On a quiet stretch of Simpson Street, two blocks west of Green Bay Road, an otherwise unobtrusive building sits adorned with the label “Hecky’s City Hall.” The illumination from the building offers up a scene untarnished by the dilapidated architecture or metal bars that are characteristic of this block.

For a year now, Hecky Powell, Evanston’s barbecue connoisseur, has been bringing soulful musicians to Hecky’s Jazz Club on Saturday nights to entertain fans seeking Chicago-style blues and New Orleans-quality jazz in Evanston.

“You can’t find a place like this in Evanston,” said Powell, whose club at 1623 Simpson St. attracts anywhere from 10 to 75 people on a given night. “Look where we’re at, in the basement. Talk about underground!”

Just like the recipes at Hecky’s BBQ, Powell’s love for this music comes from his parents’ New Orleans roots, he said.

His enthusiasm belies the hesitance Powell felt when approached by the building’s original owner and developer, Archie Simmons. In the 1960s, Powell’s father, Forrest E. Powell, managed what was then a private nightclub for black businessmen at the same location on Simpson Street. Simmons, who now lives in Arizona, asked Powell to reopen the club in November 2000.

“I told him, ‘I don’t want to be in the sit-down restaurant business, and I don’t want to be in the bar business’,” Powell said. But Simmons persisted.

“One night I was lying in bed and I thought, ‘My father and Archie made this thing gold,'” Powell said. “The least I can do is do something with it.”

Disenchantment with some of the blues bars in Chicago and a desire to bring good music to his native Evanston are what led Powell to reopen the club in February 2001, he said.

“A lot of people don’t want to spend the money for good music,” Powell said. Although Powell rarely charges for admission, he said he pays the entertainers “what they’re worth.”

“I’m not looking to make money out of (the club),” Powell said.