Storyville (nightclub)

Last updated
For much of its history, Storyville was located on the ground floor of Hotel Buckminster, Kenmore Square in the space shown here occupied by Pizzeria Uno. BostonHotelBuckminster.jpg
For much of its history, Storyville was located on the ground floor of Hotel Buckminster, Kenmore Square in the space shown here occupied by Pizzeria Uno.

Storyville was a Boston jazz nightclub organized by Boston-native, jazz promoter and producer George Wein during the 1940s. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Contents

WNAC at Hotel Buckminster

In 1929, WNAC Radio moved to new studios inside the Hotel and remained for the next four decades. An FM station was added in the late 1930s. In June, 1948, WNAC-TV began broadcasting from the Hotel. Until 1968, WNAC operated an AM, FM and television station in the hotel basement. [12]

"Compared to the other clubs in town, listening to a jazz musician at Storyville is like sitting at home with a pair of earphones"
Nat Hentoff, 1953 (WMEX Announcer, host of Storyville broadcasts [13] [14]

Recordings

Many jazz legends made live radio broadcasts from the club, especially at the Hotel Buckminster, and many audio recordings from these sessions are still available. [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

Performers

A number of notable jazz musicians, performed in this venue, including:

Chronology

Originally a jazz club, it was named after Storyville district of New Orleans. It was first located in the 1940s at the Copley Square Hotel, but soon relocated to Harvard Square.

In 1950 [9] it was relocated again to the ground floor of the Hotel Buckminster in Kenmore Square. [46] [47] [11]

In 1953, Storyville was relocated to the Copley Square Hotel, at street level. [48]

In 1959, Storyville moved to the Bradford Hotel on Tremont Street for one year. [12] [49] [11] [50]

In the 1970s, under the glow of the historic Citgo sign, Kenmore Square, Storyville was located near The Rathskeller, Where It’s At, Lucifer’s, and Psychedelic Supermarket. [51]

In 1983 and 1984, at 645 Beacon Street, [52] Storyville hosted performers such as the Del Fuegos, [53] Bush Tetras, [54] Til Tuesday, Barrence Whitfield & the Savages, [55] [56] and the Violent Femmes. [57] [58] [59] [18]

Present day Locations

The space that housed Storyville at Hotel Buckminster in Kenmore Square is now occupied by a Pizzeria Uno restaurant. [12]

In September 2011, at the Copley Square Hotel, a new nightclub opened, using the name Storyville, 90 Exeter Street. [60] [61] [62] [63] [64]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerry Mulligan</span> American jazz musician (1927–1996)

Gerald Joseph Mulligan, also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a significant arranger working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His piano-less quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz ensembles. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions including "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers", have become standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roy Haynes</span> American jazz drummer and group leader

Roy Owen Haynes is an American jazz drummer. He is among the most recorded drummers in jazz. In a career lasting over 80 years, he has played swing, bebop, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz and is considered a pioneer of jazz drumming. "Snap Crackle" was a nickname given to him in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buddy DeFranco</span> Italian-American jazz clarinetist

Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newport Jazz Festival</span> Music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, US

The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hired George Wein to organize the first festival and bring jazz to Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serge Chaloff</span> American jazz saxophonist

Serge Chaloff was an American jazz baritone saxophonist. One of bebop's earliest baritone saxophonists, Chaloff has been described as 'the most expressive and openly emotive baritone saxophonist jazz has ever witnessed' with a tone varying 'between a light but almost inaudible whisper to a great sonorous shout with the widest but most incredibly moving of vibratos.'

Benjamin "Buzzy" Drootin was an American jazz drummer.

Jazz is a 2001 television documentary miniseries directed by Ken Burns. It was broadcast on PBS in 2001 and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Its chronological and thematic episodes provided a history of jazz, emphasizing innovative composers and musicians and American history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard McGhee</span> American jazz trumpeter

Howard McGhee was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger bebop trumpeters such as Fats Navarro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WMEX (AM)</span> Radio station in Quincy, Massachusetts, United States

WMEX is a commercial radio station licensed to Quincy, Massachusetts, and serving the Greater Boston media market. It is owned by L&J Media, headed by Tony LaGreca and Larry Justice. WMEX broadcasts an oldies format of hits from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as well as full service features including local DJs, news, traffic and weather. Late nights and weekends, it carries MeTV FM, a syndicated music service. The station's studios and offices are on Enterprise Drive in Marshfield.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen McRae</span> American jazz singer (1920–1994)

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics.

The Black Hawk was a San Francisco nightclub that featured live jazz performances during its period of operation from 1949 to 1963. It was located on the corner of Turk Street and Hyde Street in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. Guido Caccienti owned the club along with Johnny and Helen Noga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Wein</span> American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer (1925–2021)

George Wein was an American jazz promoter, pianist, and producer. He was the founder of the Newport Jazz Festival, which is held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. He also co-founded the Newport Folk Festival with Pete Seeger and Theodore Bikel and was instrumental in the founding of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Schaap</span> American jazz disc jockey (1951–2021)

Philip van Noorden Schaap was an American radio host, who specialized in jazz as a broadcaster, historian, archivist, and producer. He began presenting jazz shows on Columbia University's WKCR in 1970, and hosted Bird Flight and Traditions In Swing on WKCR for 40 years, beginning in 1981. Schaap received six Grammy Awards over the course of his career.

"Pennies from Heaven" is a 1936 American popular song with music by Arthur Johnston and lyrics by Johnny Burke. It was introduced by Bing Crosby with Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra in the 1936 film of the same name.

"East of the Sun " is a popular song written by Brooks Bowman, an undergraduate member of Princeton University's Class of 1936, for the 1934 production of the Princeton Triangle Club's production of Stags at Bay. It was published in 1934 by Santly Bros. and soon became a hallmark of the Princeton Tigertones, Princeton University's signature all-male a cappella group. The standard is also sung by the Princeton Nassoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Crow</span> American jazz bassist

William Orval Crow is an American jazz bassist. Among other work, Crow was the long-term bassist in saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's bands in the 1950s and 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copley Square Hotel</span> Building in Massachusetts, United States

The Copley Square Hotel is a hotel in the Back Bay area of Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1891 on Huntington Avenue and Exeter Street, and has the distinction of being the city’s second-oldest hotel in continuous operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Hotel Buckminster</span> Historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts

Boston Hotel Buckminster, formerly Hotel Buckminster and briefly Hotel St. George, is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. It is located on the triangular intersection of Beacon Street and Brookline Avenue in Kenmore Square. Along with the Hotel Commonwealth, it is one of two hotels located within one block of Fenway Park, the oldest baseball stadium in the nation and home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball.

Columbia Jazz Masterpieces was a series of Jazz CD, LP and cassette reissues from Columbia Records which began in 1986. Written inside the blue box used on all the album covers "Digitally Remastered Directly from the Original Analog Tapes." In Europe, the series was known as CBS Jazz Masterpieces, with the reissues being released by CBS Records, until 1991, when the Columbia Jazz Masterpieces title was used on all subsequent releases and represses.

References

  1. Johnson, David. "Jazz From Storyville". Night Lights Classic Jazz. Indiana Public Media.
  2. "Fred Taylor". Music Museum of New England. Feb 19, 2013.
  3. "George Wein". NEA. Jan 24, 2013.
  4. "George Wein". Yamaha Artists Services, New York.
  5. Giuliano, Charles. "Fred Taylor on Jazz in Boston, Part One". Berkshire Fine Arts.
  6. "George Wein, 2005 NEA Jazz Master". NEA. Apr 4, 2013.
  7. Wein, George; Chinen, Nate (Feb 18, 2009). Myself Among Others: A Life In Music. Hachette Books. ISBN   9780786745180 via Google Books.
  8. Ron Wynn, ed. (1994), "Venues", All Music Guide to Jazz , M. Erlewine, V. Bogdanov, San Francisco: Miller Freeman, p.  720, ISBN   0-87930-308-5
  9. 1 2 "George Wein". The Jazz Museum in Harlem.
  10. "The Boston Jazz Chronicles". Seacoast Jazz Society.
  11. 1 2 3 Meyers, Marc, "Interview: George Wein", 2008 July 23, JazzWaxx.com
  12. 1 2 3 "About Us". Boston Hotel Buckminster. Archived from the original on 2010-10-26. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  13. "Storyville". Music Museum of New England. May 29, 2018.
  14. "Billy Taylor and Charles Mingus at Storyville".
  15. "Storyville Records Archives". The Troy Street Observer.
  16. "Storyville -- All Categories (LP, CD)". Dusty Groove : Chicago's Online Record Store.
  17. "Cheat Suite: A little piece of baseball scandal right in Kenmore Square". MySecretBoston. Mar 26, 2014.
  18. 1 2 "The History of Kenmore Square". Grahm Junior College.
  19. "Boston's Jazz History". JazzBoston. Archived from the original on 2010-05-29. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  20. Losin, Peter. "Charlie Parker Session Details (March 10, 1953), Storyville, Boston MA, WHDH radio broadcast". Peter Losin.
  21. "Dave Brubeck - At Storyville 1954". Blue Sounds.
  22. "Dave Brubeck - At Storyville 1954 (Recordings)". Dave Brubeck Jazz.
  23. Dave Brubeck Quartet: Complete Storyville Broadcasts amazon.com
  24. 1 2 3 "Guest Column: Hub Cats of Jazz". Jazz Collector.
  25. "Ella Fitzgerald - Feb 7, 1953" via Wolfgang's Vault.
  26. "Stan Getz Quintet: Jazz At Storyville (album review)". All About Jazz.
  27. 1 2 "Billie Holiday at Storyville". July 7, 2011. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011.
  28. "Stan Getz at Storyville Vols. I and II (1951)". Foresight and afterthought. Jan 2, 2018.
  29. Hentoff, Nat (Feb 12, 2008). "Billie Holiday, Live: A Biography in Music". Wall Street Journal.
  30. Billie Holiday: Complete Storyville Broadcasts amazon.com
  31. "At Storyville". 1990.
  32. "At Storyville - Billie Holiday" via AllMusic.
  33. A Rare Live Recording of Billie Holiday amazon.com
  34. "Gerry Mulligan Quartet - Recorded In Boston At Storyville". Discogs.
  35. Charlie Parker. Groovin' High (Live From The Storyville Club, Boston, 1953)
  36. "Charlie Parker - At Storyville". Discogs.
  37. "Charlie Parker - Complete Storyville Performances". Blue Sounds.
  38. "Mar 12, 1955: Bird a No-Show at Storyville". The Troy Street Observer. Mar 12, 2013.
  39. "Listen to Herb: Herb Pomeroy Jazz Collection". MIT Libraries.
  40. "Fred Taylor, impresario of jazz in Boston for decades, dies at 90". The Boston Globe.
  41. Fleming, Colin. "When Billie Holiday Came to Boston". JazzTimes.
  42. "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Jun 9, 1958 via Google Books.
  43. "At Storyville 1954". Jazz Messengers.
  44. "Wayne State University Library System / Entire Collection". elibrary.wayne.edu.
  45. Souza, Johnny. "The jazz beat: Al Vega, Boston's living legend of jazz". Wicked Local: Plymouth.
  46. "Historic Hotel Buckminster in Boston's Kenmore Square closes due to coronavirus". Apr 7, 2020.
  47. "Tracing the Changing Face of Kenmore Square | BU Today". Boston University.
  48. Spice, Anton (Feb 10, 2016). "Boston's creative jazz scene: How the '70s avant garde found a home outside New York City". The Vinyl Factory Limited.
  49. "History". JazzBoston. Archived from the original on May 29, 2010.
  50. "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Jun 29, 1959 via Google Books.
  51. "A Brief History of Boston Punk Rock Venues: From "The Rat" to Rat City". WECB.
  52. "Storyville". rocktourdatabase.com.
  53. "Del Fuegos". rocktourdatabase.com.
  54. "GigList Various years". www.bostongroupienews.com.
  55. "Barrence Whitfield & the Savages". rocktourdatabase.com.
  56. "His Real Name is Barry White". thechronopages.com.
  57. "She's Such a Bitch: The Oral History of Juliana Hatfield Three's 'My Sister'". Spin. Aug 28, 2013.
  58. "Violent Femmes". rocktourdatabase.com.
  59. The Longest Day by the Del Fuegos - iTunes
  60. "For the Record". The Boston Sun.
  61. "Storyville". Time Out Boston.
  62. "Licensing Board Hearing". Boston.gov. Oct 17, 2017.
  63. "Brian Lesser: The (Almost) Silent Partner". Sep 17, 2017.
  64. House, Samantha (February 20, 2021). "Panorama's Guide to Mixing and Mingling in the Hub" (PDF). Panorama. p. 11.

42°20′54″N71°04′43″W / 42.3482°N 71.0787°W / 42.3482; -71.0787