Mikell's was a jazz club on the corner of 97th Street and Columbus Avenue, inNew York City.
Run by Mike Mikell[1] and Pat Mikell, from 1969 to 1991 it was a regular venue for New York's topstudio andsession musicians, who would turn up forjam sessions with major soul, funk and jazz artists visiting the city.[2]Paul Shaffer, bandleader for CBS'sLate Show with David Letterman, called Mikell's "soul heaven".[2]
Among the performers and bands associated with Mikell's areStuff, originally called The Encyclopedia of Soul, the alliance of studio musicians that played almost weekly at Mikell's in the 1970s.[2]
WriterJames Baldwin's brother David worked as a bartender at the club in the 1970s and 1980s, thereby attracting patronage from Baldwin as well as other authors, includingToni Morrison,Amiri Baraka andMaya Angelou,[1] and musician friends such asArt Blakey,Roy Ayres andWynton Marsalis.[3]
Stephane Grappelli, French jazz violinist who co-founded theQuintette du Hot Club de France, performed at Mikell's in the mid-1970s. Other performers included guitaristJoe Beck, and reedmanJoe Farrell.Chico Hamilton's Quartet withArthur Blythe (sax), Steve Torre (trombone, shells, & bass), andRodney Jones (guitar), appeared several times in the late 1970s. The band Stuff, formed in 1974, was closely associated with Mikell's, playing there three nights a week until 1980, with jam sessions taking place with visiting soul, jazz and funk stars and singers such asStevie Wonder andJoe Cocker.[1]
In early 1980, the club served for rehearsals forArt Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Big Band, which includedWynton Marsalis, and which would result in the 1980 album Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers Big BandLive at Montreux and Northsea. Other artists appearing at the club in the 1980s includedMilt Jackson,Ray Brown,Cedar Walton andMickey Roker (June 1983),[4] andPaquito D'Rivera (January 1984).[5]
Mikell's closed in 1991.[1]
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40°47′37″N73°58′01″W / 40.79366°N 73.96705°W /40.79366; -73.96705