We noticed even more activity over at the old Minton's space at 118th by St. Nicholas Avenue and it now looks like public notices have been posted on the windows for a liquor license application. Our
original story last month first caught up with the initial demolition going on at the site and now the New York Times has a feature that confirms that a retired Citicorp executive is indeed investing funds into a new Minton's that will be the premier jazz club in Harlem.
All the great clubs have long since shuttered uptown and the ones that are left have not been updated in a way that make them relevant like the Red Rooster over on Lenox. Minton's will be a 10,000-square-foot supper club within its original location at the former Cecil Hotel as reported in our past post and we expect this one to also be one of the faster openings this year based on the current rate of progress. Read more in the New York Times:
LINK
This is good news. Harlem will flourish as a destination for live music.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what this means for the lenox?
ReplyDeleteI don't get it - Jazz is dying (right???) - why are we now building three new jazz clubs?? I love to see investment dollars coming in, but is there really the demand for three new clubs? (well two new clubs and one relocated club)
ReplyDeleteAren't 20somethings the demographic of new move-ins?? These 20 somethings have some money, do they want to spend it at a jazz club? Shouldn't they be building more bars like Harlem Public and restaurants like Jado???
Douglas, I am SO TIRED of reading your "Jazz is dying" Get REAL ! Just because you may not like it does NOT mean it i s dying !!
DeletePeople of all ages love and have loved jazz. Jazz is an evolving musical form !
Music is Music ! Harlem is and will ALWAYS be know for the past musical greats and future greats ! Whatever their genre ! PLEASE !!
I just hope they new venues don't limit themselves to just Jazz and feature acts of all musical genres.
ReplyDeleteNot for nothing, but Jazz died as a popular artform in America when Miles did.
Vic !!
DeletePLEASE !!!
To those writing that Jazz is dead, I will recommend to stop paying attention to the charts.
ReplyDeleteare you suggesting to ignore the data?
DeleteI would love for jazz to be popular - it encourages hard work, dedication, talent etc -it is a medium of substance in this world of fluff.
But jazz is not for me. Still though, I would love it if Harlem had three new thriving businesses that others wanted to frequent. The problem.... I don't see others wanting to go. I foresee three mostly empty establishments and lots of lost investment capital. Then I see vacant retail establishments again.
In their noble attempt to bring back Harlem to it's glory days, I fear that these owners miss the reality that Harlem will never be the way it was 50 years ago. The current (and more importantly) new residents don't want jazz. I hope I'm wrong. I would love the culture of jazz to come back, but if they are wrong they and Harlem will suffer.
Douglas !
DeleteYou are WRONG ! Flawed business plans and overpriced tickets do not make an art form dead... PLEASE !
ms ciara - I hope you are right.
DeleteI think every new trendy restaurant in Harlem has a jazz brunch or jazz dinner night, especially the ones that are doing well. Red Rooster, Harlem Tavern, Lido, Bier International.
ReplyDelete@ms. ciara:
ReplyDeleteI don't hate Jazz.
I'm not even indifferent to Jazz. I actually like Jazz listen to live performances here in Harlem often and had a great time at the first Jazz Shrines festival held here.
They really need to do a better job promoting that event BTW(hopefully Notar and/or New Lenox Lounge will be up and running by May 2013.
My thing is just that Jill Scott, D'angelo and Anthony Hamilton and thier music are more well known than Michael Buble and Diana Krall are. ESPECALLY in Harlem.
All I'm saying is that if it were my money and I was opening a niteclub I'd be catering to the neo-soul fanbase. That demo skews heavily female and if you have a female skewing venue, you are gonna get men(even if they don't go there for the music).
Sorry, but these clubs will not be catering to locals. They are catering to tourists, who are looking for the 'authentic' Harlem experience. In their minds Harlem and Jazz go together, just like Harlem and gospel, and Harlem and chicken and waffles from Sylvia's. We had more than 50 million tourists in NYC last year, and Harlem is a popular destination for many of them.
ReplyDeleteJazz is dying? Someone is listening to the marketing geniuses who dictate what we should listen to. It's alive and well and though might never prosper; music is a tough business these days, jazz is immortal. What concerns me is "China" on the tables. What Harlem does not need is overpriced "southern" food. A contradiction in terms, really. Let's see a chef just do his own thing and not worry about having to succumb to a demographic expectation.
ReplyDeleteOnly time will tell how successful this particular venture may or may not become. But big new things tend to come from those who lead the market, rather than those who follow it.
ReplyDeleteJust read the NYT story. For folks who don't know, Dick Parsons, the businessman investing in this new venture, is the real deal as far as jazz is concerned. This isn't purely economic for him. I don't think he wants to create a place solely for tourists - I think he genuinely wants to create a vibrant place to keep the jazz tradition of Harlem alive for all. I wish him luck!
ReplyDeleteSomeone please name me an authentic jazz experience in Harlem? There aren't any because it is expensive to open up and keep open a local pub (aka St. Nick's Pub). We NEED this capital into Harlem to open more places. St. Nick's could be an amazing authentic jazz place - and I can name several vacant places where jazz clubs / music venues could be opened - unfortunately we have too many churches and too many people stopping anything they see as "gentrification." or they open places without any experience and have to close after 3 months because they didn't have a business plan. Dick Parsons is for real. I wish he would run for mayor.
ReplyDeleteAnon, try the American Legion, 248 W 132nd St, Sunday nights.
DeleteAmerican Legion is a Veterans Hall, which technically makes it a member only club. That pretty exclusionary sounding to me, and they also have a sign on the wall stating that only members can drink. Although authentic, can't Harlem have pubs or music halls which play all sorts of music and the whole neighborhood is invited?
ReplyDelete