Tag Archives: #BlackCultureMatters

Jazz Landmarks

Linton’s Restaurant

Linton’s was a 24-hour diner located on the “Golden Strip.” After their gigs, jazz musicians would hang out here, hold jam sessions to hone their craft, and exchange ideas. In an interview with All About Jazz, Jymie Merritt recalled:

AAJ: That sounds like great fun and very productive at the same time. Another general location at around the same time, as I understand it, was on Columbia Avenue [now Cecil B. Moore Boulevard- eds.] in North Philadelphia near Temple University. There was a restaurant called Linton’s.

JM: Oh, yeah. Right on Broad Street off Columbia Avenue.

AAJ: Yes, exactly. And were you involved with the guys who used to gather there?

JM: Yeah. I used to eat there. And when we’d finish eating, we’d leave a tip. And then Philly Joe [Jones] would go around and collect the money for himself as we went out the door. [laughter]

AAJ: So he’d keep the tips!

JM: He was really ingenious.

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Jazz Landmarks

Irvine Auditorium

From Wikipedia:

Irvine Auditorium is a performance venue at 3401 Spruce Street on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by the firm of prominent architect Horace Trumbauer and built 1926–1932.[1] Irvine Auditorium is notable for its nearly 11,000-pipe Curtis Organ, the world’s 22nd-largest pipe organ (by ranks),[2] originally built for the Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 and donated to the university in 1928. The building was opened in May, 1929.

The 1987 Mellon Jazz Festival was dedicated to the Heath Brothers who performed in the auditorium on June 25, 1987.

irvine-auditorium-exterior-e1425510516831

Jazz Landmarks

Arts Bank

The Arts Bank is a historic bank building owned by the University of the Arts. The building houses a 230-seat main stage and the Laurie Beechman Cabaret Theater on the first floor. It has played host to a number of jazz greats including organist Shirley Scott and saxophonist Tim Warfield.

Jazz Landmarks

21 Key Club

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A private late-night club, it was a favorite hangout of Del Shields, Billboard jazz editor and host of “Modern Music” on WDAS-FM.

21 Key Club - Del Shields

Johnny Hartman performed here.

Jazz Venues

Dowling’s Palace

A North Philly mainstay, Dowling’s Palace hosted weekly jam sessions with Lucky Thompson and the Budesa Brothers. Now closed, Dowling’s Palace will reopen in the Hotel Indigo planned for the repurposed Blue Horizon.

Stacey Dowling shared:

Hotel Indigo at The Blue will be reborn as one of Philly’s premier cultural destinations. Whether it’s an overnight stay, oldies but goodies, live jazz, blues or poetry, The Blue will again be where it happens.

For updates, check out Mosaic Development Partners.

Jazz Venues

Relish

Relish celebrates both the traditional and contemporary cuisine of the South and jazz, America’s original art form.

The interior is warm and inviting with textures and fabrics that dance in soft contrast and complement. Located on Ogontz Avenue in the heart of commerce in West Oak Lane, Relish is the gateway to stylish dining, arts, culture and lifestyle.

Relish has live jazz on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Master vocalist Sherry Wilson Butler is a regular. Check the music schedule here.

Jazz Venues

Top Shelf Lounge

The Top Shelf Lounge features live jazz every Saturday and Sunday, 5:00pm to 9:00pm. For more information, call 215-748-4245.

Jazz Venues

TnT Monroe’s

Located on 15th and Arch streets in Center City, the jazz spot was owned by Tommy “TnT” Monroe.

tnt-owner-mr-tommy-tnt-monroe-85

A bandleader, Monroe was part of the Philadelphia ecosystem that nurtured young musicians like Lee Morgan and Reggie Workman. In Jeffrey S. McMillan’s paper, “A Musical Education: Lee Morgan and the Philadelphia Jazz Scene of the 1950’s,” Workman recounted:

There was a very healthy music scene in the community taverns at the time, aside from the fact that there were people like Tommy Monroe who ran music workshops for young musicians, or Owen Marshall’s big band workshop with new music he wrote and that rehearsed in living rooms, taverns, ballrooms, any place that had a piano and chairs and where we could make music.

The house band at TnT Monroe’s included Sid Simmons, Charles Fambrough and Craig McIver. Tenor saxophonist Bootsie Barnes (pictured) ran the jam sessions.

TNT Monroe's - Bootsie Barnes

Jazz Venues

Second Office Club

Formerly the Moonglow, owners Ernie and Evelyn Harris renamed it the Second Office because “it was a visited by Center City office workers after five-thirty.”

Dizzy Gillespie’s favorite drummer, Philly native Mickey Roker, played here.  In 1980, the jazz spot hosted a luncheon for then-First Lady Rosalind Carter.

Second Office Club