Living in Chicago without visiting at least one of the city's legendary blues or jazz haunts is like living in California and neglecting the beach. The South Side's New Apartment Lounge offers that kind of authentic Chicago experience that reaffirms your choice to live in this city instead of any other. Sure there are a handful of jazz clubs satiating your thirst for an evening of Cabernet, moaning sax and even the occasional spoken poetry fest. However, an evening at the Green Mill strays far from a night of traveling to the South Side to Von Freeman's Tuesday night stomping grounds.

Arrive around 9:30 p.m. and you're likely to be one of three customers sitting around the lounge's curving water-blue-colored bar, peering around at the wall of voluptuous mirrors and Christmas lights, wondering where to settle to get the best view in the house of the evening's musical performance. On any given Tuesday night, after a crowd of sharply dressed regulars, men decked out in full suits and fedoras, and a straggling crowd of University of Chicago students and professors arrive, the still-going-strong octogenarian, Von Freeman, warms the room with several sets of mad sax playing, accompanied by an extraordinarily talented drummer, bassist and guitarist. Stay long enough (until about 1 a.m.) and you might even witness Freeman invite amateur musicians up to the stage to take the place of his resident band members.

While you won't pay a cover, expect to buy at least two drinks (a small price to pay for this intimate concert).

Centerstage Reviewer: Jessica Herman