The Club DeLisa, also written Delisa or De Lisa, at State Street and Garfield Avenue, on the South Side

South Side (Chicago)

The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...

, was an important nightclub and music venue in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

While possibly not the most prestigious venue in the city, together with the Regal Theater

Regal Theater, South Side (Chicago)

The Regal Theater, located in the heart of Bronzeville, was an important night club and music venue in Chicago.Part of the Balaban and Katz chain, the lavishly decorated venue, with plush carpeting and velvet drapes featured some of the most celebrated black entertainers in America.The Regal also...

 and the Rhumboogie Café

Rhumboogie Café

The Rhumboogie Café, also referred to as the Rhumboogie Club, was an important, but short-lived nightclub at 343 East 55th Street, Chicago....

, the 1000-seat Club DeLisa played a key role in the city's association with jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and soul music. It closed in 1958, but was re-opened as The Club in 1966.

Club DeLisa

The Club DeLisa was owned by the four DeLisa brothers. It opened in 1934. In 1941, the original building burned down but was soon replaced with the New Club DeLisa. Nightly entertainment at the club was in a variety-show format. The show featured singers, comedians, dancers, and the DeLisa chorines, accompanied by a house band that ranged in size from 7 to 12 pieces, depending on the club's revenues. Another less heralded source of revenue was gambling, in the club's basement.

Among the musicians and performers associated with the venue over the years were undoubtedly Red Saunders

Red Saunders (musician)

Theodore Dudley "Red" Saunders was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He also played vibraphone and timpani....

, whose band was in residence from 1937–45 and 1947–58, Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

, Count Basie

Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

, Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

, Johnny Pate

Johnny Pate

Johnny Pate is a jazz bassist who late became a music arranger/producer, and a leading figure in Chicago soul as well as pop/R&B music....

, Joe Williams

Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...

, LaVaughn Robinson

LaVaughn Robinson

LaVaughn Robinson was an US tap dancer, choreographer, and teacher.A virtuoso tap dancer, Robinson perfected a high speed, low to the ground, a cappella style of dance that was characterized by elegance, precision, and clarity of sound...

, George Kirby

George Kirby

George Kirby was an American comedian, singer, and actor from Chicago, Illinois.Kirby broke into show business in the 1940s at the Club DeLisa, a South Side establishment that employed a variety-show format and preferred to hire local singers, dancers, and comedians...

, Sonny Cohn

Sonny Cohn

George T. "Sonny" Cohn was an American jazz trumpeter.After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders , he went on to spend another 24 years in Count Basie's trumpet section .-Biography:...

, Earl Washington

Earl Washington (musician)

Earl "The Ghost" Washington was a jazz pianist.-Early life:Washington grew up with his brothers and sisters, in the small community of Morgan Park, on Chicago’s far southwest side. He graduated from Morgan Park High School, as did his siblings...

, Leon Washington

Leon Washington (musician)

Leon Diamond Washington was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Born in Mississippi, Washington grew up in Chicago from the age of three. He started on clarinet before moving on to tenor saxophone, and studied under Santy Runyon...

, Albert Ammons

Albert Ammons

Albert Ammons was an American pianist. Ammons was a player of boogie-woogie, a bluesy jazz style popular from the late 1930s into the mid 1940s.-Life and career:...

 and LaVern Baker

LaVern Baker

LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...

.

The Club DeLisa closed its doors in February 1958, after the deaths of two of the DeLisa brothers. The closing was commemorated in Jet

Jet (magazine)

Jet is an American weekly marketed toward African-American readers, founded in 1951 by John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois...

magazine.

The Club

When DJs E. Rodney Jones and Pervis Spann re-opened the venue under the new name, Cannonball Adderley's quintet was one of the first bands to perform there, in March 1966. Although Adderley's October 1966 album Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club'

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club' is a 1966 album by jazz musician Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Though the original liner notes state that it was recorded at the Club DeLisa in Chicago, it was actually recorded at Capitol's Hollywood studio with an invited audience and an open bar...

was supposedly recorded at the venue (under a new name and management), it was in fact recorded at Capitol's Hollywood studio with a live audience. The tracks later released on Money in the Pocket had in fact been recorded live at The Club.