The Tiffany Club opened the last half of 1953 with The Ink Spots plus comedian “Slappy” White.
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Tiffany Club – 1953 – Part One
Tiffany Club had a stellar lineup during the first six months of 1953 – Nat “King” Cole – Billie Holiday – George Shearing – Dinah Washington – Johnny Hodges – Earl Bostic and others.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1952 – Part Two
The Nat “King” Cole Trio opened at Tiffany Club on July 3, 1952. This was Cole’s fifth appearance at the remodeled Tiffany Club. Previous dates included December 1950; July, August and December of 1951. King Cole Trio Isn’t Dead, Beams Feather! Los Angeles—The King Cole trio, no matter what the publicity stories and the […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1952 – Part One
Chuck Landis budgeted over one hundred thousand dollars for talent in his Tiffany Club in 1952.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1951/1952
Chuck Landis featured Sharkey Bonano, Nat “King” Cole, Helen Humes, Benny Carter, the Billy Williams Quartette, Jay Johnson,and Dorothy Doengan at his Tiffany Club in the latter half of 1951.
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1950/1951
The Tiffany Club began to present top drawer jazz artists in the early 1950s like Art Tatum, Dave Brubeck, George Shearing, and Nat King Cole.
Continue ReadingJazz Cabaret
The club space at 5510 Hollywood Boulevard was vacant for nearly a year after Maynard Sloate closed Jazz City. It gained new life in February of 1958 when Carl Greene opened Jazz Cabaret.
Continue ReadingThe Haig – Part Six
The Bud Shank Quartet returned to The Haig at the beginning of 1957. The Ad Lib column in the January 9, 1957, issue of Down Beat noted that Shank’s return gave a boost to business. The same column mentioned that the Jimmy Giuffre Three spent a week at The Haig in December.
Continue ReadingThe Haig – Part Five
Bud Shank, Buddy Collette, Curtis Counce, and Art Pepper were among the jazz artists featured at The Haig during 1956.
Continue ReadingThe Haig – Part Four
Newspaper ads for the Haig in 1955 were sparse. It seems that John Bennett relied on the good graces of Down Beat for the occasional mention of who was performing at the club. The twice a month publication of the magazine required considerable lead time before each issue went to press. The “freebies” were noted […]
Continue ReadingThe Haig – Part Three
The halcyon days of the original Gerry Mulligan Quartet at the Haig with a packed house and patrons waiting patiently in lines that stretched up to Wilshire Boulevard were long gone at the beginning of 1954. The small capacity of the club made it difficult to turn a profit when competing clubs like Zardi’s and […]
Continue ReadingThe Haig – Part Two
The Gerry Mulligan Quartet continued their engagement at The Haig in January of 1953. Bob Whitlock departed the quartet before Christmas and was replaced by Carson Smith, a logical choice by Mulligan as Smith had demonstrated his chops during the initial engagement at the Black Hawk in September of 1952. The quartet’s version of “My […]
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The first major building to occupy the 3300 block of Wilshire Boulevard was the Gaylord Apartments, designed by the Walker & Eisen architectural firm in 1924. The apartments were named for Gaylord Wilshire who named the boulevard that bears his name. The vintage photograph below shows the surrounding area shortly after the building was completed. […]
Continue ReadingJAZZ CITY PART EIGHT JANUARY – MARCH 1957
Billie Holiday and the Pete Jolly Trio engagement from December of 1956 continued into the first few days of January 1957. Corky Hale provided piano accompaniment to Lady Day with Pete Jolly’s rhythm section of Bob Bertaux and Bob Neel continuing rhythm backup to Corky Hale and Billie Holiday.
Continue ReadingJAZZ CITY PART SEVEN JULY – DECEMBER 1956
The Australian Jazz Quartet/Quintet engagement that began in June carried over to July 5, 1956. The Chet Baker Quintet opened the following day, Friday, July 6, 1956. The Chet Baker Quintet appeared on Stars of Jazz the next Monday, July 9th, with the addition of Bill Loughborough on boo-bams, a percussion instrument consisting of calf skin stretched over varying lengths of timber bamboo. Chet would frequently play boo-bams during the engagement at Jazz City.
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