The Nightlife

Nightlife (painting), Archibald John Motley, Jr. Art Institute of Chicago, 1943. 

This painting depicts a thriving nightlife scene in Bronzeville, on the South Side. Bronzeville from the beginning of the 20th century onward was a center of African-American life and culture in Chicago. Jazz artists flocked to Chicago in part because of opportunities to perform in clubs like this one. 

The Sutherland Lounge (photograph, advertisement), The Sutherland Hotel, c. 1950.

The Sutherland Hotel, in Kenwood, witnessed a resurgence of jazz on the city's South Side in the 1950s. In 1956, the Sutherland Lounge was advertised as "Where the Stars and Celebrities Meet," and played host to famous musicians until it closed in 1964. Though only open briefly, it was an influential center of a jazz revival in the 1950s.