Minton's Playhouse | |
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| Location | 206—210 West 118th Street,New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°48′17″N73°57′12″W / 40.80472°N 73.95333°W /40.80472; -73.95333 |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Second Renaissance Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 85002423[1] |
| NYCL No. | 2671 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | September 18, 1985 |
| Designated NYCL | June 27, 2023 |
Minton's Playhouse is ajazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street inHarlem,Manhattan,New York City. It is a registered trademark ofHousing and Services, Inc., a New York City nonprofit provider ofsupportive housing. The door to the club is at 206 West 118th Street and is marked by a small plaque. Minton's was founded by tenor saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938.[2] Minton's is known for its role in the development of modernjazz, particularlybebop.Thelonious Monk,Bud Powell,Kenny Clarke,Charlie Christian,Charlie Parker andDizzy Gillespie pioneered be-bop in the club'sjam sessions in the early 1940s. Minton's thrived for three decades until its decline near the end of the 1960s, and it eventually closed in 1974. After being closed for more than 30 years, the newly remodeled club reopened on May 19, 2006, under the nameUptown Lounge at Minton's Playhouse. Minton's operated until 2010, before re-opening as Minton's Playhouse in 2013.[3]
Minton's original owner, Henry Minton, was known in Harlem for being the first ever black delegate to theAmerican Federation of Musicians Local 802.[4] In addition, he had been the manager of theRhythm Club, in Harlem, in the early part of the 1930s, a venue whichLouis Armstrong,Fats Waller,James P. Johnson, andEarl Hines frequented.[5] The novelistRalph Ellison later wrote that because of his union background and music business experience, Minton was aware of the economic and artistic needs ofjazz musicians in New York in the late 1930s.[4] Minton's popularity and his penchant for generosity with food and loans made his club a favorite hang-out for musicians.[6]
Minton developed a policy of holding regularjam sessions at his club, which would later prove to be a significant factor in the development ofbebop.[7] Because of his union ties, Minton was able to ensure that musicians would not be fined for their participation in jam sessions, an activity that was prohibited by the union.[8]Dizzy Gillespie recalled that there were "walking" delegates from the union that would follow musicians around and fine them "a hundred to five hundred dollars" for participating in jam sessions, but that they were "somewhat immune from this at Minton's because of Henry Minton".[9] According toRalph Ellison, Minton's Playhouse provided "a retreat, a homogeneous community where a collectivity of common experience could find continuity and meaningful expression".[10]
In late 1940, Minton hiredTeddy Hill, a former bandleader, to manage the club.[2] Building in the same direction that Minton had started, Hill used his connections from theSavoy Ballroom (where his band used to play), and theApollo Theater to increase the interest in the club.[2] Hill put together thehouse band which includedThelonious Monk on piano,Joe Guy on trumpet, Nick Fenton on bass, andKenny Clarke on drums.[11] Both Clarke and Guy were in Teddy Hill's band before it disbanded in 1939.[11][12] According to Clarke, Teddy Hill wanted to "do something for the guys that had worked with him" by giving them work during difficult times.[11] The house band at Minton's in 1941, with the addition of frequent guests,Dizzy Gillespie andCharlie Christian, was at the center of the emergence of bebop in the early 1940s.[12] Later, the band was led by tenor saxophonistKermit Scott.[13][14]
A feature of Minton's Playhouse during Teddy Hill's tenure as manager was the Monday Celebrity Nights sponsored by the Schiffmans who owned the nearbyApollo Theater.[8] The Schiffmans treated their performers to free dinner and drinks after the conclusion of a long week of work.[8] The food at Minton's became almost as popular as the music as noted by many present at that time. In an interview with Al Fraser (1979),Dizzy Gillespie told his recollection of Monday nights at Minton's:
On Monday nights, we used to have a ball. Everybody from the Apollo, on Monday nights, was a guest at Minton's, the whole band. We had a big jam session. Monday night was the big night, the musician's night off. There was always some food there for you. Oh, that part was beautiful. Teddy Hill treated the guys well.[9]
During the Monday Celebrity Nights, many guest musicians such asRoy Eldridge,Hot Lips Page,Ben Webster,Don Byas, andLester Young would sit in.[10] The trumpet duels betweenRoy Eldridge andDizzy Gillespie became legendary, with Gillespie eventually surpassing his mentor. Speaking to Al Fraser, Gillespie recalled howThelonious Monk one night teased Eldridge after being out-played by Gillespie saying, "Look, you're supposed to be the greatest trumpet player in the world ... but that's the best."[15] Eldridge was an established musician in the olderswing style, but he was an active figure at Minton's and contributed through his encouragement of Gillespie and Clarke to further their explorations.[16]
Eldridge and the other swing musicians who participated in the earlycutting sessions at Minton's played an important role in the evolution ofswing towardbebop by inspiring the next generation of musicians. A youngSonny Stitt witnessed the great battles between the master saxophonists of the day in the early 1940s:
Can you imagineLester Young,Coleman Hawkins,Chu Berry,Don Byas, andBen Webster on the same little jam session? They had a place called Minton's Playhouse in New York. It's kaput now. And these guys, man, nothing like it. And guess who won the fight? ...Don Byas walked off with everything.[17]
Byas was one of the first tenor saxophonists to assimilatebebop into his style, in contrast to Young, Hawkins, and Webster, who stayed close to their swing roots through the development ofbebop.[18]
Herman Pritchard, who tended bar at Minton's "in the old days", would watch asBen Webster andLester Young would "fight on those saxophones ... like dogs in the road".[10]Ralph Ellison believes that what was occurring at Minton's from 1941 to 1942 was a "continuing symposium of jazz, a summation of all the styles, personal and traditional, of jazz".[10]
One of the pioneers of the new style, which would eventually become known asbebop, was the young electric guitarist fromBenny Goodman's band,Charlie Christian.[19] He played nightly at Minton's and was one of its stars.[19] Christian was in his mid-twenties in 1941; his time at Minton's was significant, but brief; he would die the following March suffering fromtuberculosis in a sanatorium. As evidenced by recordings made byColumbia University student Jerry Newman in 1941, Christian's playing was breaking new ground.[19]Gunther Schuller's assessment of Christian's playing on those recordings is as follows:
His work here seems to me relentlessly creative, endlessly fertile, and is so in a way that marks a new stylistic departure. Indeed, it signals the birth of a new language in jazz, which even[Charlie] Parker did not have as clearly in focus at that time.[20]
Kenny Clarke and the band at Minton's would look forward with anticipation to Christian's arrival after finishing his set with Goodman.[21] Christian was admired by his peers at Minton's, includingThelonious Monk who "loved listening to Charlie play solos with fluid lines and interesting harmonies".[22] Hill bought Christian an amplifier to use so he would not have to bring his along. Hill retained it up until his death in 1978.[23]
Soon afterCharlie Christian's death, alto saxophonistCharlie Parker emerged as a new leader of thebebop movement. Parker's collaboration withDizzy Gillespie,Thelonious Monk andKenny Clarke, at sessions at Minton's, would build on the earlier experiments of Christian.[24] Before 1942, Parker was known to have spent more time atClark Monroe's Uptown House, another Harlem club wherejam sessions extended into the early morning than he spent playing at Minton's.[25] After leavingJay McShann's band at the end of 1941, Parker joinedEarl Hines's band in 1942 and was reunited withDizzy Gillespie, whom he had met sometime earlier.[26] It was during this period of time starting in 1942 that Parker, nicknamed 'Bird', could be found sitting-in at Minton's on Monday nights as recalled by Miles Davis:
On Monday nights at Minton's, Bird and Dizzy would come in to jam, so you'd have a thousand [players] up there trying to get in so they could listen to and play with Bird and Dizzy. But most of the musicians in the know didn't even think about playing when Bird and Dizzy came to jam. We would just sit out in the audience, to listen and learn.[27]
Parker never was officially a member of the house band at Minton's during that period. However, sensing his importance to the bebop movement, Clarke and Monk approached Teddy Hill about hiring Parker into the band. Hill refused so Clarke and Monk decided to pay Parker out of their salaries.[28]
After Parker's arrival on the scene in Harlem, other new players followed.Miles Davis,Fats Navarro,Dexter Gordon,Art Blakey,Max Roach and many others were drawn to Minton's.[29]Miles Davis's search forCharlie Parker brought him to Minton's where he "cut his teeth" at the jam sessions.[30] Davis remembered:
The way [it] went down up at Minton's was you brought your horn and hoped that Bird and Dizzy would invite you to play with them up on stage. And when this happened you better not blow it ... People would watch for clues from Bird and Dizzy, and if they smiled when you finished playing, then that meant your playing was good.[31]
The house band at Minton's Playhouse developed ways of weeding out less skilled musicians who wanted to sit in. According to bassistMilt Hinton, Gillespie prompted the band to play standards, such asGershwin's "I Got Rhythm", in difficult keys in order to discourage beginners from sitting in.[32] BassistCharles Mingus remembered being required to audition to get up on stage:
To play at Minton's you couldn't just walk in and grab a bass. They made you go in a back room or a kitchen and call a few tunes. They did it to me too. They said, "Can you play 'Perdido'? Can you play 'Body and Soul'?"[33]
Practices such as these challenged up-and-coming jazz musicians to get their acts together in order to participate in the jam sessions, which kept the music at a high level.
Minton's changed its open jam policy in favor of big-name acts in the 1950s.[34] By the late 1960s, bands were no longer at the cutting edge. Harlem writer,Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) wrote inBlack Music (1967): "The groups that come into Minton's are stand-up replicas of what was a highly experimental twenty-five years ago."[35] Although the club was open for a little more than three decades, Minton's Playhouse will always be associated with the 1940s and the jam sessions that gave birth tobebop. Minton's thrived for three decades until its decline near the end of the 1960s, and its eventual closure in 1974.[36]
After being closed for more than 30 years, the newly remodeled club reopened on May 19, 2006, under the name Uptown Lounge at Minton's Playhouse.[37][38] However, the reopened club was closed again in 2010.[39]
In 2013,Richard Parsons revived Minton's as an upscaleJazz club and restaurant.[40] The restaurant's cuisine was entrusted to restaurant owner Alexander Smalls.[39] The new club was designed by architect Sarah Garcia of Estudio Sarah Garcia and a new brand identity designed by New York designer John Simoudis.[41][42][43]
TheNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Hotel Cecil and Minton's Playhouse as a city landmark on June 27, 2023.[44][45]
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