New York City, USA
HARLEM
125th Street ← 126th Street → 127th Street
126th Street has a hard time making a name for itself since it’s so close to “Main Street” Mostly it is a quiet residential area with a few brownstones most of which have been renovated since the 1980s. Here are the highlights from this block. (by cross street, heading west to east)
St. Nicholas Blvd.
As you continue to Frederick Douglass Blvd.. You are in a alleyway behind all the shops. Often, there is a crowd here late at night waiting to collect autographs from the people who perform at The Apollo theatre. The adjacent street is a vacant lot.
Frederick Douglass Blvd. (8th Ave.)
Allah's Nation Headquarters, they own most of this block. They are kinda like the Nation of Islam, but a bit weirder-- Often they send costumed speakers to 125th Street to hand out pamphlets.
Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. (7th Ave.)
-Jamaican Hot Pot (restaurant, inexpensive)
-Windows (a classy restaurant)
-Black Fashion Museum
-Parking (rare in NYC!)
Malcolm X Blvd. (Lennox Ave. or 6th Ave.)
-The Project art gallery
-Sylvia's Restaurant probably the most famous soul food restaurant in America. Featured in a number of Spike Lee films.
Fifth Avenue.
- National Black Theatre Institute (they have a performance space in a renovated firehouse)
- A very famous photo was taken here. One day in 1956 a group of jazz musics gathered to pose for a photo for Variety Magazine. It was amazing to have so many great players in one place. It was A Great Day in Harlem. Among them were:
- Red Allen
- Buster Bailey Friend of Louis Armstrong, wrote Squeeze Me
- Count Basie
- Emmett Berry Played trumpet with Count Basie
- Art Blakey
- Lawrence Brown Played trombone with Duke Ellington
- Scoville Browne Played Clarinet. He brought the camera to take this famous photo.
- Buck Clayton Played Trumpet. Toured in China. (yes, China) in the 40s
- Bill Crump He later became a minister. This is interesting since the black church has long been against Jazz music. He sometimes denies being in the photo, but since he lives down the street from me I may go over there some day and try to get him to own up to it!
- Vic Dickenson Played Trombone.
- Roy Eldridge From Pittsburgh. Played with Miles
- Art Farmer
- Bud Freeman Played the tenor sax.
- Dizzy Gillespie
- Tyree Glenn Started with jazz, moved in to funk.
- Benny Golson
- Sonny Greer Drummer, played with Duke Ellington at The Cotton Club
- Johnny Griffin Played sax. "I like to play fast. I get excited, and I have to sort of control myself, restrain myself. But when the rhythm section gets cooking, I want to explode."
- Gigi Gryce Composer, Alto Sax too, played Blues and Jazz
- Coleman Hawkins
- J.C. Heard Drummer
- J.C. Higginbotham
- Milt Hinton Jazz Base player.
- Chubby Jackson Played base
- Hilton Jefferson Started out playing banjo
- Osie Johnson Swing Drummer
- Hank Jones trumpeter & composer, his two brothers played jazz too
- Jimmy Jones Jones brother on piano.
- Jo Jones Jones brother on the drums and high hat
- Taft Jordan New Orleans Trumpet player
- Max Kaminsky Trumpet
- Gene Krupa
- Lester Young
- Eddie Locke Drums
- Mary Lou Williams Sang with Duke Ellington
- Marian McPartland
- Charles Mingus
- Miff Mole Had a band called the moles
- Thelonius Monk
- Gerry Mulligan
- Oscar Pettiford Bassist
- Rudy Powell Saxophone
- Luckey Roberts One of the first stride piano players
- Sonny Rollins
- Jimmy Rushing Vocals
- Sahib Shihab Saxophone, be-bop
- Horace Silver
- Zutty Singleton Drummer
- Stuff Smith Violin
- Rex Stewart Trumpet
- Maxine Sullivan Swing singer
- Joe Thomas Sax and vocals
- Wilbur Ware Bass
- Pee Wee Russell Clarinettist
- Dickie Wells trombone
- George Wettling Drums
- Ernie Wilkins Sax, Swing
(NOTE: If there is no note by the musicians name then you should click on their name to see the node about them-- that is, the ones without a little note from me are really famous and other noders have covered them more fully than I could in just a line or two. The list of names came from harlem.org, the notes came from my landlord who likes Jazz way too much...)
HARLEM
125th Street ← 126th Street → 127th Street