It’s the second Thursday of the month, and the sun has just begun to set. Dempster Street is seemingly quiet — with the exception of one coffee shop.

Even at dinnertime, Evanston Pour is packed. Soaring above the buzz of conversations, jazz music pours from a quintet performing in one of the space’s corners.

These five men make up the Chicago Jazz Dads, a local music group that plays at Evanston Pour from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of every month.

Although they’re all dads, the group’s name isn’t entirely accurate, as all but one live in Evanston, not Chicago. The four others live within a mile of Evanston Pour, where they began performing over two years ago, vocalist Gordon Wright said.

“One of the uniting elements of this band is that none of us want to drop it,” guitarist David Williams said. “We love jazz so much. We really can’t imagine our lives without it.”

Composing the band

Williams said he met Wright in February 2020 on the playground of Dewey Elementary School, where both their kids attended at the time.

Williams said they bonded over their connections to Austin, Texas — where Wright grew up and Williams attended graduate school — and their shared love for jazz.

Wright said he had been a member of a pop-rock band in his twenties. Upon learning about his musical background, Williams invited him to join a performance at his mother’s nursing home.

A couple of weeks later, the gig was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Nonetheless, the two began playing routinely on Williams’ porch, even recording and uploading some performances online.

“We were all going a little crazy during the pandemic, looking for ways to kind of break up the monotony and have a little fun,” Williams said. “Making music seemed like one of the healthier options available.”

Once the lockdown ended, the duo moved beyond YouTube to live performances. They soon also grew as a group.

Williams had previously played with drummer and fellow University of Texas at Austin alumnus Jonathan Singer. Once Williams and Wright started to perform gigs in-person, Singer said the guitarist invited him to join.

By chance, Singer also knew Wright, whom he’d met years prior at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue during a playdate for their children.

Still, Wright said the group had difficulty finding a bass player.

That changed after a 45-minute car ride, when Wright carpooled with bassist Eric Perney to a rehearsal for another musical group. They hadn’t met before, but Perney said he learned he’d attended high school with Wright’s wife.

The following week, Perney accepted an invitation to join Wright’s gig with Singer and Williams. He said he hadn’t played since moving from the Bay Area back to his hometown of Evanston during the pandemic, but said Wright encouraged him to start playing music again.

“It was like this instantaneous connection that was like, ‘Oh, this is what I should be doing,’” Perney said.

Saxophonist Leo Kawczinski completed the quintet in summer 2023. What started as a guest appearance quickly turned into him joining the group permanently. 

Practice doesn’t always make perfect

Over the past two years, the band has only rehearsed once. After all, Williams said, most jazz is “making it up as you go along.”

There’s also a practical reason.

Besides being dads, the five work other jobs. Singer and Williams are both professors at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University, respectively. Wright, a communications executive, said Singer’s packed schedule has led him to come to many shows directly from the airport.

All five members played music in their youth or college but stopped to pursue their respective careers. Wright said the limitations of their packed schedules make the consistent gigs at Evanston Pour special.

“We set music aside long enough that we’ve really started to appreciate how much we’ve missed it,” Williams said. “I think we’ve come back with an attitude that we’re not taking it for granted. We’re going to absolutely milk this for all the enjoyment that we can.”

Plus, many of their audiences don’t necessarily attend to merely listen to jazz, Wright said.

He said the group’s lack of rehearsals results in unconventional performances that both surprise and appeal to a range of people.

“I do feel like we’re helping spread a gospel,” Wright said. “(The audience is) getting more adventurous jazz than I think they bargained for, but we do it in a way that is very welcoming. You don’t need to know the rules of jazz to enjoy it.”

Playing for the masses

Evanston Pour is not your standard jazz venue. The shop does not allow laptop usage at tables, so some people play board games while others work at the bar. The audience ranges from the elderly to toddlers, including the dads’ own children.

“Pretty much everybody’s kids have wandered (onstage) at some point or another,” Kawczinski said.

Although the set contains familiar songs like Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” the band doesn’t shy away from tunes the audience might find unfamiliar.

Singer said playing songs from artists like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea prevents the band from turning into background music.

“It becomes what jazz really has been for decades, which is music you have to pay attention to,” Singer said.

Jazzed for what’s ahead

Following two upcoming shows at Evanston Pour, the quintet is slated to play sets at the Wilmette Public Library in June and at the Evanston Farmers’ Market in July, according to the band’s website.

Wright said expanding to different cities was a factor in the group changing its name from Evanston Jazz Dads to its current iteration. He said Chicago’s jazz legacy broadens the band’s marketability.

“This is insane, but it is literally because I think we could probably get gigs in Europe,” Wright said.

Every Chicago Jazz Dads show closes with “You and the Night and the Music” from the 1934 Broadway show “Revenge with Music.”

By then, the sky outside is dark. Evanston Pour remains full, and the five dads linger to converse with the audience as their kids take their places onstage.

“What I enjoy so much is the look of delight and surprise that people have, of ‘I didn’t know I was gonna have so much fun at (Evanston) Pour tonight,’” Wright said. “I hope we can do this for many decades.”

Clarification: This story has been updated to better represent the band members’ careers and how they joined the band.

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