Jazzhouse in Hamburg going the way of the Dodo.

[Hardbopjazz]

I was searching the net and came across a post from a jazz fan from Germany. He wrote that this year, 2005, the Jazzhouse in Hamberg will be knocked down.

What other jazz clubs remain in Europe? Are they on the way out too, or are they safe?

Edited February 13, 2005 by Hardbopjazz

[mikeweil]

The gap opens up wider every week: On one side, small clubs barely maintaining themselves paying very small fees so that only amateurs play there, on the other side more and more concert-style performances with increasing entrance fees. The typical jazz club we used to have twenty years ago or earlier has practically vanished or has become unattractive, like the Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, which is small, unbearably smokey and asks for admission prices like the concert halls whenever some US jazz star guests there.

[mikeweil]

The model that seems to work is concert promoters booking a club for a few dates a month to present the artists on tour, in clubs that present a variety of music.

A local promoter does that and fills the house in a town nearby with musicians from the US and Europe. I go there about four times each year.

http://www.jazzmap.de

[cannonball-addict]

Very interesting insights, Mike. This is totally not what I thought was going on!

[Hardbopjazz]

Same here. I had no idea this was what's happening.

[slide_advantage_redoux]

Mike

Is this Jazzkeller still owned by Albert Mangelsdorff? I remember hanging out there in the 80's and getting to practice with him in the afternoon.

Unbearably smoky...agreed. Just like the Unterfahrt in Munich. Still, I love those places. Something about the ambiance that is hard to match.

Edited February 14, 2005 by slide_advantage_redoux

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

the Jazzkeller in Frankfurt, which is small, unbearably smokey and asks for admission prices like the concert halls whenever some US jazz star guests there.

I'm sure, as you say, that they gouge you when certain folks show up......but $20 to see Herb Geller seems reasonable....and is probably a good bit less than what we'll shell out for Wallace Roney/Geri Allen tix next month at Blues Alley here in D.C. Hmmmmm......$60 for Eartha Kitt tix anyone?

http://www.jazzkeller.com/programm/nextmonth.htm

[JSngry]

Hmmmmm......$60 for Eartha Kitt tix anyone?

C'Est Si BONED!

[Jim Alfredson]

Hmmmmm......$60 for Eartha Kitt tix anyone? 

C'Est Si BONED!

[brownie]

Not sure this is really good news. About London's Ronnie Scott club.

From The Telegraph today:

 

Saviour of Old Vic to jazz up Ronnie Scott's Soho nightclub

By Hugh Davies

(Filed: 15/02/2005)

Britain's leading female impresario, Sally Greene, who saved the Old Vic, has another national treasure in her portfolio, the modern jazz club founded 45 years ago by the saxophonist Ronnie Scott.

Despite the odds - Scott once observed that the way to make £1 million out of jazz was to start with £2 million - Miss Greene has become a partner in the nightspot, using her extensive network of contacts, including Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey, to breathe new life into the enterprise.

"I like to call the shots," she said, sitting at a table in the club below pictures of alumni Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson and Coleman Hawkins.

She is the new business partner of Pete King, the co-founder of the club, who has been in sole charge since Scott's death eight years ago.

The club earned a reputation for its late-night sessions. Jimi Hendrix played with Eric Burdon's band War on the night before his death, and the bassist Charles Mingus once arrived on stage waving a brown envelope and roaring: "I've got a letter from your Queen." It was a tax demand for a previous visit to Britain. Chris Blackwell, of Island Records, rescued Ronnie Scott's in the 1980s after the club had been handed its own massive tax demand.

However, jazz audiences have changed from the days when fans would stay up all night, revelling in Scott's droll asides as he warned them to beware of the food, or quipped: "I love this place, it's just like home: filthy and full of strangers."

With stiff competition in London's Soho, the club needs a new direction.

Miss Greene, who is married to the millionaire property developer Robert Bourne, says a decent menu is on the way - she owns the Cheyne Walk Brasserie.

She has written to her friend Mr Clinton, wondering if he might drop in to play the sax. The former president has yet to agree, although he left her a message last weekend saying: "You've got to be strong, girl."

The reference was to their shared illnesses. He is recovering from heart surgery: she, too, has survived a life-threatening condition, which she will not reveal.

Miss Greene is planning to ask Jamie Foxx, who has just won a Best Actor Bafta for his starring role in the movie Ray, about Ray Charles, to sing from the soundtrack.

Few doubt that Miss Greene will succeed. She is, after all, the dynamic blonde who got Elton John to write the music for all 19 songs in Billy Elliot - The Musical, which is due to open in the West End in May.

They met at the Cannes premiere of Billy Elliot. "By the end of the film, everybody was very emotional. We were all crying. The one who was crying the most was Elton.

"We all had this conversation. Could this be a musical? I was adamant that it could. Stephen [Daldry, who made the film] said he would direct it. Elton said: 'If you ask me, I might write the music'."

She famously lured Kevin Spacey to act and direct at the Old Vic, of which she is the chief executive, and then persuaded the actor, a fervent jazz fan, to accompany her to her meeting with Mr King. Recalling her first conversation with Spacey, Miss Greene said that she laid it on thick about the Old Vic's history. "Look,' I said, 'you've got to help me.' He replied: 'Sweetie, I'm there for you'."

With Mr King, she said: "Kevin and I met him at a hotel in Leicester Square, and we just got on very well. I think Pete feels he didn't want a big company to take us over."

After club dates featuring jazzmen such as Clint Eastwood's son Kyle, Spacey might be persuaded to perform numbers by Bobby Darin such as Splish Splash and Beyond The Sea, as he did with an orchestra and two backing singers at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas.

Mr King, 76, said: "I come out of the East End and am very much down on the ground. Sally came along, and I had a gut feeling she was right for us. I also get on well with Kevin.

"We've had a lot of luck, and much hard work and many tears have gone into the club over the years."

Since her illness, Miss Greene believes "I must make the most of each day". She has just booked Sharon Osbourne, who recently fought cancer, for her production of The Vagina Monologues.

 

[sidewinder]

Bill Clinton on the stage at Ronnies? Mr Scott would be rolling in his grave..

By the way, some of the best music ever at the club must have been played around the time they almost went bankrupt and Chris Blackwell bailed them out. Those were the days when, as a student, you could get a seat at the front near the piano for a stonking £1 a night ! I remember paying that to see Woody Shaw two nights in succession.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Unbearably smoky...agreed. Just like the Unterfahrt in Munich. Still, I love those places. Something about the ambiance that is hard to match.

Question: What clubs in the U.S. still have that vintage smoky ambiance/feel? Not that I want to set myself up for a series of lectures about the negatives of smoke from the perspective of the musician or patron.....but I actually like that kind of environment.....and it sure ain't Blues Alley, Jazz Standard, Birdland, etc.. Where, other than the JazzKeller in Frankfurt, is the smoke-filled 50's club?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

The (unlicensed) Blue Note Club in Taipei is the smokiest hole-in-the-wall throwback club you ever want to visit. I believe it's still there at 4th Floor No. 171, Section 3, Roosevelt Rd.

Is Jazzclub Unterfahrt still in business in Munich? They used to be mal Waldron's regular hang... sadly, I missed him every time I went by a few days. If they're still in business, I imagine they are also pretty smoky. Their old website doesn't seem to work anymore. I'd be very sad if that place was dead even though I doubt I'll ever get another chance to go to Munich.

Later,

Kevin

Edit: Ah, I found it: http://www.unterfahrt.de/. They have Chris Speed playing there this week.

Edited February 15, 2005 by Kevin Bresnahan

[maren]

Unbearably smoky...agreed. Just like the Unterfahrt in Munich. Still, I love those places. Something about the ambiance that is hard to match.

Question: What clubs in the U.S. still have that vintage smoky ambiance/feel? Not that I want to set myself up for a series of lectures about the negatives of smoke from the perspective of the musician or patron.....but I actually like that kind of environment.....and it sure ain't Blues Alley, Jazz Standard, Birdland, etc.. Where, other than the JazzKeller in Frankfurt, is the smoke-filled 50's club?

Well, thanks to Mr. Bloomberg, you can't smoke indoors in NYC anymore (except for a few tobacconers', like Nat Sherman's on 42nd and 5th, and secret "smoke-easies" that AFAIK don't have live music) but...

the Village Vanguard still FEELS like a smoke-filled club, and probably still smells like it to non-smokers whose olfactory sense is still acute!!!

[ejp626]

Most shows at the Green Mill in Chicago are in a smoke-friendly environment. When Patricia Barber plays there, they have a no smoking policy. This is kind of off the beaten path but it is a club with a lot of history (one of Capone's favorite joints according to local lore). I've seen Greg Osby there a couple of times and Von Freeman and Ed Peterson.

Most of the time, half the room at Hothouse is for smokers.

I really don't know about the Empty Bottle or the Velvet Lounge, but I suspect they allow smoking for now.

Chicago may yet pass a no smoking in restaurants/bars law, which frankly I would like, but that's another story. It really is up to Daley and his whims. Some days he supports it, then he changes his mind.