Reinvented Velvet Lounge Struggles To Launch
By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Jul 9, 2012 9:30PM
The owners of iconic jazz club Velvet Lounge have struggled to relaunch the club since it reopened in May, and without saxophonist Fred Anderson at the helm it's not turning into the jazz mecca it once was.
“When I do jazz, the crowd is scarce,” manager Giulio Spizziri told Chicago Journal. “You can’t pay the bills with jazz. It’s an icon in the city, and I want it to be, but when you get into it and you can’t make it work, it’s really frustrating.”
Velvet Lounge closed after jazz legend and club owner Anderson died in 2010. Anderson's old friend and landlord from the club's former home at 2128 S. Indiana bought the 67 E. Cermak building from Anderson's family. Dan Kravetz says he tried to find established jazz musicians to step in and run Velvet Lounge the way Anderson had, but it wasn't possible.
“I didn’t find another Fred Anderson, because I didn’t think that was possible,” he said. “I just wanted to preserve it. He was a friend of mine. But I was mistaken in the thought that I’d have other jazz performers rushing in to run it. It just seemed reasonable that somebody would want to come over and take it over. But I think that people thought that it wasn’t big enough to make any money.”
Now they're realizing that the old Velvet Lounge survived on sets by Anderson and on the friends who stopped by to join him for free. Without his persona and talent, the club has to pay the acts, but they say it doesn't bring enough of the clubs. Now the club has branched into other genres, giving jazz just the Sunday night spot.
Just a suggestion, Velvet, but we had trouble finding a website for the club. We also noticed that we were anticipating the opening of the space, yet missed it by over two months. How about some more promotion, eh? We'll be happy to stop on by.
The Velvet Lounge is at 67 E. Cermak. It is open Wednesdays thru Sundays.