The Jazz Ltd. Label

Jazz Ltd. was a boutique operation run by Bill and Ruth Reinhardt. It grew out of their club, Jazz Ltd., at 11 East Grand Street. The club opened on June 11, 1947 and successfully specialized in Dixieland. Initially Doc Evans' Dixieland Jazz Band served as the house ensemble; cornetist Paul "Doc" Evans had built a reputation in Minneapolis for some years before coming down to Chicago to play at Jazz Ltd. Other members were pianist Don Ewell, trombonist Munn Ware, drummer Danny Alvin, plus Bill Reinhardt himself on clarinet. Down Beat's Paul Eduard Miller gave the club's gala opening a feature write-up, lauding the work of the band and praising the club's warm contemporary décor that managed handsomely without the "usual chromium and mirrors." The Reinhardts had hired Hugo Weber and Emerson Woelffer of the Institute of Design to create the décor for the intimate room; the club seated just 83 at the tables and another eight at the bar. Because of the limited size of the room (hence the name of the club), the Reinhardts found it unnecessary to use mikes or a speaker system.

Bill Reinhardt was born September 21, 1908, in Chicago and raised in the city. After one year attending the University of Illinois, he headed to New York to work as a musician. There he met a Broadway show dancer, Ruth Sato, born of an Irish mother and a Japanese businessman in New York on December 12, 1904. They got married in 1941, a few months Reinhardt entered the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, the couple settled in Chicago. Responding to the explosion of interest in Dixieland music, they decided to open a club that would specialize in it, while providing a venue for Bill Reinhardt to play his clarinet regularly. The club featured no singing, thereby avoiding an additional 20 percent tax.

Ruth Reinhardt served as the club's hostess. She and Bill set down some rigid rules for the club's operation: no unescorted ladies, no women served at the bar, no minors, no jacketless men--and only male servers. Many of these rules were animated by the Reinhardts' desire to keep prostitution (and by extension the Mob) out of the club. The Reinhardts were highly concerned about mobsters, and refused to buy liquor from Mob-connected distributors. During shows, loud patrons were immediately escorted out of the premises by the no-nonsense Ruth, who confessed she had developed a reputation for being a "schoolmarm." The club served the "best of liquor" and boasted of air conditioning that cut down on the smoke and foul air; Ruth summed up the club's virtues as "we are the antithesis of a barrelhouse joint for jazz." The result was that in the club's first years the room was filled every night and reservations for tables were the rule--according to Ruth this was a procedure heretofore unknown in Chicago. The club was open to African-American patrons, but few attended as Dixieland had little following in the black community.

One of the Reinhardts' bigger coups was landing jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet for four extended engagements. Bechet was in residence at the club from November 1947 through June 6, 1948; for a five-week engagement from August 25 to early October 1948; for a nearly two-month engagement from November 1948 through January 15, 1949; and finally for a four week-engagement in September-October 1949.

At some point the Reinhardts decided to go into the studio to record some of the headliners at their club with the house ensemble plus a bassist. They also sought to capitalize on their patrons' demand for Sidney Bechet's "Egyptian Fantasy," which fans enjoyed at the club, and was being featured by a local DJ during Bechet's first engagement there, but was out of print in its 1941 Victor version. Their other releases featured two regular members of the Jazz Ltd. house band, Don Ewell and Doc Evans, and New York-based Muggsy Spanier, who returned to his native city to play at Jazz Ltd. for a long engagement from January through July 1949.

Sidney Bechet, who played clarinet and soprano sax, was born in New Orleans, on May 14, 1897. He was one of the pioneers of jazz, beginning his career playing the clarinet with such legendary artists as Buddy Petit, John Robichaux, and Bunk Johnson. He toured the southern states with Clarence Williams from 1914 to 1916. He worked with King Oliver in New Orleans in 1916, before moving to Chicago in 1917 to work with a variety of bands, notably that of Freddie Keppard (at the Deluxe) and Tony Jackson (at the Pekin Theater). He went overseas for the first time in 1919, winning praise for one of his solo features in a pioneering jazz review by the classical conductor Ernest Ansermet. He also discovered the soprano saxophone in a music store in London.

Returning to New York, Bechet made his first recordings with Clarence Williams' Blue Five in 1923. Beginning in October 1924 the ensemble also included Louis Armstrong; during this period Bechet also played in an early Duke Ellington Orchestra. From 1925 to 1931 he worked in Europe. He began an affiliation with Noble Sissle in 1928; this continued off and on through 1938. In 1932, Bechet cut his first American recording session in seven years; at the time so little work was available that he was operating a tailor shop in Harlem. Business began to pick up in the late 1930s; he recorded for Decca and Columbia in 1938, for the fledgling Blue Note label in 1938 and 1939, and for RCA Victor from 1939 through 1941. In the early 1940s, Bechet led a trio playing at the famed Nick's in New York City, and appeared a number of notable concerts with Eddie Condon at the Town Hall. During World War II and the immediate postwar years, Bechet largely worked in clubs on the East Coast; he recorded for Blue Note again in 1944 and 1945. In 1945, he performed in New Orleans and Boston (notably at the Savoy Café with Bunk Johnson). From 1945 through 1947 he recorded with Mezz Mezzrow for his King Jazz label; in 1947 he also recorded for Columbia. By the time he began appearing at Jazz Ltd. Bechet had hung up his clarinet and was playing soprano sax exclusively, probably because the small saxophone required less lung power.

The Reinhardts had intended to open Jazz Ltd. in May 1947 by bringing in the now legendary Bechet from New York for a long-term stay. (Knowing Bechet's tendency to grab the lead, which had led to friction with Louis Armstrong and Bunk Johnson in recent years, they simply booked him in place of a trumpet player.) He had last performed in Chicago in 1919, and the Reinhardts knew that his growing acclaim as a result of the Dixieland revival made him a top-notch attraction for the club. However, illness prevented Bechet from making the engagement as planned, so the couple delayed the opening a few weeks into early June and opened with the Doc Evans band.

Bechet sources: George Hoefer, "Sid Bechet Has Led Long, Colorful Life as Jazzman," Down Beat, 14 December, 1951, pp. 2, 6-7, 18; Ruth Sato Reinhardt, "Jazz Ltd. Owner Tells Tavern's Tale," Down Beat, 21 April 1948, p. 17; John Chilton, Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). Chilton devotes a full chapter to Bechet's Jazz Ltd. engagements, "Chicago Showdown," pp. 201-211. Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography, Volume 6 (Redwood NY: Cadence Jazz Books, 1993): pp. E432-E438.

Cornetist Paul Wesley "Doc" Evans was born in Spring Valley, Minnesota, on June 20, 1907. He developed facility with cornet, violin, piano, drums, and saxophone, but while playing in the Carlton College band, he was used for his cornet playing. Upon graduation from Carlton in 1929, he taught school and then raised cocker spaniels, making music a part-time endeavor. In 1939, Evans became a full-time musician when he joined the Red Dougherty band. During much of the 1940s he led his own band, plus playing with Bunk Johnson, Eddie Condon, and other traditional jazz musicians. In an apparent distant outpost for jazz, Minneapolis, Evans developed a national reputation, which led to him being called down by the Reinhardts to open their club. He had already recorded in New York City in 1945, and would actually cut 8 sides in Chicago in December 1947, not long after completing his first engagement at Jazz Ltd. However, his recording session was done by John Steiner and initially released on Dublin's, a label operated by a local jazz record store.

Evans sources: "Doc's 'Formula' Puts Emphasis On Ensemble Value, Subordination," Down Beat, 1 December 1948, p. 4; Leonard Feather, Encyclopedia of Jazz (New York: Horizon Press, 1955): 136; Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography, Volume 6 (Redwood, NY: Cadence Jazz Books, 1993): pp. E409-E413.

Pianist Donald Tyson Ewell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 14, 1916. He formally studied music at the Peabody Conservatory, and during 1936-40 performed with a local Baltimore swing band, called The Townsmen. During World War II he played with military bands. After the war, with the burgeoning Dixieland movement, Ewell learned to play in the traditional manner and found a career playing Dixie in a host of bands, first with Bunk Johnson in 1946, followed by that of Doc Evans at Jazz Ltd.

Ewell sources: Leonard Feather, Encyclopedia of Jazz (New York: Horizon Press, 1955): 136; Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography, Volume 6 (Redwood NY.: Cadence Jazz Books, 1993): pp. E432-E438.

Cornetist Muggsy Spanier was born Francis Joseph Spanier in Chicago on November 9, 1901 (the 1906 date that used to appear in many sources is incorrect; our thanks to Bert Whyatt for a correction). He spent some years in an orphanage after his parents separated. While still in high school he was already playing in local cabarets. Noted for his strong lead and his exquisite use of the mute, he played with a host of different musicians during the 1920s, notably George Wettling and Jess Stacy, and made a number of Chicago style jazz recordings, starting with the Bucktown Five for Gennett in 1924. From 1929 to 1936 he toured with the Ted Lewis Band, followed by a stay with the Ben Pollack Band from 1936 to 1938. He suffered a physical collapse which left him near death at the Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, a period of his career later celebrated on two records he made. Spanier returned to music in 1939, when he made 16 legendary sides for the Victor subsidiary Bluebird. After brief stints with Ted Lewis and then Bob Crosby, he formed the first of his own bands in New York City in 1941. Recording for Decca, the band cut some of the best traditional jazz recordings, soon to be celebrated as "Dixieland." Spanier continued to work largely out of New York (particularly at Nick's) from 1944 to 1948. He began touring in 1949 with a band that included Darnell Howard, Floyd Bean, Ralph Hutchinson, and Truck Parham. From mid-January through July 1949, Jazz Ltd. had Muggsy Spanier headlining a band that consisted of Joe Sullivan on piano, Reinhardt on clarinet, Munn Ware on trombone, and Wally Gordon on drums. Down Beat commented at the time that the band was "playing the best Dixieland in town."

Spanier sources: George Hoefer, "Muggsy Still a Driving, Communicative Jazzman," Down Beat, 4 May 1951, pp. 2-3, 8, 16; "Spanier, Sullivan Working Together Again at Jazz Ltd.," Down Beat, 20 May 1949, p. 4.

The usual story (told in Lord's Jazz Discography, and in the notes to the currently available CD reissue, Delmark DE-226) is that all of the early Jazz Limited material, totalling 8 masters, was cut in late February 1949. However, Pat Harris, in her "Chicago Band Briefs" Down Beat column from January 28, 1949, tells a different story. Announcing the upcoming Jazz Limited album, she noted that "at press time" (that would mean at least a week before Down Beat's publication) Bechet had already cut three sides and Don Ewell had recorded one. Still to be recorded were two sides by Doc Evans and two by Muggsy Spanier. In a news item from March 11, 1949, Down Beat subsequently reported on the recording of the Evans and Spanier sides: "Final sides cut for the Jazz Ltd. album, to be issued by and through the nitery here...Previously recorded were a Don Ewell piano solo on Maple Leaf Rag and three Sidney Bechet sides..." The second Down Beat item, on the other hand, does claim that the same rhythm section is on all of the tracks. No doubt this is what Jazz Ltd. told the writer, for the same information is on the original 78s--but as we will explain below, we doubt this. Doing a little fence sitting, Chilton says that the Bechet sides were recorded in "early 1949," fully aware that the musician left for New York right after his engagement ended--on January 15. We also have our doubts about an early January date.

Notes on the first Jazz Ltd. recordings: Tom Lord, The Jazz Discography, Volume 2 (Redwood NY: Cadence Jazz Books, 1992): p. B328; Pat Harris, "Chicago Band Briefs: Boppers Get Two More Breaks; Burkhart Back," Down Beat, 28 January 1949, p. 4; "Muggsy, Doc Cut Final Ltd. Sides," Down Beat, 11 March 1949, p. ?:

Well out of line with the February 1949 recording date (or even an early January date for the Bechet sides) are the matrix numbers on the 78s. These come from United Broadcasting Studios (which Sidney Bechet also used for his and Mezz Mezzrow's final sessions for the King Jazz label, December 18-20, 1947). We know a good deal about the studio's matrix series because the Miracle label had been recording there since 1946, and other Chicago-based indies (such as Sunbeam, Hy-Tone, Vitacoustic, and Aristocrat) made at least occasional use of UB's facilities. The Jazz Ltd. sessions were assigned two blocks of matrix numbers in the UB9100s: UB9101-9104 for Bechet and Ewell; UB 9181 through 9184 for Evans and Spanier. However, the UB9000 series began in the summer of 1948, when Chicago studios resumed recording after the Musicians Union imposed a recording ban on January 1 of that year. Since the ban was not officially lifted until December 13, 1948, even though everyone but the majors was busily recording before that date, record companies worried about retribution from the union gave out phony dates for sessions cut in the summer or fall. The UB9000 series may have been organized to give the impression that it covered only sessions conducted in 1949, but matrix numbers into the UB9500s are known to derive from sessions done before the end of the 1948.

In fact, a UB9100 series matrix number would normally indicate a recording made in the summer of 1948. A current matrix number for a February 1949 session at United Broadcasting would have been in the UB9600s.

There is hard evidence for the Evans and Spanier session taking place in February 1949; it could not have taken place before the third week of January, when Muggsy arrived from New York to begin his engagement at the club, and the earlier Down Beat article signals that his session had not yet taken place. (Muggsy was in town in October 1948, playing the Blue Note, but he used a completely different band on that occasion.) We'll assume that United Broadcasting had an unused block of matrix numbers (maybe even had held onto one after Jazz Ltd. announced recording plans earlier) and this got applied to the Evans/Spanier session despite the late date.

Meanwhile, the same Down Beat article states that the three Bechets and the Ewell had been cut already (as in fact the Bechets had to be--he'd left town on January 15 and wouldn't be back till fall). Given the lack of a precise recording date in contemporary coverage, all we can infer is that the first Jazz Ltd. session took place during one of Sidney's previous gigs at the club. Since Don Ewell gets the trio feature on the session and the band pianist on the Bechets sounds like him, too, this means either Sidney's second engagement (August 25 to early October 1948) or his third (November 1948 to January 1949). The UB9100 matrix numbers still push for the earliest possible date, so we will go with late August 1948.

Further evidence in support of an early date is George Hoefer's "Hot Box" column from June 16, 1948. Headlined "Few Discerys Cash In On Bechet's Popularity," Hoefer's column declares, "There hasn't been a jazz artist appearing in the Windy City who has stimulated sales of his own recordings as Sidney Bechet has during the past few months... RCA Victor certainly missed a good bet by not reissuing the New Orleans Footwarmers, Bechet-Ladnier Bluebirds, and the Sidney Bechet Victors."

In fact, they have been missing the boat in Chicago for a couple of years by not making availiable [sic] the Bechet recording of Egyptian Fantasy. This record has been used on numerous local radio shows as the theme song for the very popular disc jockey, Linn Burton. The original record is so rare that is almost impossible to even find a copy from which to dub an acetate. (Down Beat, June 16, 1948, p. 12)

So here was Hoefer talking up the demand for "Egyptian Fantasy" just as Sidney's first engagement at the club was drawing to a close (the engagement ended June 6, 1948). The Jazz Ltd. management hadn't responded yet; the article came out after Sidney left, and while mentioning some 1947 recordings by Sidney that were due to be released it breathes no hint of recording efforts by Jazz Ltd. or any other Chicago indy. But plans could easily have been made to record Sidney as soon as he got back to town. Indeed, six weeks later Ted Hallock's column, "Chicago Band Briefs," was already announcing Sidney's planned return (Down Beat, July 28, 1948, p. 4).

Accepting two sessions a few months apart makes a lot of sense but gives us one new problem. Jazz Ltd.'s labels and the front cover of its album name the same supporting cast for both sessions. Munn Ware, Bill Reinhardt, and Don Ewell were working at the club across this entire period. It's reasonable assume that Sid Thall, the bassist, who sat in at the club on a few occasions and was hired to fill out the sound in the studio, could make two different sessions. But the drummer gives us trouble. The Jazz Ltd. album credits Wally Gordon with all the drumming, yet we have no evidence that he ever worked a gig at the club until mid-January 1949, when he came on board for Muggsy Spanier's arrival. The drummer on Sidney Bechet's third engagement was Johnny Vine; on the second the club used Doc Cenardo (who stayed after Doc Evans finished headlining at the club in August, but left for a while after the second Bechet engagement to work with Evans on other gigs). We'll go with Cenardo, who returned to Jazz Ltd. and later appeared on label's 1951 session.

Ltd1. Sidney Bechet / Don Ewell*

Sidney Bechet (ss); Munn Ware (tb); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Don Ewell (p); Sid Thall (b); prob. Enos "Doc" Cenardo (d).

United Broadcasting Studio, Chicago, prob. late August 1948

The original 4-pocket album release on the red on silver Jazz Limited label took place in March 1949. In June 1949, Jazz Ltd. 101 and 201 were reissued as singles on a maroon on gray Jazz Ltd. label, distributed by Old Swing-Master.

Lord's Jazz Discography fails to mention the album, or the reissues distributed by Old Swing-Master. And Lord puts "Egyptian Fantasy" on a non-existent 202, stranding "Maple Leaf Rag" on 101 without a flip side!

Regal LP-11 was a 10-inch LP released in 1951 under the title Jazz Ltd.. Atlantic ALS-139, Dixieland at Jazz Ltd.--Vol. 1, was issued in 1952. Atlantic LP1261, released in 1957, was titled Dixieland at Jazz Ltd. The Jazz Ltd. EP, with no number, was a commemorative reissue of the Sidney Bechet and Muggsy Spanier sides that came out in 1967 (see below). Herwin 401 was an LP compilation from the 1970s, titled They All Played the Maple Leaf Rag.

Ltd2. Doc Evans et al./ Muggsy Spanier et al.*

Doc Evans (cnt) or Muggsy Spanier (cnt on *); Munn Ware (tb); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Don Ewell (p); Sid Thall (b); Wally Gordon (d).

United Broadcasting Studio, Chicago, February 1949

The original Jazz Ltd. issue numbers are correctly reported in George Hoefer's detailed review of the album, in Down Beat for June 3, 1949. Lord's Jazz Discography makes no mention of the original album--or of the fact that 101, 201, and 401 reappeared as separate 78s under the Old Swing-Master deal, while 301 did not.

In May 1949, Old Swing-Master concluded a deal to distribute three of the four 78s. (The deal was announced in a Down Beat article on June 17). We don't know how long the distribution deal lasted--obviously not beyond the collapse of Old Swing-Master in June 1950.

The two Doc Evans sides were left out of the Old Swing-Master deal. George Hoefer's review complained of "fuzzy" sound on them--could this have been a deterrent? (The woolly sonics must have been a pressing fault. Although the masters audibly aren't in perfect condition, the Doc Evans sides actually sound better on CD than some of the others do.)

The Jazz Ltd.catalogue, small as it was, retained its commercial viability and saw reissue several times. The first was in the spring of 1951, when New Jersey-based Regal put out a reissue of the original 4-pocket Jazz Ltd. album in the long-play microgroove format. The 8 sides made a standard-length 10-inch LP. The Down Beat reviewer noted that the Regal LP's surfaces were "far better" than on the 78 version of the album, and musically complimented Don Ewell's piano on "Maple Leaf Rag" and Muggsy Spanier's drive on "Washington and Lee."

After licensing sides to Regal, the Reinhardts still envisioned new releases on Jazz Ltd. In fact, they appear to have made the 8 sides from the first two sessions available on their own 10-inch LP, sold out of the club. If this materialized, it probably came out in 1951 and bore the number JL1002.

Later in 1951 the Reinhardts brought their house band into the studio to cut 5 extended selections (ranging from a "High Society" that clocked in compactly at 4:17 to a "Tin Roof Blues" that stretched all the way out to 8:06). The aim was to put 4 of them on a 10-inch LP.

Ltd3. Miff Mole & Doc Evans

Doc Evans (tp); Miff Mole (tb); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Ralph Blank (p); Sy Nelson (b); Doc Cenardo (d).

Chicago, 1951

We don't know how the artists were originally billed on this session, so we have followed the Delmark reissue.

The matrix numbers for this session are as supplied in Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Vol. 15 (Redwood NY: Cadence Jazz Books, 1996), p. M1001. It is clear from Ruppli's Atlantic Records discography that the matrix numbers in parentheses were attached by Atlantic when it leased the tapes; those originally attached to the tracks remain unknown (thanks to Howard Rye for this information). Lord duplicates the listing for the first four items under Jazz Limited (Volume 10, published 1994, p. J256). There only the release on Atlantic LP1261 gets mentioned and the recording date is given as 1959! After leaving off the 10-inch Atlantic LP release of the 1948-49 sides, Lord incorrectly attaches its release number (139) to the 1951 session.

The first release of these titles was on a limited-edition LP on Jazz Ltd. JL1001, sold out of the club. Most likely this came out in 1951, not long after the sides were recorded, but there is a possibility that the Jazz Ltd. version postdated the Atlantic. In any event, the liner notes for Jazz Ltd. JL1003 (released in 1955; see below) refer to Doc Cenardo as "the drummer on Jazz Ltd. Vol 1 with Miff Mole, Doc Evans et al." and elsewhere JL1003 is said to be "the third album of records cut by Bill Reinhardt and wife Ruth." JL1001 is no doubt quite rare; we await confirmation on it.

Atlantic ALS-140 was a 10-inch LP released in 1952 under the title Dixieland at Jazz Ltd.--Vol. 2. We are indebted to Neal Umphred's Goldmine Price Guide to Collectible Jazz Albums 1949-1969 (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1994), pp. 561 and 572, for titles, release numbers, and release dates on the 10-inch LPs.

Atlantic LP1261, a 12-inch LP released in 1957, was titled Dixieland at Jazz Ltd.

"Bluin' the Blues" never saw issue until the Delmark CD came out in 1994.

In 1952, after the deal with Regal expired along with the company (see our Parkway pages for more on Regal and the sides that the company bought or licensed in Chicago), the Reinhardts licensed the 1948-1949 material and the LP-length tracks from 1951 to Atlantic. Atlantic put the 1948-49 tracks on 10-inch LP in 1952; a second 10-incher from the same year consisted of four tracks from the 1951 session. In 1957, after 12-inch LPs had been adopted as the standard format in the jazz world, Atlantic combined the contents of both LPs into a single 12-incher.

These Jazz Ltd. recordings retained their viability in part because the label's featured artists continued to record and tour and sustain their reputation in the jazz world. In late 1948 Doc Evans began an extensive engagement on Chicago's North Side at the Tailspin Lounge, where the Down Beat writer noted that it was the first band he'd led since leaving Minnesota that "he really could call his own." Besides Evans, the band included Don Thompson on trombone, Doc Cenardo (who had temporarily defected from Jazz Ltd.) on drums, Joyce McDonald on piano, and Johnny McDonald on clarinet. Evans returned to his native Minnesota permanently in 1949 and continued his career as a well-respected Dixieland bandleader for the next several decades, recording innumerable albums in Minneapolis. He made his last LP in 1975 and died in Minnesota on January 10, 1977.

Don Ewell continued to work, at first largely in Chicago with Eddie Wiggins (1952), Lee Collins (1953), and Kid Ory (1953 - 1955). By the mid-1950s he had moved to San Francisco and begun an association with Jack Teagarden that lasted until the trombonist's death in 1964. Thereafter, he generally worked solo, playing barrelhouse piano. Recording regularly through 1981, he died on August 9, 1983. Throughout the 1950s Muggsy Spanier continued to work steadily until ill health forced him to retire in 1964. He died in Sausalito, California, on February 12, 1967. In 1949, Sidney Bechet went to live and work in France, and remained there throughout the 1950s, recording extensively. He died in Antibes, France on May 14, 1959.

The Jazz Ltd. club likewise continued to flourish during the 1950s. In 1955-1956, Jazz Ltd. undertook lengthy recording sessions with two different versions of the house ensemble, using them on two limited-edition 10-inch LPs.

Ltd4. Jazz Limited

Jazz Ltd Volume 3: Dixieland by Request [Jazz at Jazz Ltd.]

Marty Marsala (tp); Harry Graves (tb); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Max Hook (p); Kenny White (b); Doc Cenardo (d).

Chicago, early 1955

Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Vol. 10, p. J256, provides session details and matrix numbers but lists only the Atlantic release. February 1960 is the date that the Jazz Ltd. tapes were transferred to and mastered by Atlantic--not the recording date, as Lord would have it. The matrix numbers in the 4000 series were assigned by Atlantic and are not original; we do not know what numbers, if any, the tracks originally carried. Lord notes that some of the unissued tracks between matrix 4391 and matrix 4401 could actually be from the next session.

Lord misspells the pianist's name as Max "Nook" for both this and the following session.

The initial release from this session, not listed in any of the standard discographies, was a 10-inch LP, Jazz Ltd. Volume 3: Dixieland by Request (Jazz Ltd. JL1003). The A-side matrix number for the LP was F8OL-3542, while the B side carried F8OL-3543. These are in the RCA Victor series (where F stands for 1955) and indicate that mastering and pressing were done by RCA Victor in Chicago; it is also possible that the session took place at RCA Victor studios but that does not necessarily follow from the matrix numbers (RCA was pressing records for many independent labels during this period). The date is further narrowed by the proclamation in the notes that the club "is starting its ninth year and will go on and on." Since the club had opened on June 11, 1947, June 1955 is the most likely release date. The Jazz Ltd. release used the short title "The Saints" instead of the full title found on the Atlantic reissue. Our thanks to collector Ken Perkins for detailed information about this rare LP\. More recently Tom Kelly has turned up another copy, impaired just a little because the B side label was pasted on both sides (the A side matrix numbers in the vinyl are the same as stated above).

Atlantic LP1338, Jazz at Jazz Ltd., was released in 1960. Four titles from the 10-inch LP were put on Side A of this 12-inch LP; "Milenburg Joys" was left off. No reissues of the Atlantic are known. According to Umphred it was released in mono only, which makes sense given the provenance.

Ltd5. Jazz Limited

Jazz Ltd. Volume 4 [Jazz at Jazz Ltd.]

Norman Murphy (tp); Dave Remington (tb); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Max Hook (p); Hall Garnes (b); Freddy Kohlman (d).

Chicago, prob. Summer 1956

Our discographical information is drawn from Tom Lord's Jazz Discography, Vol. 10, p. J256. It is possible that some of the unissued tracks with Atlantic-assigned matrix numbers between 4391 and 4401 are actually from this session. Lord incorrectly gives February 1960 as the recording date, but that is when Atlantic leased the tapes from Jazz Ltd. and applied the matrix numbers given in parentheses. Lord incorrectly renders the pianist's name as "Nook."

We haven't seen the original release of this material, but we are assuming that it took place on a 10-inch Jazz Ltd. LP that followed JL1003 (see the previous session). It is possible that the Jazz Ltd. release contained an extra track not carried over to the 12-inch release (we know that happened with JL 1003).

Given the monaural recording and an initial 10-inch LP release, the recording session is unlikely to have taken place after 1956. In fact, we learn from Down Beat (May 30, 1956, p. 29) that Dave Remington had recently joined the Jazz Ltd. house band on trombone (he had been playing piano in the Johnny Lane band at the Red Arrow). Meanwhile, Norman Murphy (identified in the May 30 item as a "St. Louis trumpeter") had joined at some point in the spring of 1956 (the February 8, 1956 issue of Down Beat mentioned Nappy Trottier as the current trumpet player at Jazz Ltd.). The recording session was not made in late May, however, because according to Down Beat, Ray Dixon was at the piano and Walt Gifford at the drums. (The bass player was, of course, added in the studio only.) So an occasion later in the summer of 1956 seems most likely. Besides the precise date, we don't know the original LP title; collectors, what say you?

Atlantic LP1338, Jazz at Jazz Ltd., was released in 1960. There have been no reissues. According to Umphred, the album was available only in mono, which makes sense given the provenance of the material.

In 1960, the Reinhardts moved their club to larger quarters at 162 East Grand. While at the new location, they recorded one last LP. The liner notes refer to the club being in business for 17 years, so it was issued in 1964.

Ltd6. Jazz Limited

Reinhardt, Reinhardt, Where Were You Last Night? At Jazz Ltd., Of Course

Joe Wiedman (tp); Dave Rasbury (tb); Dave Remington (tb, p); Bill Reinhardt (cl); Earl Washington (p); Reuben "Big Mike" McKendrick (bj, g); Quinn Wilson (b, sousaphone); Freddie Kohlman (d).

Chicago, probably 1964

All of our information about the LP comes from a copy in the collection of Paige Van Vorst, who we thank for alerting us to this item (it is not mentioned in any existing discographies). The personnel is collective; we don't know which edition of the band is on each track.

In the beginning, Jazz Ltd. had gone its own way, staunchly resisting the clichés of most Dixieland operations. But as the 1960s wore on, the club fell into the corny jokes, overly predictable repertoire, and "businessman's bounce" presentation that alienated fans of other kinds of jazz from the Dixieland circuit. As a consequence the club became more and more dependent on visiting conventioneers as customers.

My old friend guitarist-banjoist Emmanuel Sayles worked there for a while (he was called up from New Orleans when Mike McKendrick had his leg amputated ca. 1965) and said it was "the boringest musical job I ever had" as [Bill] Reinhardt insisted they put on the same show every night. Sayles did enjoy meeting the customers and wound up corresponding with several of them long after he moved back to New Orleans to work at Preservation Hall.

The downward spiral continued as the growth of hotels near O'Hare Airport began to draw convention business away from the area where the club was located.

The last release on Jazz Ltd. took place in 1967; it was a commemorative 45-rpm EP that drew on the 1948-1949 recordings. The immediate occasion was the passing of Muggsy Spanier. The Reinhardts made it a joint memorial by including Sidney Bechet, who had died in 1959. Presumably the EP consisted of the three original Bechet tracks and the two original Spaniers.

Jazz Ltd. finally closed in 1972, by which time the postwar Dixieland explosion was a distant memory. Bill Reinhardt then led a jazz band at the Blackstone Hotel for a few years, before he and Ruth moved to San Diego, California, to retire. Ruth Reinhardt died on December 9, 1992. During his last decade of life, Bill Reinhardt developed Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. He died on January 23, 2001.

Around the time of Ruth Reinhardt's death, the entire Jazz Ltd. corpus was sold to Bob Koester's Delmark Records. In 1994, Delmark DE-226, Jazz Ltd. Volume 1 assembled on CD all of the 1948-1949 and 1951 tracks, plus excerpts from the 1970 interview with the Reinhardts. Efforts to release a Volume 2 from the 1955-1956 sessions have so far been thwarted, because the Reinhardts turned over their tapes to Atlantic while the lease agreement for Atlantic LP 1338 was in force, and the tapes have not been recovered. (One hopes they were not destroyed in the same fire that wiped out chunks of Atlantic's uneleased material by Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman.) The fate of the 1964 tapes is unknown.

Sources: Ruth Sato Reinhardt, "Jazz Ltd. Owner Tells Tavern Tale," Down Beat, 21 April 1948, p. 17. John Chilton, Sidney Bechet: The Wizard of Jazz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 202-203. Chilton provides an entire chapter on Bechet's work at Jazz Ltd. and a much more detailed discussion of the Jazz Ltd. operation. Brenda Warner Rotzoll, "Bill Reinhardt; Owned Jazz Ltd., Club on Grand," Chicago Sun-Times, 18 February 2001. We also relied on the extensive reporting by Down Beat on Jazz Ltd. club activities during 1947-1949. Our thanks to Howard Rye, Ken Perkins, Paige Van Vorst, and Bert Whyatt for their help with this page. Still to be researched are articles by Bert Whyatt in Storyville magazine (June 1993 and 1996-1997) and Don Ingle (Mississippi Rag, November 1977.

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