Joe Segal founded the Jazz Showcase in 1947, and over the following decades it hosted Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Sun Ra, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, and Art Blakey. Segal received the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2015, the highest honor in American jazz. The club is now at Dearborn Station in the South Loop.

Live music runs seven nights a week without exception. It is not a speakeasy and has never tried to be one. It is simply one of the most important jazz clubs in America, which is reason enough.