The newly opened Redding's in Atlantic City kicked off its 'Jazz Alive' series with Hammond B3 great Joey DeFrancesco Tuesday night, Feb. 8.
What do you think about live jazz returning to Atlantic City's famed Kentucky Avenue?
On Tuesday, Feb. 22, groundbreaking will commence on the newest Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian’s 19th museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, will occupy a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue between 14th and 15th streets N.W., between the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Dave Matthews Band 'Live in Atlantic City' is available for pre-ordering. The 2-CD set will be released Dec. 13, and will include the band’s headlining concert on June 26, the final night of the Atlantic City DMBC festival.
Atlantic City, like many other U.S. cities, once had segregated beaches, but they didn't start out that way. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Blacks and whites lived side-by-side, worked side-by-side and played side-by-side.
I've tasted IHop's new [chicken and waffles] dish and they're missing the key ingredient — soul! Eating chicken and waffles at IHOP is like eating a Philly cheesesteak in Montana. It's not even close." See photos and video...
Judge Nelson Johnson's latest book 'The Northside,' on Atlantic City's history of African-Americans, is missing key components says community leader. Johnson's previous book Boardwalk Empire was turned into the 2010 HBO series, the second season of which is filming now.
A banner with the name Slappy White on it hung across Kentucky Avenue all summer. The late comedian and actor (who died in Brigantine in 1995) was booked for the entire season at Atlantic City’s famed Club Harlem. On this particular summer night, however — July 24, 1964, to be precise — hanging above the banner was yet another banner. It read: “Sam Cooke.”
The truth is, our region has been a live-music mecca since the early 1900s, when cats like Eubie Blake and Eddie Cantor hung out for summers and performed at local clubs. Decades later the Atlantic City jazz scene was as hot as they come, with internationally heralded performers from Billy Eckstine and Louis Armstrong playing residencies at some of the hottest clubs on the East Coast, namely the venues on Atlantic City’s fabled Kentucky Avenue — all of them are gone now — including the Club Harlem.
Summertime, and the groovin’ is easy. Tourists fatten the regular jazz crowd cramming Kentucky Avenue, where the night never dies. Inside Club Harlem, they press against the bar and each other, as the organist and his quartet tune up on the bandstand. The music comes fast and the band is tight and the organ looses a torrent of sound. And there’s an added bonus for posterity: the live session is being recorded for an album, a rare occurrence in Atlantic City. This was the scene on the Saturday night of Aug. 9, 1969, when master jazz organist Lonnie Smith and company cut Move Your Hand, an exemplar of ’60s soul jazz, for the legendary Blue Note label. The title song, which became a hit, borrowed its lyric from a joke that Smith’s drummer told about a substitute preacher who couldn’t deliver the sermon because someone else’s hand was covering the text. (The joke is less than hysterical, but the number’s a grabber.) “One night, I was playing a little lick and just happened to say [“move your hand”] to the fellows in the band,” says Smith, now 67 and as busy as ever. “People loved it and always requested it.” It became...
At a fraction the size of the Showboat House of Blues' main music hall, one might assume that the Club Harlem Ballroom is reserved for lesser-known acts, or those that don't have the drawing power to...
THE ADDRESS WAS 32 North Kentucky Avenue, and it was a place where the music -- and the night -- never died. If the entire block, including the likes of Grace's Little Belmont and the Wonder Garden b...
After nearly six months of endless construction, Redding’s Restaurant on Pacific Avenue opened its doors two weeks ago.
At one time Atlantic City was a must-stop destination among the greatest names in the genre of jazz music, and a strong correlation exists between the city and the DeFrancesco surname. But Joey DeFrancesco, who has been hailed as one of the greatest jazz organists of all time, has never before performed in A.C. as a professional musician.
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1. geoff rosenberger said... on Feb 9, 2011 at 12:18PM
“Spend 5 minutes with carl redding... you'll know you are with a man of great vision and industry. Congrats to he and Donofrio for the jazz series. A related side story should note that Miss Audrey Hart & M.K.Thomas of the ACBCA (Atlantic City Business and Citizens Association, Steven Young and Cornell Davis, of Polaris Development group met in the governor's office last Thurs to bring to light plans to return elements of Kentucky Avenue that should never have been destroyed. They were favorably received, and believe Kentucky Ave shall be recreated bigger and better than ever... good job to all involved.”
2. JazzHead said... on Feb 9, 2011 at 12:32PM
“That would be the best thing AC could do ... bring back Kentucky Avenue. It should have never been destroyed in the first f-in place.”
3. Turiya said... on Feb 9, 2011 at 02:58PM
“Let's hope this is just the beginning! I know it can be done if all parties involved pull together. Sorry I missed the 1st night, just can't get to everything.”
4. sandy warren said... on Feb 9, 2011 at 08:26PM
“The spirits of Art Blakey and other jazz greats from the AC area are full of smiles as are all of us jazz fans who have been waiting for this day for so long!”
5. Jazz Organist! Dan Fogel said... on Feb 10, 2011 at 01:40AM
“Harvey Mason and I were the Houseband mentioned in this article at the Wonder Gardens for many years. We would start work early in the morning from 6:00 am -10:00am sometimes playing till noon depending on the crowd. We also played the the regular evening shows between headliners.
I recall one evening in particular when my dear friend Organist Jimmy McGriff was headlining that week and he asked Harvey and me and our guitarist to fill in for him as he had to go out for a minute. I'll never forget that evening as he never returned and all these people were coming in to see Jimmy McGriff and instead saw this little white boy up there ;of course Harvey Mason and me tearing up the Hammond B-3; and taking no prisoners ( no pun intended). Jimmy finally returned at the end of the night but the crowd seemed no less disappointed by our soulful performance. I was 13 yrs. old. For more stories on KY Ave. - Videos at Chickenbone Beach and my life - go to www.danfogel.org- option Press section”
6. Rev. Gil Caldwell said... on Feb 10, 2011 at 05:36AM
“55 years ago, I came to Atlantic City in the summers to earn money
for my tutition at North Carolina A. & T College in Greensboro. I will
never forget standing on Kentucky Avenue listening to the bold and
creative sounds of Jazz coming from inside Club Harlem and Grace's
Little Belmont. I particularly enjoyed the organ music of Jimmy Smith.
How great it is that Jazz has returned to Kentucky Avenue at Reddings. There is a universality about Jazz that breaks through all of the artificial fences we create to separate ourselves. The late/great pianist/educator
Billy Taylor wrote the song that has the words; " I wish I knew how it feels to be free, to break all the chains that are holding me." Thanks to Chef Carl
and Joe Donofrio for sponsoring and promoting a music form that is indigenous to the USA; Jazz. May the Jazz back on Kentucky Avenue break through any of the chains that may be holding Atlantic City back.
Pastor Caldwell, Asbury Church”
7. Cornell Davis said... on Feb 10, 2011 at 10:02AM
“Kentucky Avenue is the one area in AC that offers the opportunity for grass roots entertainment done in the 21st century. Restoring KY Ave and will bridge the Northside and Southside together and create that drawing hub for persons from all walks of life local and extended to enjoy Atlantic City, NJ 08401”
8. "Action" JACKSON said... on Feb 10, 2011 at 11:47AM
“Well, i am so glad to see this type of progress taking place in this city. So many negatives, yet with a glimps of light from a visionary man, Mr. Redding, my hat goes off to you. I am excited to see what type of additional synergies with success will begin to sprout up from this. My great uncle Tommy Flannagan would be so happy to see what has happened. Lets get to the heart of the matter, put aside stupid political agendas and make this city what it should be...things don't happen until they are ready to happen...it is time.”
9. Cinematic Moments Video said... on Feb 14, 2011 at 09:05AM
“Gotta love the resurgence of jazz in South Jersey!”
10. Anonymous said... on May 3, 2011 at 09:10AM
“I am encouraging my family whose reunion will be held in A.C. July 8, 9, and 19, 2011 to visit Reddings. My husband and I ate there earlier this year and loved it.”