Bill Reinhardt

Traditional jazz clarinetist and owner of the renowned Dixieland club Jazz Ltd. (in Chicago, IL), Bill Reinhardt began the planning stages of his club after completing a term with the Navy in 1945. He and his wife, former Broadway chorus girl Ruth Sato (who had worked with such big names as Fred Astaire and Milton Berle), opened the club on June 11, 1947, and although they originally planned for its locale to be temporary since it only held 85 patrons, Jazz Ltd.'s immediate success kept it a permanent location. Reinhardt once estimated that the club hired over 700 musicians to perform, including Sidney Bechet, Muggsy Spanier, Doc Evans, Miff Mole, Art Hodes, Don Ewell, Wally Gordon, Sid Thall, Munn Ware, Barrett Deems, Albert Nicholas, Jim Beebe, amongst many others. Sessions were also recorded at the club, as Jazz Ltd. also doubled as a record label during the late '40s. In 1994, the compilation Jazz Ltd., Vol. 1 was released by Delmark, featuring classic sessions from 1947, 1949, and 1951. On January 23, 2001, Reinhardt passed away in San Diego, CA.