included a string bassist, guitarist or vocalist.
Record labels Jazz, Ltd., Atlantic Records, Regal Records, Old Swing-Master Records (French), Delmark Records
Formula for success
Unconventional advertising
Initially, Bill and Ruth did not advertise Jazz, Ltd. in newspapers (until 1965), magazines, on radio or on TV. Instead, they promoted their club by recording their own records on site, signing and selling them. They touted on the record sleeve and on 5x7 inserts how their Jazz, Ltd. club epitomizes the best aspects of New Orleans Jazz. They printed their admission rules on business cards. They compiled a large and select mailing list to promote their club to: the social set, psychiatrists, doctors, lawyers, newspapermen, business executives and few musicians. And, they sent out 4 page brochures with recent record liner notes. Jazz, Ltd. is a nightclub dedicated to the Jazz of the '20s and World War I era. It is a club where people who are not necessarily Jazz buffs can spend some time and enjoy themselves. It is a club for the discriminating, the fun-loving and well-mannered person who likes to frequent a well run and safe night spot.
The first advertisement for Jazz, Ltd. was an article appearing in the May 18, 1947 Sunday Chicago Tribune which stated that Paul Eduard Miller and Jazz, Ltd. were sponsoring a concert on May 25, 1947, at Kimball Hall featuring Sidney Bechet and Max Kaminsky. Jazz, Ltd. opened the following month, and in November the club headlined Sidney Bechet.
The limited seating of 81 people at the club caused a long line of people each night waiting outside and this helped to showcase Jazz, Ltd.'s popularity. During the 1950s Ruth said they were so busy that when Bill was on vacation she devised a way to increase turnover. Art Hodes led the substitute band in 20 minute sets and finished with "The Saints." Customers left happy and Ruth let in another 81 people to the club.
A business card reads: "The BEST DIXIELAND BAND in the MOST intimate atmosphere, Superb Liquors, Genteel Clientele, Acclaimed by The Press everywhere"
To entice people to Jazz, Ltd., Reinhardt dispelled half a century of common misperceptions about jazz music. He used the space on the back of his albums to tell people how Jazz, Ltd. is different:
there has been a persistent and willful notion that jazz is somehow associated with squalor and dinginess and bad ventilation, and that its partisans qualify as dedicated only if they present a take-me-home-for-twenty-two-fifty appearance. ...there has been a widespread belief that jazz is not truly jazz unless it is heard in an atmosphere of murkiness, strangulating spirits, dirty glasses and soiled napery. Unfortunately, the suspicion that jazz existed only in hideous little subterranean sweat-boxes had assumed the proportions of a tradition.
Conventional advertising By the 1960s, Jazz, Ltd. was doing radio commercials for Ford automobiles and Kleenex tissue, magazine advertisements for Hannah & Hogg Whiskey, newspaper ads for women's clothing, club advertisements in cabaret and tourist magazines. They also made TV appearances on NBC's Today Show and on WTTW in Chicago (1969).
Editorial friends Ned Williams, a publicist and managing editor of Down Beat for ten years and an old friend of the Reinhardts, helped them get their club started. Noted jazz critic and columnist, Paul Eduard Miller, helped the Reinhardts with a mailing list.
Ruth persuaded friends at Chicago newspapers and jazz magazines into printing many stories about Jazz, Ltd.: "Disc jockey Dave Garroway mentions Jazz, Ltd. and our musicians because he is very fair and interested in jazz. Even though we are not part of any WMAQ commercials, he would not ignore us completely. Dale Harrison gave us a lot of space when he wrote for The Sun. Irv Kupcinet has helped us tremendously, though jazz is not his forte. Bill Leonard, directly across the street at The Journal of Commerce drops in and always has..."
There were no less than 31 editor friends of the Reinhardts whose articles contributed to the success of Jazz, Ltd. By the 1950s Jazz, Ltd. had press coverage in Time, Redbook, Collier's, Esquire, Holiday, The Second Line, Theatre Arts, Down Beat, Tiger, Civil War Roundtable, Chicago Welcome, Where, Cabaret, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Daily News, Chicago American, Chicago Sun Times, and Detroit News.
Admission rules
Having worked in Broadway shows and nightclubs since 1923 in New York, Ruth Reinhardt was well aware of the demise of jazz on 52nd Street:
...the state of disrepair into which quaint, storied old Fifty-second Street has been allowed to fall. Eddie Condon, who long ago deserted Fifty-second Street.
As far as jazz is concerned, 52nd Street is gasping for breath...Jimmy Ryan's remains to champion the cause that made the famous block a national institution.
52nd St razed by housewreckers Bill and Ruth knew that the failure of many jazz clubs from the 1910s through the 1940s can be attributed to bad management, mob connections, illegal speakeasies, gambling, drugs, prostitution and drunkenness. So, to ensure no bad influence would tarnish Jazz, Ltd., they refused to buy alcohol from mob-owned distributors, had no cigarette machine in the club and they rigorously enforced a set of rules so strict that Ruth compared their club to a church. With this one set of rules they prevented prostitution, maintained high standards for dress, prevented under age drinking, maintained a comfortable environment and, from a financial perspective, avoided a 20% federal cabaret excise tax on singing, dancing and admissions from 1947 to 1960:
No unescorted ladies and no women served at the bar under any circumstances No women in slacks and gentlemen must wear jackets No minors (even 'just to listen and Not drink') No over-crowding No singing No dancing No cover charge
Additional rules are that Jazz, Ltd.: prohibited table-hopping did not tolerate drunks advertised with a small card on the table to refrain from song requests
Ruth's management style