Tag Archives: Music City

Advocacy, Lee Morgan

Lee Morgan Historical Marker Approved

The Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission approved the nomination of jazz trumpeter, composer and activist Lee Morgan for a historical marker.

Lee will join John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, and his union, Union Local 274 of the American Federation of Musicians, with a historical marker in Philadelphia.

The blue-and-gold marker will be installed in front of the former location of Music City where as a high school student Lee participated in instructional clinics and Tuesday night jam sessions with jazz luminaries, including Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Buddy Rich, Art Blakey and Miles Davis.

On June 26, 1956, trumpeter Clifford Brown left from Music City for a gig in Chicago. Brownie, along with pianist Richie Powell and Powell’s wife, Nancy, were killed in a car crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

There has been an outpouring of interest in attending the unveiling (Date TBD). The date and time of the dedication ceremony will be announced at least 60 days in advance. We will send a monthly update to registered guests.

The dedication ceremony will be followed by a reception at which a special announcement will be made. Please make a donation of $50.00 to help defray expenses.

Donations of $500.00 will be listed as Community Sponsors on social media and All That Philly Jazz.

If you are unable to attend the reception but would like to support efforts to preserve Lee Morgan’s legacy in public memory, please make a donation.

Please click on the image to make a donation with PayPal, debit or credit card. Thank you!

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage, Green Book, Historic Preservation, John Coltrane House

Mapping Philadelphia’s Jazz History

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All That Philly Jazz was launched in March 2015. A place-based public history project, we have mapped Philadelphia’s lost jazz shrines from A to Z, from the Aqua Lounge to Zanzibar Blue.

All That Philly Jazz Wordle

I was recently interviewed on National Public Radio’s newsmagazine, “Here & Now.” The interview touched on the legacy of McCoy Tyner, Philadelphia’s jazz ecosystem that nurtured young musicians and exposed them to jazz musicians (here and here), and the campaign to save the John Coltrane House, a National Historic Landmark.

Faye Anderson - NPR's Here & Now - March 9, 2020

The podcast is available here.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Preservation, Jazz Landmarks

E.U. Wurlitzer Music Store

E.U. Wurlitzer was a musical instrument store located in the Watkins Building in Center City.

Wurlitzer_s Music Store4

During an appearance on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1973, Philly native Bill Cosby recounts buying a drum set and taking lessons at Wurlitzer’s. The erstwhile drummer provides a snapshot of the jazz scene back in the day.

Advocacy, Blog, Cultural Heritage Preservation

2018 DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

Trumpeter Clifford Brown was 25 when he died in a car crash in 1956. His last performance was at Philadelphia’s famed Music City.

Clifford Brown Live at Music City

Although his life was cut short, Brown left an indelible impact. There are 334 versions of Philly native and NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson’s composition, “I Remember Clifford.”

Since 1988, his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, has held the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. It’s the largest free jazz festival on the East Coast. This year’s lineup includes Marcus Miller, Brian McKnight and Arturo Sandoval.

30th Anniversary Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

From 1953 to 1956, comedian and television pioneer Soupy Sales hosted a late-night television show in Detroit, “Soupy’s On.”

Soupy's On

A jazz head, Soupy’s guests included jazz giants like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Gerry Mulligan, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. The only extant footage of Clifford Brown is from his 1956 appearance on the show.

For info about the DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, click here.

Blog, Main Channel

Benny, Brownie and Dizzy

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On June 26, 1956, legendary trumpet player Clifford “Brownie” Brown had just left performing at Music City in Center City when he was killed in a car accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. He was only 25.

In tribute to his friend, Philly native and NEA Jazz Master Benny Golson composed “I Remember Clifford.” In an episode of Jazz Stories by Jazz at Lincoln Center, Golson recounted how Dizzy Gillespie became the first person to hear his tribute to Brownie:

I decided I would try to write a song that would be reminiscent of Clifford. And during those days, I could write a song in one day. You know, just a half-hour or so—might not have been that great though. But this tune, because of what he meant to me as a friend and fellow musician and what I wanted the song to be, consequentially, it took me almost a whole two weeks to do it. And once I did it, I wasn’t sure what I had.

So Dizzy came in early one night and I had come with my uniform that afternoon knowing that I wouldn’t be going back to the hotel. So since he was there, I decided to ask him what he thought about it. Chairs were still up on the tables, they hadn’t really prepared, but somehow he came early. So I asked him did he have a moment to listen because I wanted him to hear something. And he said, “Okay.”

He came over and sat down at the table and I started to play this tune and he said, “Hmm…” And then he started to take his trumpet out of the case and I thought to myself, “The man doesn’t even know the tune and he’s going to try to play it!” But he fooled me.

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