Smoke Jazz & Supper Club | |
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Restaurant information | |
Established | April 9, 1999 — Smoke 1976–1998 — Augie's |
Owner(s) | Paul Stache Molly Sparrow Johnson |
Street address | 2751 Broadway |
City | New York City |
Website | www |
Smoke Jazz & Supper Club is a jazz club located at 2751 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The club was opened on April 9, 1999 by co-founders Paul Stache and Frank Christopher and is currently owned by Stache and his wife and partner Molly Sparrow Johnson. [1] The venue has hosted numerous renowned jazz artists and in 2014 launched an associated record label, Smoke Sessions Records. [2]
Smoke occupies the space formerly known as Augie’s Jazz Bar. A native of the former West Berlin, Germany, Paul Stache worked at Augie’s as a server and bartender after moving into New York City. [3] When owner Augusto “Gus” Cuartas closed the club in 1998, Stache and Christopher partnered to take over the venue. Stache and Johnson assumed ownership of the club in 2019. [3]
Smoke opened on April 9, 1999 with an inaugural performance by saxophonist George Coleman’s Quartet featuring pianist Harold Mabern. [3] Both artists helped define the Smoke sound and became frequent performers at the club. Mabern asserted that “Smoke is the greatest jazz club in the world.” Smoke’s name was inspired by writer Paul Auster who based his character Auggie Wren on Cuartas. Harvey Keitel portrayed Auggie in the 1995 film Smoke, the title of which gave the club its name. [4]
Artists who have performed at the club include Wynton Marsalis, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Hank Jones, Christian McBride, Brad Mehldau, Larry Goldings, Chris Potter, Vincent Herring, Tom Harrell, Cecil Payne, Cedar Walton, Steve Turre, Eric Alexander, Bill Charlap, Jimmy Cobb, Charles Earland, Nicholas Payton, Peter Bernstein, Eddie Henderson and others. [4] [5]
During the COVID-19 pandemic Stache and Johnson launched a series of livestream concerts, Smoke Screens, and undertook a renovation that expanded the club into two small neighboring spaces. [3]
After recording and producing several recordings for artists and labels at Smoke, Stache was encouraged to launch an affiliated record label, Smoke Sessions Records in 2014. Early releases continued to be recorded live on stage at Smoke, but the label’s output soon expanded to include studio recordings. [6] Smoke Sessions has garnered two Grammy Award nominations for releases by pianist Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band. [7]
Smoke Sessions has released albums by Harold Mabern, Nicholas Payton, Vincent Herring, Peter Bernstein, Renee Rosnes, Eddie Henderson, George Coleman, Bobby Watson, Steve Davis, The Cookers, Cyrus Chestnut, Larry Goldings, Wayne Escoffery, Gary Bartz, Jimmy Cobb, Mary Stallings, Al Foster, Buster Williams and others. [8]
From 1986 to 1997, the current Birdland — now located on West 44th Street — was located at 2745 Broadway, on the same block, same side of the street, 3 doors south of Augie's. Cleopatra's Needle is fourteen blocks south of Smoke, at 2485 Broadway. Jazz at Lincoln Center is at Broadway and 60th Street (1.9 miles). Juilliard is at Broadway and 66th Street. The Manhattan School of Music is 15 blocks north of Smoke. Miller Theatre at Columbia University is 11 blocks north, on Broadway. Symphony Space, a venue for film and the performing arts, hosts jazz events, regularly. Symphony Space is 9 blocks south of Smoke, on Broadway. Harlem is contiguously north and west of Morningside Heights. Harlem jazz clubs include the Lenox Lounge (closed in 2012, demolished 2017), Minton's Playhouse, St. Nick's Pub, the Apollo Theater, Showman's (375 W. 125th), Bill's Place (148 W. 133), Ginny's Supper Club at the Red Rooster, the Harlem Tavern, Jazz Mobile, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Londel's Restaurant, and the New Amsterdam Musical Association.
The Cotton Club was a New York City nightclub from 1923 to 1940. It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue (1923–1936), then briefly in the midtown Theater District (1936–1940). The club operated during the United States' era of Prohibition and Jim Crow era racial segregation. Black people initially could not patronize the Cotton Club, but the venue featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, including musicians Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Chick Webb, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Willie Bryant; vocalists Adelaide Hall, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Lillie Delk Christian, Aida Ward, Avon Long, the Dandridge Sisters, the Will Vodery choir, The Mills Brothers, Nina Mae McKinney, Billie Holiday, Midge Williams, Lena Horne, and dancers such as Katherine Dunham, Bill Robinson, The Nicholas Brothers, Charles 'Honi' Coles, Leonard Reed, Stepin Fetchit, the Berry Brothers, The Four Step Brothers, Jeni Le Gon and Earl Snakehips Tucker.
Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. At the time of his death, he had been the Sextet's last surviving member for nearly thirty years. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009.
Smoke is a 1995 American independent film by Wayne Wang and Paul Auster. The original story was written by Paul Auster, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was produced by Greg Johnson, Peter Newman, Kenzo Horikoshi, and Hisami Kuroiwa. Among others, it features Harvey Keitel, William Hurt, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau Jr., Giancarlo Esposito, Ashley Judd, and Forest Whitaker.
Eric Alexander is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and educator. Having placed second at the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition behind Joshua Redman and ahead of Chris Potter and Tim Warfield, he was soon signed by a record label and has since recorded over 20 albums as a leader and over 300 as a sideman.
Nicholas Payton is an American trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist. A Grammy Award winner, he is from New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also a writer who comments on subjects including music, race, politics, and life in America.
George Edward Coleman is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Vincent Dwyne Herring is an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, composer, and educator. Known for his fiery and soulful playing in the bands of Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, and Nat Adderley in the earlier stages of his career, he now frequently performs around the world with his own groups and is heavily involved in jazz education.
Harold Mabern Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, principally in the hard bop, post-bop, and soul jazz fields. He is described in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings as "one of the great post-bop pianists".
Michael Arthur LeDonne is an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and educator. Having played with Benny Goodman, Milt Jackson, and Benny Golson in various stages of his career, he now leads several of his own groups and frequently performs around the world.
The Mojo Club is a music club and live venue in Hamburg, Germany located on the city’s famous Reeperbahn. Founded in 1989, it is considered to be a pioneer in the field of modern breakbeat-oriented sounds such as acid jazz and had a major impact on dancefloor jazz. Located in a former bowling alley at No 1 Reeperbahn, the old venue had to make way for a landmark new high rise development and closed its doors in 2003. Following a 10-year hiatus, The Mojo Club re-opened on 2 February 2013 in the same location, underneath the "Dancing Towers", designed by Hamburg-based architect Hadi Teherani, it entrance set into the forecourt of No 1 Reeperbahn,.
Peter Andrew Bernstein is an American jazz guitarist.
The National Jazz Museum in Harlem is a museum dedicated to preservation and celebration of the jazz history of Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The idea for the museum was conceived in 1995. The museum was founded in 1997 by Leonard Garment, counsel to two U.S. presidents, and an accomplished jazz saxophonist, Abraham David Sofaer, a former U.S. district judge who gave the initial gift in honor of his brother-in-law Richard J. Scheuer, Jr., and matching funds from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation. For more than 15 years, the museum was based in East Harlem at 104 East 126th Street.
Smalls Jazz Club is a jazz club at 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village, New York City. Established in 1994, it earned a reputation in the 1990s as a "hotbed for New York's jazz talent" with a "well-deserved reputation as one of the best places in the city to see rising talent in the New York jazz scene". Its jazz musicians are noted for being "talented, though largely unknown" while its music is characterized as "modern versions of bebop and hard bop". The club's main room is in a basement with a capacity of 50 people that expanded to 60 people.
The Original Mob is an album by jazz drummer Jimmy Cobb. It was released by Smoke Sessions.
Smoke Sessions Records is an independent jazz record label based in New York City.
Afro Blue is an album by pianist Harold Mabern. It was released by Smoke Sessions Records.
Right on Time is an album by pianist Harold Mabern. It was released by Smoke Sessions Records in 2014.
Patience Higgins is a New York-based jazz saxophonist, flutist, and multi-reed musician. He also plays clarinet, oboe, and English horn. He has performed with Duke Ellington Orchestra, Barry Harris, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Scott, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Paquito D’Rivera, Cleo Laine, and The Sugar Hill Jazz Quartet. Higgins has a history as a Broadway musician. He is a music educator and teaches at the New York Jazz Workshop Music School. Higgins has toured with the Duke Ellington and Count Basie Orchestras.
Mabern Plays Mabern is an album by pianist Harold Mabern. It was recorded in 2018 and released by Smoke Sessions Records.
Night and Day is an album by saxophonist Vincent Herring, which was recorded in 2014 and released the following year on the Smoke Sessions label.