Jazzing up Broadway

[steven]

The Colored Musicians Club is a special place for many people.
Ellis Marsalis — patriarch of the famous family that includes Wynton and Branford — played there with Miles Davis.

Louis Armstrong’s family still sends $35 membership dues every year.
And B.B. King’s wife remains a member of the famed club, which got its liquor license in July 1935.

“Jazz is the only art form that was created in the United States by African- Americans, and the [Colored Musicians Club] was the source for jazz,” said Danny Williams, the club’s vice president. “It was the only spot in Buffalo where African-Americans could come and play.”

For two years, to commemorate that July event, the club has held free outdoor jazz festivals on the last Saturday of the month. The third annual festival will takes place from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday on the blocked-off street in front of the club at 145 Broadway.

Besides showcasing musicians from Western New York and Southern Ontario, the festival will include a raffle to raise funds to open a museum at the location by early next year. The museum is envisioned as the next step in developing an African- American heritage corridor in the Michigan Avenue-Broadway area.

In addition to the Musicians Club, the corridor includes the Nash House — which opened to tourists this spring — and the historic Michigan Street Baptist Church.

All three sites are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Once all three are up and running as museums, re-enactments and events would tie them together as one destination point for tourists.

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/127354.html

[ghosthunter]

This is probably one of the most worthwhile threads on this board, and unbelievably, it had no replies.

Thanks for giving me some interesting morning reading Steven.