The premises at 1608 North Cahuenga in Hollywood housed a variety of tenents prior to becoming a major jazz club on the West Coast in the 1960s. In the early 1920s the address was listed as the location for sales opportunities, one product being a slenderizing cream, just send $3.50 with the ad for your […]
Continue ReadingShelly Manne
The Clef, 1841 Club, Duffy’s Gayety
The venue at 1841 N. Cahuenga Boulevard was known as Mary Louise of Hollywood in the 1930s when luncheon was served during noon contract bridge lectures. Noontime tea and biscuits disappeared in the mid thirties when a liquor license was issued to Carl Arnot and his White Horse Tavern featuring dining, dancing, and entertainment. The […]
Continue ReadingShelly Manne – Evolution of a photo
The original photograph of Shelly Manne at Radio Recorder was massaged in the darkroom developing process to process an iconic image of the drummer at work.
Continue ReadingHollywood Record Room – July 13, 1961
The final episode of Bobby Troup’s Hollywood Record Room featured tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, guitarist Herb Ellis, and vocalist Ruth Price.
Continue ReadingStars of Jazz/A New View 4
Don Jim was present at over three dozen broadcasts of Stars of Jazz. His 35mm color slides captured rare photos of the songbirds who appeared on the series.
Continue ReadingZARDI’S – 1955
Zardi’s 1955 Sam Donato and Ben Arkin had been tinkering with the décor of Zardi’s ever since they acquired the club in 1953. The woven raffia ceiling that was framed in bamboo remained but the backdrop below the ceiling behind the musician bandstand changed several times. The strip below the bamboo termination of ceiling […]
Continue ReadingZARDI’S – 1954
Zardi’s 1954. 1954 provided a cornucopia of modern jazz for Los Angeles jazz fans. In addition to booming business at the city’s leading jazz clubs, jazz impresarios Gene Norman and brothers Norman and Irving Granz staged sell out concerts to meet the growing demand for modern jazz. Gene Norman continued to wear several musical […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1956/1957
Tiffany Club – 1956/1957 Shelly Manne and His Men continued to be the headline attraction through December 1955 at Tiffany Club and were carried over into January of 1956. The continuing engagement included a special “New Year’s Eve Gala” at the club with favors, hats, horns, and noisemakers. Manne’s working quintet comprised Stu Williamson […]
Continue ReadingTeddy Charles / Dave Brubeck / Chet Baker
Teddy Charles / Dave Brubeck / Chet Baker – Los Angeles 1953 The individual careers of Teddy Charles, Dave Brubeck, and Chet Baker intersected when they appeared at clubs and concerts in 1953. Teddy Charles shared the stage with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and a Shelly Manne group at Wilshire-Ebell in July for what was […]
Continue ReadingSHELLY’S MANNE-HOLE – FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
Shelly Manne opened his jazz club at 1608 North Cahuenga Boulevard in November of 1960. Noted jazz columnist Ralph J. Gleason profiled Shelly’s Manne-Hole in the Los Angles Mirror, View magazine. Gleason’s article is followed by an article that appeared five years later, an appraisal of Shelly’s Manne-Hole on the occasion of its fifth anniversary. […]
Continue ReadingHampton Hawes Memorial by Pete Welding
Pete Welding wrote liner notes for many reissues of classic West Coast sessions for a variety of record labels. His notes for the Xanadu collection, The Hampton Hawes Memorial Album, provide a snapshot of Hampton Hawes place in the emerging jazz scene in Los Angeles. Before West Coast Jazz exploded in the ears […]
Continue ReadingFRANKLY JAZZ with Frank Evans
Jazz returned to the television screen in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962. The first program was created for syndication by Steve Allen who hired Jimmie Baker to produce the shows. Baker was a veteran jazz TV producer who had been one of the creative forces responsible for the award winning Stars of Jazz […]
Continue ReadingTiffany Club – 1955 – Part Two
Chris Connor opened at Tiffany Club on Friday, July 8, 1955. Slim Gaillard and his crew were held-over for the sixth time. Down Beat published a profile of Chris that started out on the wrong foot when they printed her last name as “Connors.” Corrected for entry here: New York—Young, energetic Chris Connor, the former […]
Continue ReadingJohnny Mandel – I Want To Live!
The producer of I Want To Live, Walter Wanger, and the featured jazz artist in the film, Gerry Mulligan, shared a common past. They both served jail time at the Sheriff’s Honor Farm in Castaic, forty miles north of Los Angeles. Wanger served three months in the summer of 1952 for shooting and wounding a Hollywood agent that he suspected of having an affair with his wife, actress Joan Bennett. Mulligan served four months in the fall of 1953 on drug charges following his arrest at The Haig earlier that spring while he and Chet Baker were performing at the club.
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.
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