When it later became the Bijou Cafe, big names still came through, like Prince. As the concert space was actually a hotel basement, the historical marker outside will tell you that Billie Holiday regularly dwelled there. Gamble and Huff, when they were young musicians in mid 1960s, met in the elevator here. It was home to songwriters’ offices, comparable to the Brill Building in New York. You know this building- it houses the Merriam Theater. Serious question: Where would R&B and hip hop culture in the city be if the station never existed? Schubert Building Power 99 has been playing urban music since 1982. It was “an exceptional hole in the wall room,” Jerry Zolten, a music historian and Penn State professor, recalled in an email. Along with the Showboat, which was a stone’s throw away, this was one of those Philly venues that boasted sparkling line-ups in the post-war era. John Coltrane and Yusef Lateef both recorded here. Where singer Billy Paul, bassist Percy Heath, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist McCoy Tyner and saxophonists Odean Pope and Coltrane famously studied. Produced by Stacey ‘FlyGirrl’ Wilson, Tasty Treats is a storied hip hop dance party, not to mention Philly’s longest-running. This South Street nightclub, which closed in 2013, was home to Tasty Treats. But what doesn’t get said enough is that his drumming might’ve ignited disco a genre. People also often point out that he was part of the trio Baker, Harris and Young, the legendary rhythm section and production team, as well as local ensemble the Trammps. It’s regularly cited that Earl Young was an integral part of MFSB, the house band on Philadelphia Soul’s classic records. He’s received numerous honors over the years, but perhaps the highest was when Howard University named their Jazz Master award after him. Jazz great Benny Golson moved around some growing up, but this was the house where he got his saxophone. Gotham recorded its share of gospel and doo-wop, including Lee Andrews (Questlove’s dad) and the Hearts. Acts like Jimmy Preston and Dan Pickett laid the groundwork, and they recorded out of this historic label. Roberts.ĭon’t let anyone tell you that the Delaware Valley didn’t play a considerable role in rock and roll history. Recommendations were generously submitted by Tempest Carter, Alain Joinville, Jerry Zolten, Michael McGettigan, Joe “JoeLogic” Gallagher, Tony Abraham, Faye Anderson and Kimberly C. Ninety miles south of New York, an abundance of places to jam, Philly was an optimal stop for artists who wanted to try their hand at fame in New York after they refined their musicianship.īeyond jazz, out of the latest crop of locations, blues, soul, rock and roll, gospel, hip hop and R&B are represented. “The sheer number of clubs, musicians’ culture of sharing, strong instruction available at both the Ornstein School of Music, located at 19th and Spruce streets, and the Granoff Studios, located at 2118 Spruce Street, and the discipline and practice regimen of key musicians in the scene, gave young men like Coltrane a true Philly jazz education.” “Philadelphia was the proving ground for jazz artists, and its working class people fostered the talent by packing rooms every week from Tuesday to Saturday nights,” Rob Armstrong, who directed a documentary on Coltrane for the Preservation Alliance, explained to Hidden City. That total skyrocketed to 375,000 by 1950. Venues blossomed in North Philly and near South Philly. In 1920, Philadelphia’s black population stood at 134,000. New York was becoming the jazz center for the North, just as the Great Migration was changing the musical landscape in all of these cities. Before those war years, jazz had already proliferated outside of its New Orleanian birthplace, and Chicago’s heyday had reached its denouement. The peak, according to experts, was from World War II to around the 1960s. That bodes well for next year, but it also raises the question: Why is Philly blessed with so much jazz? The pool of tips this time around was jazz heavy, and yet even in this map’s second year, the locations still only scrape the surface of the genre’s legacy. The locations from the original list are in red the new additions in this 2.0 update are in orange. The updated map is now live for your browsing pleasure. Hence the need for another take in what just might become an annual trend.įans and experts shared lots of excellent recommendations for our Black History Month Music Map. When folks reacted with (sometimes charged) feedback about the selections and pointed out omissions, it became very clear that a single post wouldn’t suffice. Last year, Billy Penn dug deep through reporting and research, and selected 28 locations tracking how instrumental Philadelphia people and places are in modern music.
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