Category Archives: Jazz Venues

Cultural Heritage Preservation, Jazz Venues

Jack’s Rathskeller

June 21, 2016 Faye Anderson

Jack’s Rathskeller was located in South Philly. In her autobiography, His Eye is on the Sparrow, Ethel Waters recounted a watershed event in her life that occurred on Halloween Night 1917:

I sneaked into the back room of Jack’s Rathskeller, where there was a big Halloween party going on. Jack’s was on the corner of South and Juniper streets. No one under twenty-one was supposed to be allowed in Philadelphia saloons. …

Youngsters representing the wards all over Philadelphia were supposed to complete in entertaining at that party. I was living in the old Seventh Ward. The girl who was supposed to perform for our district never showed up, and somebody at my table yelled:

“Chippie sings! Come on, Chippie, sing for the old Seventh.”

I was Chippie.

[…]

And that night at Jack’s, Chippie Waters got up and sang tearful ballad, “When You’re a Long, Long Way from Home.” The crowd liked my rich, young voice, and I had to give two or three encores.

Among the professionals there were Braxton and Nugent, who had a small vaudeville unit. They said that if I would work on the stage with them they could get me ten dollars a week.

And the rest is history. By the way, residents of the 7th Ward were the subject of W.E.B. DuBois’ landmark sociological study, The Philadelphia Negro.

Green Book, Jazz Venues, Lee Morgan

June 20, 2016 Faye Anderson 13 Comments

The legendary Showboat was located in the basement of the Douglass Hotel. Pianist Sam Dockery led the house band. The historical marker out front notes that Billie Holiday “often lived here.”

The Showboat opened in the mid-1940s. Herb Keller bought the club and hotel in 1950. He sold both to Herb Spivak in 1964. Spivak renamed the jazz spot the “Showboat Jazz Theatr” (purposely leaving off the “e”).

All That Philly Jazz Director Faye Anderson interviewed Spivak on International Jazz Day 2019.

The Showboat was compact. Spivak more than tripled the seating capacity from 100 to 320. The small bandstand was behind the bar. The Showboat played host to jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Bootsie Barnes, Philly Joe Jones, Thelonious Monk, Aretha Franklin, Dinah Washington and Ramsey Lewis.

On June 17, 1963, John Coltrane Quartet recorded “Live at the Showboat” featuring Coltrane (sax) McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums).

Jazz Venues

Cadillac Club

April 25, 2016 Faye Anderson 4 Comments

The Cadillac Club was located in North Philly. Owned by Benjamin and Ruth Bynum, the jazz spot played host to legends-in-the-making, including George Benson, Aretha Franklin and Billy Paul.

From Wikipedia:

[Billy] Paul recalled: “[The Cadillac] was a famous, famous club. Aretha Franklin worked there. Me and George Benson used to work there all the time.” Located at 3738 Germantown Ave. in North Philadelphia, the Cadillac opened in 1965 and was run by Benjamin and Ruth Bynum before becoming the Impulse Discothèque in 1977. Benjamin booked the entertainers, Ruth handled the finances, and their two young sons Robert and Benjamin Jr. worked at the club. Benjamin Jr., who with his brother followed in their parents’ footsteps and ran their own jazz club Zanzibar Blue [and here] from 1990-2007.

Jazz Venues

Barney Gordon’s Saloon

February 3, 2016 Faye Anderson

Barney Gordon’s was located in South Philly. In her autobiography, Philadelphia Walk of Famer Ethel Waters wrote:

Barney hired me, and after I’d sung two nights at his place he offered me a steady job at fifteen dollars a week. I sang there six nights a week and on Thursday afternoons. Servant girls and houseworkers had that afternoon off, and they’d come to Barney Gordon’s to drink and relax. We called them “the Thursday girls.”

[…]

Barney Gordon’s saloon was on the ground floor. We entertained, though, in a big room upstairs where the customers sat at tables. There was only a two-piece band. Toots Moore, the drummer, and a piano player who could play only in two keys.

Ethel Waters’ autobiography, His Eye is on the Sparrow, is available at Amazon.com.

Jazz Venues

Little Rathskeller

February 3, 2016 Faye Anderson

Kaliner’s Little Rathskeller was popular in the 1940s. The Ink Spots were a club favorite.

In 1993, former press agent Sam Bushman recalled:

The Ink Spots were just starting. Their record “If I Didn’t Care” made them superstars overnight. But they were committed to come back to the Rathskeller several times more at their old price.

Little Rathskeller was located at the corner of Broad and Spruce.

Jazz Venues

Pep’s Musical Bar

January 11, 2016 Faye Anderson 3 Comments

Pep Restaurant opened in the 1930s. Pep’s Musical Bar opened in 1951 under the ownership of William “Bill” Gerson. Jack Goldenberg purchased Pep’s in 1957.

Pep’s was one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated jazz clubs. Goldenberg brought in national jazz, blues, R&B and soul greats, including Jimmy Rushing, Quincy Jones, Dinah Washington and Yusef Lateef.

Philly favorite John Coltrane frequently performed at Pep’s, including on September 18, 1964.

G. Bruce Boyer, a journalist and former editor for Town & Country, shared the night he saw Nina Simone at the club:

I remember seeing the great pianist-chanteuse Nina Simone at Pep’s Showbar at the corner of Broad and South Streets in South Philly in the early 60s. At that point the club had already been one of the great East Coast haunts for jazz performers and aficionados for two decades or more. Nat King Cole had played there, and so had Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Lester Young and Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Thelonious Monk, and Jimmy Smith. Going to Pep’s was a jazz pilgrimage.

[…]

She was an incomparable artist and played much of that wonderful mix of music at her Pep’s engagement. Starting off with an extended version of the great blues “Trouble in Mind”, followed by a stirring, elegiac jazz/classical version of “You’d be so Nice to Come Home to.” Then some Ellington and more blues. The audience knew it would all lead up to “Porgy” for a grand finale.

About a half hour or so into the show she had gently just begun to swing into “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, when she suddenly stopped playing. Just stopped, her high-coiffed head bent over the keys and the sidemen trailing off. The place got quieter and quieter ’til you couldn’t even hear an ice cube clink in a glass; there was complete silence … except for two thugs at a table in the corner who had been talking. Another 30 seconds in that vacuum and they looked up too, and found Miss Simone glaring straight at them.

Jazz Venues

Rave Musical Bar

December 29, 2015 Faye Anderson

The Rave Musical Bar was located on the “Golden Strip.” According to The John Coltrane Reference, John Coltrane did a couple of gigs here with Daisy Mae and Her Hepcats in 1956.