Margate’s Barbary Coast Bars – Revisited. A tour through time. – By Bill Kelly
From The Downbeach Current,April 30, 2009. Vol. 13, NO.7
http://www.shorenewstoday.com/db/
Page 29 Check out all the stories on Margate history.
Today Margate is mainly sushi bars and condos, but at one time, it was the place to go to have a great time. They called it the “Barbary Coast” because of the image of drunken debauchery, but for many locals and tourists, it was.
The strip went along the bay front to Washington Avenue and then to beach.
If you came from the south, from the Somers Point – Ocean City causeway, the first bar you came to was Kelly Voght’s rickety old nightclub that stretched out over the bay, an old wooden clapboard building reminiscent of Bayshores. Then there was the Longport Inn, an eating and drinking establishment where many of the power brokers met. Both have been leveled and are now condos.
Heading north along the bay you then came to Strotbeck’s, a private club, now Steve & Cookies, and faithfully maintained, where the food is good and the music is smooth jazz. A block in from the bay was Moylans, a small corner, seasonal, neighborhood bar, with a low ceiling, and dark, with no windows and a good juke box.
Back on the bay, heading north on Amherst Avenue is Jerry Blavat’s Memories (formerly the Elbo Room), which is still going strong with the Geater with the Heater, the Boss with the Hot Sauce spinning the discs for dancers and the radio audience.
Next along the line was the Harbor Inn, where at one time, not long ago, they had ten beers for a dollar. On the next corner was Merrel’s, where Lew London, the East Coast Aces, Bobby Campanell and the original Shakes played before it became Gilhooley’s, a brass and glass joint.
Next door is the venerable Maynards, the last of the old time Barbary Coast Saloons, where the late, Al Triano orchestrated the party, and where you can get cheep draft beer, a hot sandwich off the grill, a bowl of peanuts, and leave the shells on the floor.
On the corner, where there is now a sushi bar, there used to be Kelly’s corner bar, with a pool table and juke box, and attached to Gables, one of the premier rock and roll bars on the East Coast. Once said to be a bowling alley, the huge nightclub had multiple bars, dance floor and a stage where the Exceptions were the house band who opened for major acts like John Kay and Steppenwolf.
Around the corner across the street, there was Omar’s, a neighborhood bar that was once called the Nickelodeon, a bust out joint which featured live bands, before it too became a fancy restaurant and then, condos.
There is also the Barn pizza hut, a popular pit stop for generations, and another popular late night pizza place down Washington Ave., before you got to Maloney’s, one of the most popular local pubs until it was raised and condoed out a few years ago.
Just past Maloney’s, on the corner, was the White House, also known as Reds as it was Red Klots’ sports bar. Klots owns the Washington Generals (Nationals) professional basketball team, who faithfully maintain an unblemished record of having lost every one of their games to the Harlem Globetrotters. When Klot’s son Glenn was old enough, he turned Reds into a disco, and then a New Wave bar, the Ivory, with radical bands like the Ramones and the Hooters, who played there in the 80s.
Then it became a disco again, and was a favorite hangout of seasonal neighbor, “Skinny” Joey Merlino, the nominal head of the old Philadelphia mob. Then it was leveled into a parking lot before it was condoed.
Across the street on the beach is the Green House, where the octogenarian Flintstones band used to play in the low ceiling beach bar. They really were old coots playing in a band that really had a good time. Now it’s Ventura’s Green House, and features fine Italian food, a good pizza and sandwich grill and a popular deck just off of Thong Beach.
A block down from the Green House was the Beach Bar, where you could walk in off the beach in your bare feet and get a cold one, which was developed into a high rise in the early 80s.
Where ever you went at the Barbary Coast, at the end of the night, after shooting pool, drinking and dancing to the live bands, everyone eventually ended up at Lenny’s Hot Dog Stand, which when the sun came up, was in the shadow of Lucy the Elephant.
By three or four in the morning there was a line at Lenny’s where people stood around mingling, talking, eating hot dogs, and getting ready to take a nap on the beach, or reluctantly go home.
Things were like that for decades, but eventually, the party had to end. A number of things led to the end of that era, including the lowering of the drinking age to eighteen, the increase in DWI arrests and accidents, and sensational news reports of a young women found dead on a boat from a drug overdose, another women being raped on the beach by a professional athlete and finally, in August 2007, the murder of Paul Ritch, a British tourist on a holiday, who was knifed in the heart behind one of the bayside bars.
The increase in the value of the real estate market and the development of condos forced the college and group rental crowd to find another neighborhood, and the seedy bars were transformed into classy, brass and glass restaurants.
And today, as they sit around sipping champagne in their waterfront condos and at the sushi bars, it seems that the people who have never been to Margate’s Barbary Coast in its heyday, just don’t know what a good time is.
MARGATE – after staying pretty much the same for ten thousand years, went from sandy, shifting hills barrier island to contemporary resort town in less than a hundred years,
To the Lenni Lenape Indians it was known as Absecon Island, a desolate wind swept sand bar with an ever changing landscape they never thought anyone would or could live on.
To the first European explorers the bay area was called Eren Haven – Great Egg bay because of the prevalence of bird eggs, and the first settlers used the barrier islands as a cattle pen.
Thomas Budd paid ten times as much per acre for the mainland parcels of land than he did for the barrier islands, but the value of the waterfront would change with the times, and the advent of modern society.
Few people even knew about Sandy Hills until the trains came in to Atlantic City, at the north end of Absecon Island, bringing thousands of tourists daily from Philadelphia, and so they began to call it South Atlantic City. They also came by steam ferry from Ocean City and Somers Point to Longport so it was, for the most part, a place that tourists passed through to get somewhere else.
That is until 1881, when 25 year old engineer James V. Lafferty began his quest to build Lucy the Elephant as a real estate promotion. In 1882 the US Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent for “the exclusive right to make, use or sell animal-shaped buildings for seventeen years.” Lucy was the first of three such elephants, the others being the Elephantine Colossus, built at Coney Island New York and the Light of Asia in South Cape May, N.J. Colossus burned down, the Light of Asia was eventually torn down, and Lucy was sold, with Lafferty’s other property, to John and Sophie Gertzen, who operated it as a tourist attraction, hotel and tavern.
On August 1, 1885 an Egg Harbor Township referendum was held to consider incorporating South Atlantic City as a borough an action taken by New Jersey state legislature on September 7, 1885, though it wasn’t until April 23, 1897 that South Atlantic City reincorporated as a city.
On April 20, 1909 the city was reincorporated with the name Margate City. The name Margate was probably taken from the resort town of Margate in England. As England’s oldest seaside resort Margate, Kent, has a history that dates back 700 years. As a bathing beach resort, Margate in England can attribute its popularity to a visionary entrepreneur, real estate developer and inventor. Like Lafferty at the Jersey Shore, Margate in England had Benjamin Beale, who patented a bathing machine.
Bathing, at home or in the sea, was not considered a social occasion between the sexes until the Victorian age, encouraged at first by “bathing machines,” like the one invented by Beale. With modesty being a primary factor, bathers entered a little wooden hut covered with canvas that was pulled into the sea. As bathing among the sexes became more socially acceptable, the bathing machines disappeared, and Margate became one of England’s most popular seaside resorts.
Margate, New Jersey is also one of America’s most popular bathing beaches, though one with less modesty, as the beach by Lucy is today known as “thong beach,” which shows you how far things have gone in less than a hundred years.
The century long history of Margate itself is probably best exemplified by the ever changing story of Lucy, which has served as a restaurant, tavern and hotel, was once the center of the town’s social activity, and is still a tourist attraction and landmark.
William Howard Taft was President in 1909, an otherwise inauspicious year when Robert Perry reached the North Pole, Joan of Arc was declared a saint, Shibe Park (later Connie Mack Stadium) opened, the NAACP was formed and Jack Johnson was heavyweight champion of the world.
The demographics were changing however, primarily by the automobile and airplane. The Wright brothers sold their plane to the military and they made the first commercial use of the airplane in 1909, while Alice Ramsey, a Hackensack, N.J. housewife, became the first women to drive a car across the country from New York to San Francisco.
In 1909 steam ferries ran passengers on a regularly scheduled line from Ocean City and Somers Point to Longport – the ever receding south end of the south end of Absecon Island, and from Longport, people had to pass through South Atlantic City to get to Atlantic City. And for the most part, people traveled by train and trolley.
That all changed on July 1, 1926 when the Benjamin Franklin Bridge opened and day trippers began to arrive by car.
As Atlantic City grew, so did Margate, and like other nearby towns, it became a suburb community, and known as an affluent one, attracting not only successful Atlantic City businessmen, but rich industrialists from Philadelphia and Baltimore who built mansions on the highest ground, which were at first seasonal homes but became year ‘round residences.
Besides the beach side taverns and restaurants like Lucy and the Green House, fine restaurants and private clubs like Stotbecks provided first class service to the seasonal visitors and Atlantic City’s business and power brokers.
Unlike Atlantic City, Ocean City and Wildwood, Margate did not offer many hotel rooms for transients, or even lease apartments on a weekly or monthly basis, and became popular, for the most part, with seasonal home owners.
There was also the proliferation of the waterfront bars (See: the Bars of Margate’s Barbary Coast) along the bay, where many of the ramshackle houses became group rentals for college kids before being developed into exclusive condos.
By 1960 Lucy was run down, dilapidated, and slated to be demolished, which was put off until 1969 when the Save Lucy Committee, formed by the Margate Civic Association, moved Lucy to the beachfront land owned by the city and by 1973, had raised enough money to restore it.
And today, Lucy stands tall as a symbol, the logo of a sea side city that was looking to promote itself as a nice place to live, and now pretty much likes the way things as they are.
[Bill Kelly can be reached at billykelly3@yahoo.com ]
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Cape May Jazz Fest Spring 09 Preview
Cape May Jazz Fest 2009 Spring Preview
April is Officially Recognized as Jazz Appreciation Month, so appreciate it.
James Cotton, Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang, Andrew Jr. Boy Jones, Alan Weber and Juke Joint Central will certainly give this 31st edition of the Cape May Jazz Fest a blues tinge, a bend in the harp we are certainly looking forward to.
With the theme "Legends and More Blues," there certainly are legends here, and more blues than you can shake a harp at.
This time around the designated dead legends are Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, with the tributes being performed by Steve Butler as Billy, and Sarah's part being sung by Sabrina Carten, Barbara King and DC Sharon Clark. They will satisfy the classic jazz buffs, while the younger, new wave will be supplied by guitarist Roni Ben Hur and Cuban percussionists Mayra Casales and Francois Zayas. The former will play jazz classics with the latter laying down some new notes you've never heard before, but will most certainly want more.
The blues end of it will be held down by Shaw's Gang, Boy Jones, Weber and Cotton.
Cotton. What a guy! I've seen him a half-dozen times, and he's always terrific, reaching down into his guts to the roots of the music that grew up with him.
I got pictures too, some of Cotton at the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia in the 70s, and the Bubba Mac Shack a few summers ago. It's a shame, that both great live music cabaret venues like the Bijou and the Bubba Mack Shack no longer exist, a sad contemporary statement on current affairs.
There's also a photo of Cotton and Billy Muller posted above, taken upstairs in the dressing room at the Bijou, where me and Billy interviewed Cotton on tape that night (circa 1978), and oh, what a night that was. That was the night I met Hubert Sumlin, who Cotton introduced after we made Sumlin wait out in the hall while we talked on tape.
Cotton was on break between shows, and the acapella Persuasions were singing downstairs, as you can hear them on the tape I made of the interview, actually a three way conversation between Cotton, Muller and myself, and later Sumlin.
We were sitting there, with the tape recorder on the table running, and Muller, the guitar wizard (who collects Les Pauls) asking most of the questions. First he wanted to know about Cotton's early mentor Sonny Boy Williamson, whose role in the early history of rock & roll is illustrated in a photograph on page one of the Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. It shows Sonny Boy playing the harp outdoors with a drummer, whose drum read: KFAA - the King Biscuit Flower Hour, execept buscuit spelled wrong.
Cotton got all exicted when he talked about Sonny Boy, and told the story of how, when he was a kid, he hitch hiked to the studio where Sonny Boy's live radio show King Biscuit Time was broadcast in Helena, Arkansas, and how he talked Sonny Boy into letting him play on the show. Helena was also home to Levon Helm, the Band's drummer, whose back to the roots Dirt Farmer CD, recently won awards.
From the same Mississipi river delta region as many of the early blues greats, James Cotton's family were cotton farmers, though he was the youngest of eight and for the most part, kept the rest of the family supplied with water and music he played on the harp, while they worked. His mother taught him the only things she knew how to play on the harmonica - the sound of a train and young Cotton first heard a real song played on the harmonica on the radio, Sonny Boy Williamson radio show, King Biscuit Time, sponsored by the King Biscuit flour baking company.
The real radio roots of rock and roll is still going strong at KFFA:
http://www.kingbiscuittime.com/
"Sonny Boy told me to play his commercial theme for the King Biscuit flour, hell, I'll do it for you now," he said, and pulled out a harmonica and slapped it on his knee and sang, "I got King Biscuit on my table,...I got King Biscuit on my table,..." and then he wa, waaaed on his harp for a moment, and then sang the refrain.
When Cotton's parents died, while he was still young, before he was a teen, Sonny Boy practically adopted his young protege, and he stayed with him until he met Muddy Waters, who wrote the original "Like A Rolling Stone." Cotton joined up with Muddy, he replaced Junior Wells in Howlin' Wolf's band. So before he was out of his teens, James Cotton had played with Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, three of the most influencial blues acts who helped shape early rock and roll.
Billy asked Cotton about what it was like playing with Howlin' Wolf and his band every night, and the name of Wolf's guitarist Huber Sumlin came up.
"Wasn't Hubert from Philly?" Billy asked. "Is Hubert Sumlin still alive?"
"He's not only alive, and from Philly," Cotton said, "Hubert's right outside that door right now waiting for us to wrap this up so he can say hello," and with that, he ushered Hubert Sumlin into the room and introduced us.
Dressed impecably, as I learned, as always, Sumlin smiled, "I ain't dead yet," he deadpanned, when told Billy had asked if he was still alive.
Then, an hour later, we were downstairs, sitting ringside, when Cotton asked Sumlin to join them on stage and Hubert borrowed the guitar of a young upstart, and whaled with Cotton.
Now Cotton's headlining the Cape May Jazz Fest. Being used to playing dingy blues bars, he'll be a little out of his element in the Lower Township school theater, but it will be a unique opportunity for the audience to hear him play in the acoustically sound room.
And while Howlin' Wolf is no longer with us, the Wolf Gang is, and Eddie Shaw, the Wolf's saxman, will also be part of this fest, playing Cabanas, traditionally the blues bar at every fest. While you have to get up and move around some of the time, I usually find myself spending most of my Cape May Jazz Fests at Cabanas, where they usually feature the blues bands.
Cabanas has an interesting history too. When I first came to town in the 70s it was a really unique joint called Gloria's, and owned by an eccentric older hippie who brought in really good bands. One of the bands featured regularly at Gloria's was Pacific Orchestra, who became sort of the house band. And upstairs, a women named Maureen opened a restaurant that would make waves for decades.
Gloria's changed with the ownership, and has had many configerations, but it's maintained a comfort level as a cabaret with live music, and seems to have some permenant good vibes.
Andrew Jr. Boy Jones will set the blues tone for this fest at Cabanas on Friday night. This Dallas guitarist, from the same hood as Stevie Ray, played with Charlie Musselwhite, argueably the second best living blues harpest, after Cotton.
If there's something going on as a sidebar at this fest, it's got something to do with the saxes. Odean Pope is a living legend they may do tributes to after he's gone, but here he is, playing sax at Aleatheas, along with his ace quartet - Carl Grubbs, Lee Smith, George Burton and Craig McIver.
You don't think of the sax so much of a blues instrument as jazz, but Odean Pope and Eddie Shaw - the legends, and Alan Weber and Randolph Spencer, the local guys, may change that thinking around. Weber is a Cape May saxman, who plays the Boiler Room at Congress Hall and the Copperfsh Restaurant, and will be leading the Saturday afternoon blues jam at Cabanas. Look for Cotton to stop by and jam.
Then Saturday night, while Cotton is whaling his harp over at the Lower Twp. School Theater, Eddie Shaw and his Wolf Gang will hold down Cabanas. Shaw, on sax, and Cotton on harp, used to play in the same band with Howlin' Wolf, and since Cotton's gigs are scheduled for 6:30 and 8:30, he finishes early and could make it down to Cabanas for Eddie Shaw's last set. And I'm sure he won't be able to just sit there and watch.
And I would hope Woody and Carol spring for Cotton's hotel room, and kept him in town, because he's just the kind of guy who would drop in on Juke Joint Central at Cabanas Sunday afternoon and make things really interesting.
Randolph Spencer is the sax man with Juke Joint Central, which also includes Greg Lamont on organ, Percy Smith on drums, David Cole on guitar and Dick Smith on vocals.
If it comes down to a choice between tributes to dead legends and checking out these living blues greats, you'll find me with the blues all weekend.
For more info or to buy tickets visit:
http://www.capemayjazz.com/
Full Lineup
Friday, April 17, 2009
8:00PM - 9:00PM Tribute to Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 10:00PM Odean Pope Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
9:00PM - 1:00AM Barbara King Carney's Other Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Andrew Jr. Boy Jones Blues Cabanas
9:00PM - 1:00AM Sylvia Cuenca Group Carney's Main Room
10:00PM - 11:00PM Tribute to Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn Theatre at Lower Regional High School
11:00PM - 12:00PM Odean Pope Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
Saturday, April 18, 2009
10:00AM - 1:00PM Workshops Cape May Elementary School
12:00PM - 1:00PM Tom Zmuda and the Thursday Night Jazz Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Divine Jazz Combo Carney's Other Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Saturday Jams Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Saturday Jams Carney's Other Room
1:00PM - 4:00PM Alan Weber and Frenz Blues Jam Cabanas
5:00PM - 6:00PM CD Signing Party Boiler Room at Congress Hall
6:30PM - 7:30PM James Cotton Blues Band Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 9:30PM James Cotton Blues Band Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 10:00PM Sharon Clark Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
9:00PM - 1:00AM Mayra Casales Group Carney's Main Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang Cabanas
9:00PM - 1:00AM Roni Ben-Hur Carney's Other Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Michael Thomas Quintet Boiler Room at Congress Hall
11:00PM - 12:00PM Sharon Clark Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
Sunday, April 19, 2009
12:00PM - 4:00PM Sunday Jams Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Sunday Jams Carney's Other Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Little Jazz Giants Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Young Lions Jazz Quartet Carney's Other Room
1:00PM - 4:00PM Juke Joint Central Cabanas
April is Officially Recognized as Jazz Appreciation Month, so appreciate it.
James Cotton, Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang, Andrew Jr. Boy Jones, Alan Weber and Juke Joint Central will certainly give this 31st edition of the Cape May Jazz Fest a blues tinge, a bend in the harp we are certainly looking forward to.
With the theme "Legends and More Blues," there certainly are legends here, and more blues than you can shake a harp at.
This time around the designated dead legends are Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, with the tributes being performed by Steve Butler as Billy, and Sarah's part being sung by Sabrina Carten, Barbara King and DC Sharon Clark. They will satisfy the classic jazz buffs, while the younger, new wave will be supplied by guitarist Roni Ben Hur and Cuban percussionists Mayra Casales and Francois Zayas. The former will play jazz classics with the latter laying down some new notes you've never heard before, but will most certainly want more.
The blues end of it will be held down by Shaw's Gang, Boy Jones, Weber and Cotton.
Cotton. What a guy! I've seen him a half-dozen times, and he's always terrific, reaching down into his guts to the roots of the music that grew up with him.
I got pictures too, some of Cotton at the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia in the 70s, and the Bubba Mac Shack a few summers ago. It's a shame, that both great live music cabaret venues like the Bijou and the Bubba Mack Shack no longer exist, a sad contemporary statement on current affairs.
There's also a photo of Cotton and Billy Muller posted above, taken upstairs in the dressing room at the Bijou, where me and Billy interviewed Cotton on tape that night (circa 1978), and oh, what a night that was. That was the night I met Hubert Sumlin, who Cotton introduced after we made Sumlin wait out in the hall while we talked on tape.
Cotton was on break between shows, and the acapella Persuasions were singing downstairs, as you can hear them on the tape I made of the interview, actually a three way conversation between Cotton, Muller and myself, and later Sumlin.
We were sitting there, with the tape recorder on the table running, and Muller, the guitar wizard (who collects Les Pauls) asking most of the questions. First he wanted to know about Cotton's early mentor Sonny Boy Williamson, whose role in the early history of rock & roll is illustrated in a photograph on page one of the Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll. It shows Sonny Boy playing the harp outdoors with a drummer, whose drum read: KFAA - the King Biscuit Flower Hour, execept buscuit spelled wrong.
Cotton got all exicted when he talked about Sonny Boy, and told the story of how, when he was a kid, he hitch hiked to the studio where Sonny Boy's live radio show King Biscuit Time was broadcast in Helena, Arkansas, and how he talked Sonny Boy into letting him play on the show. Helena was also home to Levon Helm, the Band's drummer, whose back to the roots Dirt Farmer CD, recently won awards.
From the same Mississipi river delta region as many of the early blues greats, James Cotton's family were cotton farmers, though he was the youngest of eight and for the most part, kept the rest of the family supplied with water and music he played on the harp, while they worked. His mother taught him the only things she knew how to play on the harmonica - the sound of a train and young Cotton first heard a real song played on the harmonica on the radio, Sonny Boy Williamson radio show, King Biscuit Time, sponsored by the King Biscuit flour baking company.
The real radio roots of rock and roll is still going strong at KFFA:
http://www.kingbiscuittime.com/
"Sonny Boy told me to play his commercial theme for the King Biscuit flour, hell, I'll do it for you now," he said, and pulled out a harmonica and slapped it on his knee and sang, "I got King Biscuit on my table,...I got King Biscuit on my table,..." and then he wa, waaaed on his harp for a moment, and then sang the refrain.
When Cotton's parents died, while he was still young, before he was a teen, Sonny Boy practically adopted his young protege, and he stayed with him until he met Muddy Waters, who wrote the original "Like A Rolling Stone." Cotton joined up with Muddy, he replaced Junior Wells in Howlin' Wolf's band. So before he was out of his teens, James Cotton had played with Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, three of the most influencial blues acts who helped shape early rock and roll.
Billy asked Cotton about what it was like playing with Howlin' Wolf and his band every night, and the name of Wolf's guitarist Huber Sumlin came up.
"Wasn't Hubert from Philly?" Billy asked. "Is Hubert Sumlin still alive?"
"He's not only alive, and from Philly," Cotton said, "Hubert's right outside that door right now waiting for us to wrap this up so he can say hello," and with that, he ushered Hubert Sumlin into the room and introduced us.
Dressed impecably, as I learned, as always, Sumlin smiled, "I ain't dead yet," he deadpanned, when told Billy had asked if he was still alive.
Then, an hour later, we were downstairs, sitting ringside, when Cotton asked Sumlin to join them on stage and Hubert borrowed the guitar of a young upstart, and whaled with Cotton.
Now Cotton's headlining the Cape May Jazz Fest. Being used to playing dingy blues bars, he'll be a little out of his element in the Lower Township school theater, but it will be a unique opportunity for the audience to hear him play in the acoustically sound room.
And while Howlin' Wolf is no longer with us, the Wolf Gang is, and Eddie Shaw, the Wolf's saxman, will also be part of this fest, playing Cabanas, traditionally the blues bar at every fest. While you have to get up and move around some of the time, I usually find myself spending most of my Cape May Jazz Fests at Cabanas, where they usually feature the blues bands.
Cabanas has an interesting history too. When I first came to town in the 70s it was a really unique joint called Gloria's, and owned by an eccentric older hippie who brought in really good bands. One of the bands featured regularly at Gloria's was Pacific Orchestra, who became sort of the house band. And upstairs, a women named Maureen opened a restaurant that would make waves for decades.
Gloria's changed with the ownership, and has had many configerations, but it's maintained a comfort level as a cabaret with live music, and seems to have some permenant good vibes.
Andrew Jr. Boy Jones will set the blues tone for this fest at Cabanas on Friday night. This Dallas guitarist, from the same hood as Stevie Ray, played with Charlie Musselwhite, argueably the second best living blues harpest, after Cotton.
If there's something going on as a sidebar at this fest, it's got something to do with the saxes. Odean Pope is a living legend they may do tributes to after he's gone, but here he is, playing sax at Aleatheas, along with his ace quartet - Carl Grubbs, Lee Smith, George Burton and Craig McIver.
You don't think of the sax so much of a blues instrument as jazz, but Odean Pope and Eddie Shaw - the legends, and Alan Weber and Randolph Spencer, the local guys, may change that thinking around. Weber is a Cape May saxman, who plays the Boiler Room at Congress Hall and the Copperfsh Restaurant, and will be leading the Saturday afternoon blues jam at Cabanas. Look for Cotton to stop by and jam.
Then Saturday night, while Cotton is whaling his harp over at the Lower Twp. School Theater, Eddie Shaw and his Wolf Gang will hold down Cabanas. Shaw, on sax, and Cotton on harp, used to play in the same band with Howlin' Wolf, and since Cotton's gigs are scheduled for 6:30 and 8:30, he finishes early and could make it down to Cabanas for Eddie Shaw's last set. And I'm sure he won't be able to just sit there and watch.
And I would hope Woody and Carol spring for Cotton's hotel room, and kept him in town, because he's just the kind of guy who would drop in on Juke Joint Central at Cabanas Sunday afternoon and make things really interesting.
Randolph Spencer is the sax man with Juke Joint Central, which also includes Greg Lamont on organ, Percy Smith on drums, David Cole on guitar and Dick Smith on vocals.
If it comes down to a choice between tributes to dead legends and checking out these living blues greats, you'll find me with the blues all weekend.
For more info or to buy tickets visit:
http://www.capemayjazz.com/
Full Lineup
Friday, April 17, 2009
8:00PM - 9:00PM Tribute to Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 10:00PM Odean Pope Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
9:00PM - 1:00AM Barbara King Carney's Other Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Andrew Jr. Boy Jones Blues Cabanas
9:00PM - 1:00AM Sylvia Cuenca Group Carney's Main Room
10:00PM - 11:00PM Tribute to Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn Theatre at Lower Regional High School
11:00PM - 12:00PM Odean Pope Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
Saturday, April 18, 2009
10:00AM - 1:00PM Workshops Cape May Elementary School
12:00PM - 1:00PM Tom Zmuda and the Thursday Night Jazz Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Divine Jazz Combo Carney's Other Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Saturday Jams Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Saturday Jams Carney's Other Room
1:00PM - 4:00PM Alan Weber and Frenz Blues Jam Cabanas
5:00PM - 6:00PM CD Signing Party Boiler Room at Congress Hall
6:30PM - 7:30PM James Cotton Blues Band Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 9:30PM James Cotton Blues Band Theatre at Lower Regional High School
8:30PM - 10:00PM Sharon Clark Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
9:00PM - 1:00AM Mayra Casales Group Carney's Main Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Eddie Shaw and the Wolf Gang Cabanas
9:00PM - 1:00AM Roni Ben-Hur Carney's Other Room
9:00PM - 1:00AM Michael Thomas Quintet Boiler Room at Congress Hall
11:00PM - 12:00PM Sharon Clark Aleatheas Restaurant-Inn of Cape May
Sunday, April 19, 2009
12:00PM - 4:00PM Sunday Jams Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 4:00PM Sunday Jams Carney's Other Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Little Jazz Giants Carney's Main Room
12:00PM - 1:00PM Young Lions Jazz Quartet Carney's Other Room
1:00PM - 4:00PM Juke Joint Central Cabanas
Friday, March 20, 2009
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