On a recent friday night smokeAt the Upper West Side Jazz Club, which has been almost closed since the spring of 2020, owners and staff scrambled as expected for the long-awaited reopening. As the crowd sat down at the preview concert, the technicians climbed the ladder and dealt with a small crisis. Paul Stache, one of the venue’s co-owners, consulted with engineers about the sound of the room and live stream, and another Molly Sparrow Johnson oversaw the waiting staff. It will resume on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the band wouldn’t look any more calm. On the newly unfolded outdoor stage, a red curtain as luxurious as the inside of the jewelry box is set in the background, and pianist David Hazeltin and his longtime trio, the “cat” that Stash called, shine on each other. I was happy to come back. .. Their set illustrated the sound of smoke when it started. It is a warm small group of jazz that is invented on the spot, although it is soaked in tradition. It’s a fascinating but uncompromising, sophisticated yet playful, internationally reputed neighborhood jazz club sound.
“Playing here has always been a musician’s dream, even if it’s a hole in the wall,” Hazeltin said in an interview between the sets. “From the beginning, it’s been set up as a music room above all else, but it’s actually rare in a jazz club. Smoke’s always has the best sound system, and the owners are for the music itself and the welfare of the musicians. I have a deep interest. “
Famous singer Merry SterlingsI agree that I’ve been playing since the early 1960s. “Smoke is at home,” she said in an interview in early July. “It has that real jazz room feel that’s hard to explain. It reminds me of when I was a kid and how the club was.” Played on Smoke from August 11th to 14th. “In such an environment, I feel like I can do anything when making music,” added Stallings.
Stache and Frank Christopher founded Smoke in 1999 in the space of 2751 Broadway, the Augie’s Jazz Bar, where Berlin-born Stache took care of the bar and moved to New York to wait for a table. “The inspiration at the time was to create a club that fits the grand piano for Harold Mabern to play,” said Stash, referring to bandleaders and composers who became associated with the club. .. Mabern died in 2019.
Not only did Smoke provide Mabern with a place to play, but he also provided a place to record the last half dozen albums of Smoke Sessions, a label founded in 2014 called Stache and Christopher. “Stash said. He always recorded music in his club and shared it with musicians.
After all, the sound quality was high enough that some musicians wanted to release a recording. Smoke Sessions has announced some of these live releases recorded and produced by Stache, including Hazeltine’s 2014.For All We Know“ The album (“a work that deserves high praise,” said New York City Jazz Records).
But in regular smoke fashion, the label began booking studio time at Hell’s Kitchen’s Sear Sound, recording the work of several generations of top-notch musicians such as Renee Rosnes, Orrin Evans, and Jimmy Cobb. Soon became ambitious. , Vincent Herring and Eddie Henderson. At a time when major labels tend to overlook mid-sized and late jazz players, Smoke Sessions will go all-in and eight albums will be released in 2023, including LPs from Al Foster, Wayne Escoffery and Nicholas Payton.
Independent jazz labels like the jazz clubs in your neighborhood aren’t exactly a growing industry in 2022. Venue like Smalls and Zink Bar got over the pandemic, but the mainstay of scenes like Jazz Standard and 55 Bar was closed. At the same time, many enterprising musicians decide to play outside the club world with minimal drinks in restaurants, homes, venues like downtown music galleries, record stores, and bite bars like Brooklyn. We are working harder and harder. Bar by You. This moment hinted at the early 1970s loft scene, which led to an important creative flowering, but reduced the chances of high-paying gigs for legacy musicians such as those booked on Smoke.
Married and business partners Stache and Sparrow Johnson acknowledge that clubs and labels must thrive, and bars and restaurants must thrive in order for players to get paid. Therefore, extension.
The old smoke was so tight and so intimate that during the ballad the audience might hear more than they wanted what was happening in the bathroom. During the pandemic shutdown, while Smoke is experimenting with sidewalk concerts and live streaming, the co-owner signs a contract with the landlord to take over the lease of two free spaces next door, a former law firm and a dry cleaner. I signed it. The bar and bathroom are now moving to a completely separate lounge area. The refurbished music room provides the audience with more personal space than many jazz clubs, and boasts a clean line of sight that allows the person sitting at the back row table to see the pianist’s fingers.
Sparrow Johnson is cozy designed to invite people who want to drink and talk but may be afraid of jazz clubs and covers, like many passers-by looking through storefront windows during a performance. I am excited about the lounge, which is a space. price. She was also impressed by the signs of an established place for smoke in the club’s neighborhood atmosphere, where it’s not uncommon to see children in the audience. She said, “Recently, I had someone come to an interview as a server. He said,’I have a really formative memory that my parents brought me here.’ That’s all. People have these memories, and also it is a continuous creature that is still happening. “
Those memories now date back decades — and work is still underway. The act that Stash and Christopher booked for the first opening of Smoke in 1999 was saxophonist and NEA Jazzmaster George Coleman. This is the third time Coleman, now 87, has started a new era for the club. In 2001, the Coleman Group played the first smoke set since 9/11. “People were sitting there, but he went up there and calmed people down,” Stash recalled. “He wasn’t trying to cheer people up. It’s more We are here together, and I will do what I can for you.“
That night, Coleman and the company did what musicians always do with smoke: they played the room at that moment. Hazeltin and his trio returned on the same Friday, offering a vibrant set of standards and originals. Stache has heard these musicians many times over the years in clubs and studios, but nevertheless, near the end of the first set, he stood behind the club and called Hazeltin’s. I shot a solo. Indeed, as a co-owner, he was able to catch it again with live stream recordings. But in the room, at that moment he couldn’t help himself.