Blues Alley

Blues Alley entrance seen from the street

Blues Alley, founded in 1965,[1] is a jazz dinner-and-nightclub in an alley off Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood. As of 2008, exclusively jazz musicians are booked into Blues Alley for approximately 360 nights out of the year.

Musicians who have performed at Blues Alley include Monty Alexander, Mose Allison, Tony Bennett, Ruby Braff, Charlie Byrd, Eva Cassidy, Mel Clement, Buck Clayton, Billy Cobham, Larry Coryell, Roy Eldridge, Maynard Ferguson, Rachelle Ferrell, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Garrett, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Hackett, Roland Hanna, Clancy Hayes, Buck Hill, Earl Hines, Freddie Hubbard, Lurlean Hunter, Phyllis Hyman, Ahmad Jamal, Dr John, Stanley Jordan, Steve Jordan, Stacey Kent, Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Taj Mahal, Pat Martino, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, Mark Murphy, Oscar Peterson, Joshua Redman, Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Jimmy Rushing, Gil Scott-Heron, Charlie Shavers, George Shearing, Wayne Shorter, Maxine Sullivan, Stanley Turrentine, McCoy Tyner, Sarah Vaughan, Grover Washington, Jr., Mary Wilson, Nancy Wilson, Teddy Wilson and Sol Yaged.[2][3]

The Front Entrance to Blues Alley

Jazz musicians who have recorded a Live at Blues Alley album include Eva Cassidy, Dizzy Gillespie (featuring local tenor saxophonist Ron Holloway), Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis, Wynton Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington, Jr.

In 1975 Earl Fatha Hines spent a week, during the afternoons while the club was closed, making an hour-long solo film for British television in Blues Alley, featuring Frank Hart, Blue's Alley's "clean-up man".[4][5]

Blues Alley also has a non-profit jazz arm, the Blues Alley Jazz Society, dedicated to jazz education and outreach for young performers in the local area. Education and outreach programs include the Blues Alley Youth Orchestra and Blues Alley Jazz Summer Camp.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Blues Alley - History". Archived from the original on 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2006-05-07.
  2. ↑ Hahn, Fritz (July 1, 2005). "Playing the Blues For 40 Years". The Washington Post.
  3. ↑ Rhythm Man: Steve Jordan, University of Michigan Press, 1993. ISBN 0-472-08202-7
  4. ↑ "Earl "Fatha" Hines". Vimeo. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Earl Fatha Hines, 1-hour "solo" TV documentary made in Washington DC by ATV, England, 1975: directed/produced by Charlie Nairn: original 16mm film plus additional tunes "out-takes" from that film archived in British Film Institute Library @ bfi.org.uk: see also www.jazzonfilm.com/documentaries
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Coordinates: 38°54′17″N 77°03′44″W / 38.9047°N 77.0623°W / 38.9047; -77.0623

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