JazzMF

Jazz research on the Internet: a continuing saga

DC Jazz Places

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Don’t see the DC jazz place you remember? Please tell us in a comment below so we can add it!

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  2. I saw Oscar Peterson at a restaurant on Rhode Island Ave. NE around 17th St. not see of the name. Early 1950s.

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    • The two places I am sure that Peterson played in the 1950s were Club La Comeur and Olivia Davis’ Patio Lounge, but both are NW (14th and 13th Sts.). I’ll see if I can dig up anything that would match your recollection.

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      • I think I have it – the Celebrity Room at 1300 Rhode Island Ave, NE (in the Rhode Island Plaza building) featured the Peterson trio (with Barney Kessel and Ray Brown?) as well as Cecil Young’s quartet from June 10 to 15, 1953.

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  3. There was a walk-down place on N St NW between 18th and 19th where a psychologist named Kaufman played jazz piano.

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    • Thanks for the tips, Davey! These are tougher – I find only one mention of jazz at the DC Civic Center at 4618 14th St, NW (for a Left Bank-DC Mondays series in 1975 – there’s more ink on Monday night bingo at the Civic Center than any jazz there!), and I can’t find anything about The Devil’s Eye (I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be confusing this with The Devil’s Fork near Scott Circle) – can you say approximately when it was in existence?

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  6. I think I read that a place called the Old Rose and Pleasure Club was down near Howard Theater around 7th and T Street NW

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    • Thanks for the clue! Yes – in 1949, 1848 7th St., NW (second floor) was the location of the Old Rose Social Club. It was in existence going back at least to 1937. A newspaper mention calls it “a former after-hours club.” The club lost its liquor license in 1951. Unfortunately no information on jazz activities there, but quite likely.

      Actually, I had a listing already! https://jazzmf.com/wiki/old-rose-social-club/

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