Taste Test: Jazz & Blues Bar

Maybe you’re a scene kid with an unspoken love of blues music and you’ve known how to play the harmonica since you were fifteen. Maybe that playlist labeled “party jams” on your iPod is really hiding the best of contemporary jazz and you listen to it while strutting through downtown Evanston. Who knows? Even if you’re new to the blues and jazz scene, you really should be ashamed if you never make it out to a blues joint or a jazz club in Chicago. After all, this city is a home-away-from-home to many famous jazz soloists and the birthplace of electric blues. It’s time to take a break from weekend house parties and open bar nights. It’s time to take advantage of your new over-21 ID and go check out some of the best live music Chicago has to offer.

KINGSTON MINES
2548 N. Halsted, Chicago
If you’re strolling through Lincoln Park’s blues alley you can’t miss the bright orange awnings that stretch across the length of the bar. Walking into Kingston Mines feels like being transported to a southern shantytown. It’s got a casual atmosphere where you can sit and bop your head or get up and groove to the sound of old school blues. A great place to hear blues, drink booze and eat food.

THE HIDEOUT
1354 W. Wabansia, Chicago
A self-proclaimed “regular guy-bar for irregular folks,” this more than 100-year-old bar is rumored to be one of Al Capone’s old hangout spots. It could easily pass as a run-down ranch-style home if it wasn’t for the huge “Old Style cold beer” sign hanging off the front of its façade. Its dingy, dim-lit interior is home to weekly performances of jazz and folk music that fills the house with friendly faces.

BILL'S BLUES
1029 Davis St., Evanston
This is one of the only bars around that is underage friendly — until midnight. Its gritty interior and intimate performance space gives it more of a downtown feel than any other in town. After all, owner Bill Gilmore has been starting up bars and maintaining the essence of blues culture since the ’70s. Take some friends out on one of the three nights of the week that Bill’s features blues musicians.

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