July 6, 2008
No Room for Jazz in Harlem?
The no-cover daytime jazz club EZ's Woodshed in Harlem is closing after two and a half years. Its owner, Gordon Palotnick, took a quixotic stab at sustaining the music that is identified with Harlem. Instead of a smoky late-night club, Palotnick opened a weekdays-only, daytime juke joint that only served soft drinks; and he didn't charge a hefty cover charge either. Despite his best efforts--immersing himself in hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and going out himself to get takeout food for customers--Polatnick had to close EZ's Woodshed on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. He is unrepentant about his failure and content in the happiness that his short-lived venture provided him.
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Who does this surprise?
Is there room for Jazz in NYC anymore? I don't mean the high cover charge safe music that BMW and Hummer crowd like. I mean balls-to-the-wall, knock your socks off blowing from people I've never heard of. That's what Jazz is.
Culture in this city has come to mean black-tie affairs where Bloomberg and his ilk stroke each other while sipping mind-numbingly stupid drinks and listening to music that doesn't jangle their delicate sensibilities.
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Don't blame the hoity-toity set. They wouldn't have gone to a jazz club anyway. More blame falls on the sad state of contemporary urban "music," notably the younger generations being exclusively fascinated with hip hop and rap. You just can't blast jazz from the 1000-watt stereo in your car, you know. It's not the same without the omnipresent bass track.
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Whether they're fans of tuneless and mechanical Hip Hop or non-guitar playing Rock (remember, only strumming is allowed), both sets would benefit by hearing "A Love Supreme" blasting from a stereo.
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So sad. I knew "Big Apple Jazz" (Palotnick's website by that name is still online).
By the way, the historic "Big Apple" night club plaque at 135th Street and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard was removed in 2006 to make way for a Popeye's fast food restaurant. No one tried to save the plaque that had been there since 1934--as historic in its own way as the Apollo.