“The aptly named Chicago Jazz Partnership has funneled approximately $1.5 million in cash (and nearly as much in in-kind contributions, such as production costs and musician airfares) into a music that’s internationally identified with this city. Granted, that may not seem like a lot of money when compared with the funding of institutions such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But it’s huge in jazz, a music that somehow has flourished for most of a century on nightclub cover charges and bar tabs, but with scant institutional support.”