Harlem nightclub The Red Rooster

[Soul Stream]

Can anybody tell me anything about this club? Supposedly it was in Harlem on 7th Avenue and was a big jazz spot.

[Christiern]

The only Red Rooster I know of in Harlem was a little bar (two steps down, bar on the right) that I used to go to in the 1960s. It was a favorite hangout for a number of well known Harlemites, including Adam Clayton Powell. I don't recall hearing jazz played there, except on the jukebox, so there may well have been another Red Rooster at another time.

[fasstrack]

I think I played there once in the 80s, if it was still around. I know I played in a joint called the Three Eyed Shrimp, with some people from the Jazz Cultural Theater (a Barry Harris operated and part-owned place of pedagogy and performance. A lot of pros played there and we were the kids hanging and learning. We had gigs there too, all courtesy of Barry's generosity. This gig at the Shrimp was courtesy of Barry's friend and JCT mainstay, Richard Wilkerson). Kim Clarke, myself, Roy Haynes' son Greg (he used to play drums) and a guy named Haji Akbar on trumpet. We were kids (well, 20-somethings, anyway). We backed Al Hibbler on "Unchained Melody" and no one knew it. It was pitiful. Ah, memories! I also played a jam session at La Famille. I definitely remember that. Also one gig at the then new Small's Paradise with a singer. All the same period, '83-'85.

But this Red Rooster sounds very familiar and I either played there or was in there.

Edited June 25, 2006 by fasstrack

[robviti]

in a ben ratlif article for the ny times from 1997 called syncopated homecoming: jazz swings back uptown, bassist mickey bass mentions the red rooster as one of several jazz spots in harlem in the 1960s. it's also mentioned in a "jazz poem" called yesterday written by someone going by the name peter rabbit. sorry, but i couldn't find any real details about the club. interestingly, mccoy tyner talks about a gig he had playing in cal massey's band when he was only 17. they were playing a popular nightclub in philly, also called the red rooster, and that's where mccoy said he first met coltrane.

[Soul Stream]

Supposedly it was uptown on 7th Avenue. A lot of the NY Giants supposedly hung there in the 80's. It might have been an organ room or at least had a house organ in it. John Patton played there in the mid 80's.

Edited June 25, 2006 by Soul Stream