HotHouse (jazz club)
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and known for its program of innovative jazz and world music concerts and as a central meeting place for a variety of community groups. It closed in July 2007.
The HotHouse, formally called CIPEX, the Center for International Performance and Exhibition, was founded by Marguerite Horberg in 1987 at 1565 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago. In 1995, following the gentrification
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
of the locality, Wicker Park
Wicker Park, Chicago
Wicker Park is a Chicago neighborhood northwest of the Loop, south of Bucktown and west of Pulaski Park within West Town. Charles and Joel Wicker purchased of land along Milwaukee Avenue in 1870 and laid out a subdivision with a mix of lot sizes surrounding a park...
, the venue, with support from the MacArthur Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
, moved to a 9000 sq ft (836.1 m²) second floor space at 31 E. Balbo Ave. The venue had a large main room with booths and dance floor with a room for catered events and art shows and put on a varied and inclusive programme of music. Performers at the Hothouse included Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz instrumentalist and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb—if idiosyncratic—saxophonist." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past...
, Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
, Maria Rita
Maria Rita
Maria Rita |São Paulo]], Brazil) is the performance name of Maria Rita Mariano, a Brazilian singer. She is the daughter of famed pianist/arranger César Camargo Mariano and the late Brazilian singing legend Elis Regina and sister to Pedro Mariano and music producer João Marcelo Bôscoli. Her...
, Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill
Henry Threadgill is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. Threadgill came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres....
, Susie Ibarra
Susie Ibarra
Susie Ibarra is a Contemporary Composer and Percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and Indigenous musicians. She is known for her work as a performer in avant-garde, jazz, world and new music...
, Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou
Savina Yannatou is a renowned Greek singer.After taking classical guitar lessons and participating in the children's choir of Yannis Nousias for some years, she studied singing with Gogo Georgilopoulou and Spiros Sakkas in Athens, and later attended postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of...
, Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman
Dewey Redman was an American jazz saxophonist, known for performing free jazz as a bandleader, and with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett....
and Olu Dara
Olu Dara
Olu Dara Jones is an American cornetist, guitarist and singer.-History:...
.
The HotHouse was also a forum for social issues and would host a benefit or offer support on issues such as the rights of undocumented workers or hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. In 2006, founder and executive director, Horberg, was ousted by a contested maneuver of the minority of the not-for-profit board of the HotHouse, who voted to employ a financial director with Horberg as artistic director. Eight months later the venue closed after vacating its premises. The board who wrested control of the not-for-profit organization continued to use the name for a year after closing but no recent activity can be documented and by all indications the organization is defunct. Horberg and the other majority of board members who were ousted went on to create a new organization called portoluz.