London House (Chicago)

The London House was a jazz club and restaurant in Chicago located at the corner of Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue, in the London Guaranty and Accident Company Building, 360 N. Michigan Ave.[1] It was one of the foremost jazz clubs in the country, once home to such luminaries as Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, Cannonball Adderley, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Carroll, Bobby Short and many others.

The club was operated by brothers George and Oscar Marienthal, who ran it more as a steakhouse than a jazz venue; that usually made it a noisy place to hear live music.[2] After jazz had finally waned as popular music, losing out to rock and roll, The London House closed during the early 1970s. The space later became a Burger King restaurant. It is now a Corner Bakery restaurant location.

Several live jazz albums were recorded there, including The Sound of the Trio and The Trio by Oscar Peterson, and After Hours at the London House by Sarah Vaughan, Gin and Orange by Brother Jack McDuff and Barbara Carroll "Live" Her Piano and Trio by Barbara Carroll.

George Shearing and his group often played at this venue in the 1960s, as did Ramsey Lewis, whose trio started out as the house band. On the venue's closing night, a group of jazz luminaries gathered to say goodbye, and Shearing wrote and performed "A Foggy Day in London House."

References

  1. ↑ Demlinger, Sandor; Steiner, John (11 August 2003). Destination Chicago jazz. Arcadia Publishing. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-7385-2305-7. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
  2. ↑ "Where can you find the history of Chicago's famous London House". Answers.com. Retrieved August 30, 2014.

External links

Coordinates: 41°53′17″N 87°37′30″W / 41.88806°N 87.62500°W