A Jazzy Weekend

This weekend we went to two (possibly three) jazz performances in DC. The first at Blues Alley featured jazz pianist and singer Mose Alison. The second at Bohemian Caverns featured a great local jazz band called The Connection. Both great venues but very different in style and feel.

Many people know of Blues Alley which opened in Georgetown in 1965 and has over the years featured many of the world's greatest jazz musicians including the late Eva Cassidy and Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis, Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington, Jr.

Unfortunately, Bohemian Caverns which has a far richer history (see photo above) isn't as well known.

From Wikipedia and Bohemian Caverns...

The Bohemian Caverns started out in 1926 as Club Caverns, a small establishment in the basement of a drugstore. The club was frequented by many of Washington's elite at the time who came to see musicians such as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

In the 1950's Club Caverns changed its name to Crystal Caverns and eventually Bohemian Caverns. In '62, Ramsey Lewis recorded the critically and commercially successful album, "The Ramsey Lewis Trio at the Bohemian Caverns" and in '65 won a Grammy for "The In Crowd" recorded on "The In Crowd, Live at the Bohemian Caverns."

Over the years, The Caverns has brought many artists to its stage, but it was the immortals that built The Caverns: Washington's Son Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Billy Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, Ramsey Lewis, Pearl Bailey, Miles Davis, Shirley Horn, John Coltrane, Diana Ross, Wynton Marsalis, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Bill Cosby and many many more.

By 1968, the club began to lose business. The financial strains and the civil disturbances following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led to the club's closing in September 1968. Thirty years later, as redevelopment of the U Street area was underway, the club was reopened.

Bohemian Caverns is a great venue for jazz and should be a must on any jazz lovers list.

Next up...possibly HR 57 this evening.

Update: We went to HR 57 with some friends for a pick-up jazz session and it was great. DC's jazz scene must be one of the best in the U.S.