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.

In the late thirties, Clarence had installed himself as entertainment director, and began booking solo pianist into Baker's. Suddenly, there were lines outside the door. What began as a neighborhood spot serving steaks and chops, now, was a little jazz club.

The main attraction up until 1954 was local pianist Pat Flowers, who was so popular that Clarence no longer served food as the principal means of support, he provided entertainment nightly. The room was enlarged, and Pat had Clarence change the name to Baker's Keyboard Lounge. By the fifties Baker was booking jazz trios and quartets, such as Fats Waller, Meade Lux, Errol Garner, Art Tatum, Tommy Flanagan, and George Shearing.

During this period, Baker's Keyboard Lounge had become a main link in the American jazz circuit. As a result, the respectful and always swinging atmosphere was centered around the 7-foot Steinway piano that Art Tatum picked out in New York and had shipped to the club. Next he turned his little club into an acoustic jewel. He installed Italian tile which had the highest acoustic rating in the world, the walls were lined with flannel and artist Harry Carew painted murals around the walls. In 1957 the club's trademark was the piano shaped bar with mock piano keys swirling around its edges was installed.

The fifties thru the seventies proved to be the clubs golden era. Everyone who was anyone in the world of jazz; the young Dave Brubeck, the man who turned jazz upside down, John Coltrane; the era's premier pianist, Oscar Peterson. There was Krupa and Corea, Calloway and Betty Carter. There was Gerry Mulligan and Sonny Stitt and Kenny Burrell, Barry Harris, Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh, Pepper Adams. In short we had the finest musicians in the world.

The names goes on, especially the local musicians who symbolize the impressive array of extraordinary musicians who played at Baker's. Equally as exciting as the jam sessions, have been the unexpected surprises. Like the night Nat King Cole came to the club and sat in on the piano; or the time Ella Fitzgerald stopped in to see Tommy Flanagan and stayed to sing. Or the time when Liberace came in to see the famous keyboard shaped bar and rushed home to his Beverly Hills Mansion to install a piano-shaped pool in his back yard.

But nothing lasts forever; Clarence tried to get out of the business several times from 1973-1996 because of health problems. Then finally in 1996 he sold the club to John Colbert and Juanita Jackson. The club still maintains its intimate setting, great acoustic sound, and hipster vibe that have made it a favorite for jazz aficionados for 72 years. Baker's still takes an active interest in national and international artists as well as many Detroiters who make performing at baker's a rite of passage for eventually moving abroad.

John and Juanita attribute the keys to their success for continuing the great legacy of jazz at Baker's to the high performance standard made by the local jazz artists and the operation of the kitchen once again from an absence of more than fifty years.

So if you like traditional jazz, great atmosphere or if you enjoy just stepping into history, Baker's Keyboard Lounge is an experience you won't want to miss.

Notable performers and performances:
Many famous musicians, especially jazz musicians, have played in the club during its history, such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Fats Waller, Meade Lux, Errol Garner, Art Tatum, Tommy Flanagan, Pat Flowers, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Flanagan, George Shearing, Cab Calloway, Betty Carter, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Burrell, Barry Harris, Donald Byrd, Earl Klugh, Pepper Adams, and Miles Davis have all performed at the club. Gene Krupa performed with his Quartet for several engagements at Baker's.

Terry Pollard was discovered by Terry Gibbs while playing at Baker's in 1952-53, subsequently joining the Terry Gibbs Quartet for a national tour.

Baker's is the site of an incident in 1954 involving Miles Davis which is credited by some for Davis breaking his heroin addiction. The widely-related version of the story, attributed to Richard (Prophet) Jennings is that Davis, while in Detroit playing at the Blue Bird club as a guest soloist in Billy Mitchell's house band along with Flanagan, Elvin Jones, Carter, Yusef Lateef, Barry Harris, Thad Jones, Curtis Fuller and Donald Byrd stumbled into Baker's out of the rain, soaking wet and carrying his trumpet in a paper bag under his coat, walked to the bandstand and interrupted Max Roach and Clifford Brown in the midst of performing Sweet Georgia Brown by beginning to play My Funny Valentine, and then, after finishing the song, stumbled back into the rainy night. Davis was supposedly embarrassed into getting clean by this incident. In his autobiography, Davis disputed this account, stating that Roach had requested that Davis play with him that night, and that the details of the incident, such as carrying his horn in a paper bag and interrupting Roach and Brown, were fictional and that his decision to quit heroin was unrelated to the incident.

Then-unknown Barbra Streisand performed at Baker's in 1961.

Charles Mingus's September 1969 performances at Baker's were a part of his comeback in that year.

Klugh credits his frequenting Baker's as a teenager in the early 1970s, chaperoned by his mother, as a significant factor in the development of his music career, enabling him to meet prominent artists who were playing there, such as George Benson, Chick Corea and Lateef, each of whom he then toured or recorded with, and Bill Evans who was a central influnce on Klugh's songwriting.

Jazz singer Eddie Jefferson was shot and killed at Baker's Keyboard Lounge on May 8, 1979. He had left the club with alto sax man Richie Cole around 1:35 a.m. and was shot while walking out of the building.

Recordings and music videos:
Father Tom Vaughan recorded the 1967 RCA Victor album Motor City Soul at Baker's.

Woody Shaw recorded his postumously-released 1997 album Bemsha Swing for Blue Note at Baker's in 1986, along with Geri Allen, Robert Hurst and Roy Brooks.

In 1987, Anita Baker filmed the music video for the track "Same Ole Love" from her album Rapture at Baker's.

Saxophonist James Carter recorded the album Live at Baker's Keyboard Lounge, also featuring David Murray, Franz Jackson and Johnny Griffin at Baker's in June 2001.

Club official website: ~www.bakerskeyboardlounge.com

More information: ~wikipedia