by Richard Vacca | May 13, 2021 | Boston nightclubs, Nightlife
Varty Haroutunian at the Stable, 1959
In early 1966, Varty Haroutunian, manager of the Jazz Workshop on Boylston Street, saw the writing on the wall. It said, “grow or close.” The Workshop seated 175, and Haroutunian believed that given the changing economics of the music business, the club couldn’t make it without more revenue. For that, he needed more seats, and his pursuit of them led to the opening of Varty’s Jazz Room.
Varty Haroutunian is a familiar figure in these blog posts (here and here), and an important character in The Boston Jazz Chronicles. He was the Jazz Workshop’s booker as well as its first manager, and for three years the music was consistently of high quality. There were many high points, from the Grand Opening with Stan Getz, to booking artists who otherwise went unheard in Boston (Shirley Horn, Bobby Timmons, Lennie Tristano), to multiple visits by John Coltrane’s Quartet. And Varty filled out his schedule with the best of the local jazzmen—Pomeroy, Mariano, Mosher, Lennie Johnson.
A rent increase in early 1966 brought the revenue issue into sharper focus. Then in June clubowner Harold Buchhalter sold the Jazz Workshop to Tony Mauriello, Fred Taylor, and Peter Lane—MTL, Inc. They were already managing Paul’s Mall, another Buchhalter property next door, and Buchhalter sold MTL both clubs. However, the understanding was that Haroutunian could manage the Workshop as long as he wanted the job.
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by Richard Vacca | May 5, 2021 | News
The warmer weather is here and people are venturing outside again. That means it’s time to start my entertainment district walking tours for 2021. First up is “Boston Nightlife at Mid-Century,” a stroll through the Theatre District and Bay Village—by day—on Saturday, June 5.
The 90-minute Theatre District nightlife walk is sponsored by Lexington Community Education, and preregistration is required. The cost is $25 per person. For complete info, or to register, go to the Lexington Community Education website.
What: Walking tour, “Boston Nightlife at Mid-Century.”
When: Saturday, June 5, 2021 (rain date Saturday, June 12) 10:00-11:30 a.m.
Where: Meet on the Boston Common, at the corner of Boylston and Tremont streets.
Accessibility: Route follows city sidewalks.
Among the notable people whose paths we’ll cross are James Brown, George Carlin, Miles Davis, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Christine Jorgensen, and Diana Ross. We’ll also meet two generations of Boston entertainers and a couple gangsters who prefer not to be identified at this time. Hope to see you there.
by Richard Vacca | Feb 16, 2021 | Boston nightclubs, Jazz history, Nightlife
It was not a banner year for Boston jazz clubs in 1971. The audience was something of a moving target. The younger people who are vital to the success of any club scene were still going out, but to clubs featuring rock, not jazz. So they were at Brandy’s, or O’Dee’s, or Lucifer—and not in jazz clubs. The older crowd who did patronize those clubs were going out less often, especially during the week. So the challenge was to program a schedule to attract a younger crowd that extended beyond the student body at Berklee.
If you went looking for jazz, there weren’t too many choices. There was Wally’s in the South End, and the Kismet Lounge in Allston. The Playboy Club in Park Square presented an occasional name to play with Bob Winter’s house trio. If you had a car, you could head to Lennie’s-on-the-Turnpike in suburban West Peabody, but a fire closed Lennie’s in May. The only full-time, name-band jazz room in Boston was the Jazz Workshop on Boylston St.
This table shows what you would have heard at the Jazz Workshop 50 years ago.
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by Richard Vacca | Jan 10, 2021 | Boston nightclubs, Nightlife
Connolly’s Stardust Room, on the corner of Tremont and Whittier in Roxbury, served as a destination for two generations of Boston clubgoers. The first attended from 1957 through 1967, including the club’s name-band years. The second witnessed the 1990s and last call.
Connolly’s in 1997
Connolly’s history starts in 1955, when Jimmy Connolly bought a five-story building at 1184 Tremont Street housing a neighborhood bar called Murray’s Cafe. Jimmy brought in music in 1956, and Connolly’s Stardust Room, with a capacity of about 150, was born. Vin Haynes wrote in the Boston Chronicle that he was hearing good jazz there on the weekends in January 1957. But the building was so dilapidated that Boston’s building inspectors told Connolly that if he didn’t remove its upper floors, they’d condemn it. He did, and the result was the squat single-story building we remember.
In early 1959, Connolly brought in an organ trio and put them to work seven nights a week. Hillary Rose was the man at the Hammond B-3. Dan Turner, a hard blower nicknamed “Hurricane” during his days with Sabby Lewis, played tenor. Bill “Baggy” Grant, who learned his drumming alongside Kenny Clarke, completed the trio. It was the group to hear in Boston.
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by Richard Vacca | Dec 8, 2020 | Jazz history, Publishing, Radio and television
The name John McLellan might be unfamiliar to many readers of this blog. That’s understandable; it’s been almost 60 years since John’s jazz program was last heard on Boston radio. McLellan, whose real name was John Fitch, died in Boston on Nov 28, 2020, at age 94 (obituary). He was a man of many interests who reinvented himself and his career several times in the years before people talked about doing that. But I think of him in the context of just one of those interests and careers. I think of John McLellan as a good friend of jazz.
John McLellan, about 1955
I’ve written about John McLellan here, and specifically about his TV program here, as well as in The Boston Jazz Chronicles. But to briefly summarize his decade in the jazz world: hosted The Top Shelf on WHDH-AM from April 1951 to February 1961; wrote 400 “Jazz Scene” newspaper columns for the Boston Traveler between August 1957 and September 1961; hosted a twice-monthly Jazz Scene program on WHDH-TV from May 1958 to December 1961; and emceed the first two Newport Jazz Festivals in 1954 and 1955. And he wrote liner notes, narrated the “Living History of Jazz” production with Herb Pomeroy’s big band, mentored the Teenage Jazz Club, and more. Without a doubt, it was a vast body of work.
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by Richard Vacca | Nov 18, 2020 | Boston musicians, Boston recordings
Saxophonist and singer Paul “Fat Man” Robinson, a key figure on Boston’s postwar nightlife scene, was the city’s leading exponent of the jump blues, that lively mix of jazz, blues and boogie popularly identified with Louis Jordan. Although Robinson made his mark playing R&B and jazz, he could play any style of music for any audience. His band was one of the city’s busiest. And they rocked the joint wherever they went. As an ad for a Robinson engagement at the Palace Bar proclaimed: “There’s Life Here!”
Fat Man Robinson on bari in the recording studio, ca. 1954.
Paul Robinson was born in Louisiana on June 8, 1918, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His later music clearly showed he heard the music of the church as well as jazz there. At some point he started playing saxophone and clarinet. Robinson entered the army in World War II, and played in an army band, but the details are lost. (Sadly, many such details are lost. Much of Robinson’s personal history was destroyed in a fire.)
Robinson moved to Boston after his army service. He’d heard Louis Jordan and organized a quintet to play in that style. There were others around town playing jump blues, notably Sabby Lewis and Jimmy Tyler, but they were strictly instrumental. With his vocalizing, Fat Man Robinson stood apart. And a band with a vocalist was readily employable.
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by Richard Vacca | Oct 21, 2020 | Boston musicians
The career of the nonpariel bassist Teddy Kotick divided into two parts. There was the New York Teddy of the 1950s. Of that Teddy Kotick, the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz says he was “highly valued by his contemporaries for his impeccable sense of timing, secure choice of notes, and vibrant tone.” Furthermore, Charlie Parker supposedly claimed that Kotick was one of his favorite bassists. Such praise firmly fixes Kotick in the upper echelon of bop-era bassists.
Then there is the much later Boston Teddy of the 1980s. That Teddy Kotick emerged from a long self-exile to share bandstands with Jimmy Mosher, Tony Zano, and other New Englanders in a too-short comeback ended at age 58 by cancer, in 1986.
Teddy Kotick, 1975. Photo by Don Bacon.
It’s a sad fact that Kotick’s work is little remembered today, 34 years after his death. It’s a good time for a brief retrospective.
Teddy Kotick was born in Haverhill, Mass, on June 4, 1928, but his family soon moved to nearby Lowell, where he was raised. Music came early, starting with guitar lessons before he was ten. He picked up the bass in high school. After a few years gigging around the Merrimac Valley, Kotick moved to New York in 1948 and landed his first name-band job with Johnny Bothwell. He went from Bothwell to Tony Pastor, and then to Buddy Rich. He swiftly climbed the ladder. In 1949 he was with Buddy DeFranco’s sextet, a group that made a notable visit to Boston’s Hi-Hat club. Then came work with another clarinetist, Artie Shaw, and the 1950 edition of his Gramercy Five.
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by Richard Vacca | Sep 28, 2020 | News
In September 2019, I worked with Chandra Harrington and the staff at the Museum of African American History to develop the exhibit, Jazz Scene in Boston: Telling the Local Story. It ran in parallel with a second exhibit, Jazz Greats, a traveling exhibition of fine photos taken by master photographers. In late 2019 and into the new year, the Abiel Smith School galleries were filled with the images of America’s—and Boston’s—rich jazz history. Jazz Scene in Boston is a visual delight. It includes images by noted photographers Lee Tanner and Jack Bradley, and photos and memorabilia from my own collection, as well as from the Carrington family collection and others. There are institutional contributions as well, such as Boston Jazz Society items from the University of Massachusetts archives, and Lennie’s-on-the-Turnpike photos from the archives at Salem State University. The exhibit should have closed in the spring, but the virus shut down the museum, and the staff had to come up with a plan B. They did, and it includes keeping Jazz Scene on display until further notice. If you missed it, you have another opportunity to see some great photography and an assortment of vintage posters and flyers. It’s all at the Museum of African American History, 46 Joy Street on Beacon Hill. Visit their site for hours and more information.
by Richard Vacca | Sep 20, 2020 | Publishing
One year ago, I submitted the manuscript and artwork for the Fred Taylor book, What, and Give up Showbiz? to its publisher, Backbeat Books. Working with Fred had been a big part of my life for almost four years, and handing off the manuscript was a cause for celebration. Being the as-told-to guy on a book project is a long and sometimes tedious process. More on that some other time.
Fred Taylor really wanted to see his story finished and in print, but it was not to be. He died in October 2019 of cancer. At that point I wondered if the project would even go forward, but the publisher was committed to Showbiz and determined to publish it. In February, Backbeat’s editor sent me her revisions to review. We resolved those, leaving me with only one more hurdle to jump to complete my work. All that remained was to review the page proofs, the last reading before the book goes into production. The publication date was set for May 2020.
Then came the virus, and the publisher furloughed the staff. Everything stopped. The release date was pushed back to July, then October, and now November. And finally, last week, the editor sent the page proofs for the final review. They looked just fine!
With my commitments to Fred and to the publisher complete, I am officially done with What, and Give up Showbiz? I look forward to seeing it in print at last come November. Better late than never, as the old saying goes.
by Richard Vacca | Aug 17, 2020 | News
This is a short welcome message to introduce you to my new website, richardvacca.com. It has one purpose—to be a place where I can share the history of Boston jazz and nightlife in the mid/late 20th century. It’s a new home for The Boston Jazz Chronicles.
This site replaces my online home for the past seven years, troystreet dot com. Why the change? Simply put, the publishing company idea never really took off, and it makes no sense to tie my jazz history project to it. That site was in need of a reboot anyway, so… now’s the time.
Most of the content has migrated to the new site, so it’s still about the blog and the books. Your blog subscription will continue as before. I hope you find the user experience to be better, and you won’t find any popups or clickbait. Just a little peace and quiet for your reading pleasure.
I have new posts coming on bassist Teddy Kotick, saxophonist and singer Fat Man Robinson, organist Phil Porter, and more, so do visit often, and please spread the word.
Finally, my thanks to the endlessly patient Deborah Perugi of Perugi Design for making it all happen.
