Musicians from down the Mississippi River and all over the Midwest came to Chicago to perform in clubs. Famous musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines played and recorded in Chicago, helping establish the city as a hub for jazz.
As a further development of ragtime, which features very little improvisation, the Chicago style of jazz was slightly riskier than the sound that preceded it. In Chicago, jazz musicians often replaced tubas and banjos (which were prominent in the South) with faster tempos, upright bass and guitars.
Many jazz musicians used Chicago as a halfway point between careers in New Orleans and New York City. Jazz began in Louisiana, but Chicago-style jazz featured more solos and improvisational playing. By the time musicians moved to New York in the 1920s, jazz was taking on more diverse forms, from the classical takes by George Gershwin to the development of big-band swing.
During the 1930s, Chicago's jazz scene quieted down, but never died. There have been many jazz clubs in Chicago since then, but none as famous as the Green Mill in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. With ties to Al Capone, the Green Mill featured the best jazz music of the mid-20th century, and still brings in popular musicians.
The oldest Grant Park summer music festival in the city is the Chicago Jazz Festival, which is more than 30 years old. Famous performers continue to come to Chicago's lakeside park for a weekend of jazz concerts. Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and many other jazz greats have performed at the event.