Wednesday, August 8, 2018

All That Jazz...

Directly across the street from the Gaylord, on Kenmore and next to the Evanston apartments (pictured in the background, right), stood a bungalow house from 1932 to 1956. This was "The Haig, Dinners & Cocktails," a jazz club. All the big jazz names from this time period performed here. Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Bobby Short, Lila Leeds and the list goes on (Lila was convicted of marijuana possession with actor Robert Mitchum in 1949). Several live recordings took place here also with many of the jazz greats. Just imagine, at the time, walking over from the Gaylord to hear all of these legends play. What a time that was!