Jazz Clubs: The Lighthouse Cafe (California)

The Lighthouse Cafe (California)

The Lighthouse Café is a nightclub located at 30 Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, California. It has been active as a jazz showcase since 1949 and, under the name "The Lighthouse", was one of the central West Coast jazz clubs from the 1950s through the late 1970s.

Since the 1940's, The Lighthouse Cafe located on Pier Plaza in Hermosa Beach, has been a haven for musicians and music lovers alike. The venue first gained popularity with the world renown jazz jam group "The Lighthouse All-Stars" called the club home. For years SoCal residents swarmed to the South Bay to take part in the west coast jazz movement and to see the talents of greats such as Buddy Guy, Miles Davis, Howard Rumsey, Chet Baker, and Shorty Rodgers swing every Sunday afternoon for Jazz Brunch, a tradition that continues today.

Jazz Clubs: Baker's Keyboard Lounge (Detroit)

Baker's Keyboard Lounge

Baker's Keyboard Lounge located on 20510 Livernois Street in Detroit, Michigan, 48221, is the world's oldest operating jazz club, operating since May 1934.

Club History from Official Website:
It all began in May, 1934, when Chris Baker opened a beer and sandwich restaurant. His son Clarence Baker began to work for him at the age of 15. Five years later, Clarence took over the management of Baker's following his father's stroke in 1939. Baker's was located at the end of the bus line in a rural neighborhood, on Livernois at 8 mile, where cornfields were more common than houses. At that time he nor anyone knew that seven decades later it would claim to be the longest running jazz club anywhere in the world.

Jazz Clubs: Ronnie Scott's (London)

Jazz Clubs: Ronnie Scott's (London)


Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club which has operated in London since 1959.

The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was managed by musicians Ronnie Scott and Pete King. In 1965 it moved to a larger venue nearby at 47 Frith Street. The original venue continued in operation as the "Old Place" until the lease ran out in 1967, and was used for performances by the up-and-coming generation of musicians.

Jazz Clubs: Blue Note (New York)

Blue Note Jazz Club (New York)


~club's official website
Since its inception in 1981, Blue Note has become one of the premier jazz clubs in the world and a cultural institution in Greenwich Village. Owner and founder Danny Bensusan had a vision to create a jazz club in Greenwich Village that would treat deserving artists with respect, while allowing patrons to see the world's finest jazz musicians in a close, comfortable setting. Artists who had stopped playing in jazz clubs decades before, such as Sarah Vaughn, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, and Tito Puente, soon called Blue Note home.

Jazz is undoubtedly America's music, and while Blue Note strives to preserve the history of jazz, the club is a place where progression and innovation - the foundations of jazz - are encouraged and practiced on a nightly basis. In addition to the main acts that feature the likes of Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, and Chris Botti, Blue Note has introduced the Monday Night Series and the bi-weekly Late Night Groove Series to showcase New York's up-and-coming jazz, soul, hip-hop, R&B and funk artists. Blue Note has been instrumental in encouraging the development of Greenwich Village's local musicians by giving them a chance to perform in one of the world's finest venues. Currently, there are four Blue Notes located in Japan and one in Milan, Italy.

Jazz Clubs: The Concorde Club (UK)

The Concorde Club

The Concorde Club is an entertainment venue based in Eastleigh, near Southampton, Hampshire. Established in 1957 and set in a beautiful old school house the club boasts an excellent restaurant, wine bar and hotel. Originally set up as a jazz club it now offers a diverse entertainment programme including live music 6 nights a week.




Information ~wikipedia

The Concorde Club was launched in 1957 in Southampton by jazz aficionado Cole Mathieson, and is the oldest jazz club under the same management in the United Kingdom and possibly the world. Its standing in the UK jazz world has been recognised by the August 2009 award of the inaugural (Kind of) Blue Plaque, following a nationwide vote among jazz followers and musicians organised by the Brecon Jazz Festival. The award, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Miles Davis classic album Kind of Blue, is to honour the jazz establishment considered to have done most for the development of jazz in the United Kingdom.

Jazz Clubs: Birdland (New York City)

Birdland is a jazz club started in New York City on December 15, 1949. The original Birdland, which was located at 1678 Broadway, just north of West 52nd Street in Manhattan, was closed in 1965 due to increased rents, but it re-opened for one night in 1979. A revival began in 1986. ~wikipedia

Visitor Info ~birdlandjazz.com
Birdland is located at 315 West 44th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues on the west side of midtown Manhattan.


History ~birdlandjazz.com
Ever since most of Chicago’s top musicians moved to New York in the mid-to-late 1920s, New York City has been the Jazz Mecca. Nearly every major jazz style of the past seventy years has been initiated in the Big Apple.

It was Charlie Parker, familiarly known to his fans and fellow musicians as “Bird,” a contraction of Yardbird, his formal nickname, who was the dynamic creative personality and genius of the alto saxophone who served as the inspiration for Birdland.