Heena kim
ESL 4
June 23 2010
Jamerry Kim
Final Paper
Harlem with Soul
“Harlem is the recognized Negro capital,” wrote author and civil-rights activist James Weldon Johnson. Harlem is in northernmost location of Manhattan district. It is to the east 110th street and to the west 96th street with central park as the center. Until 19 century, Harlem was inhabited by a member of the upper middle class of New York. For much of the 20th century, Harlem indicated as the epitome of the African American dream of freedom and success. During the first Harlem renaissance, the most imaginative terms in American history, the neighborhood was a center for black intellectuals, musicians, writers, and artistic such as Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes. Harlem gave birth to bebop in the 1940s, and during the civil-rights era it became a political nexus as leaders like the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X rose to prominence. But middle class in the 1960s and 1970s Harlem went down in the grip of crime, drugs, and joblessness. “In the decades that followed, several attempts at revitalization failed for reasons that, depending on whom you ask, include the misappropriation of government funds, redlining by banks, dangerous streets, negative stereotypes perpetuated by the media, corporate myopia, and out and out racism.”[1] However, Harlem has been home to a variety of ethnic groups, black and white, since the turn of the twentieth century. As the ethnic landscape has changed, cultural and religious buildings have been reshaped to serve the evolving populations. Harlem has been called a state of mind, but it is also a real place, remembered in oral histories, described in photographs, and evaluated by scholars.
Presently Lenox Lounge is a particular place has upheld stood for in the past in Harlem.1n 1939 during the gang wars, Lenox Avenue and 125th street, the Lenox Lounge with distinctive art deco style and renowned Zebra Room opened for business. People can take the 2 and 3 train to 125th street and it will be drop off right in front of the legendary Lenox Lounge. The Lenox Lounge bridges the praise days of the Swing Era and the current generation flourishing in Harlem’s second renaissance as a jazz club, bar, and restaurant. And also Lenox Lounge had an honor was voted Best of the Best in the 2002 Zagat Survey Nightlife Guide.
Façade of the Lenox Lounge
The owner of the Lenox Lounge, Alvin Reed Sr. says “Harlem will be a destination again New York, where people can come for nightlife. The neighborhood is changing. In the morning, you see people with briefcases. You never used to see that”[2] He was born ten blocks away from the Lenox Lounge. He was taken a photograph when he was child, Life of Look, in the article about a government program plan to help the poor. The photographer asked him to eat a piece of bread in the picture. Alvin also remembers Harlem as a place of scrubbed streets and block captains and mentors. However, Billie Holiday writhed himself and died in drug addiction, heroin delirium, Malcolm X got his and the sixties and seventies happened and nobody went to work and everybody was scared. So that, Alvin worried to raise his son, Alvin Jr. in the dangerous place. He married with Ethel and got out to Bronx where was burned and then to the Queens. But he had been bringing back an image of Harlem when he dreamed good dreams. He wanted do something to bring back to the Harlem to young people see that they had a vibrant, clean, and respectful community what he once knew and believed. At the beginning, the musicians had played only for some people. He did not make money for life. So he started commercial advertising and obtains advertising effect as soon as he did. The place does not require making a reservations and dress code. He only wanted people who knows jazz or not to this great place to enjoy all he had offer. He does not take any money from the Lounge. Whatever money comes in then it goes right back to all employees and the musicians get paid.
According to Nina Moffitt, “The Lenox Lounge is a historic bar and jazz club in Harlem where you can drink, dine and hear straight ahead jazz player, young and old, playing from swing to modern and bebop jazz in the famous “Zebra Room”.”[3]
Performance in the Zebra Room
The Lenox Lounge has operated continuously since famous American celebrities stop by this place. Lenox Lounge and Zebra Room sometimes features in music videos which are Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Keith Seweat, P.Diddy, and Quincy Jones, in movies which are Remake of Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson, Double Platinum starring Diana Ross and Brandy, and Malcolm X, featuring Denzel Washington, and also fashion layout and advertisements which are Bride's, Gentlemen's Quarterly, The New Yorker, Essence, and O, The Oprah Magazine, Chrysler and G Unit Clothing Company. Moreover, the Lenox Lounge has been growing up as one of the most popular and best night spots of New York even to traveler.
The Lenox Lounge open during the week with certain for African American food called Soul Food.They serve a wide variety of appetizers, entrees and sandwiches as known as soul food. The menu features chicken, barbecued ribs, fried flounder or whiting, pork chops, crab-cake, collard greens, fried shrimp, buffalo wings, potato salad, macaroni and cheese. Attractive of having dinner in the place is people would enjoy fine food with followed by the sounds of live jazz music. The music is played every day of week. Friday and Saturday nights present top flight well known people such as the Louis Hayes Quartet, composer Bill Lee, Benny Powell Quartet, and the Houston Person Quartet. Sunday night is the Vocal Jazz Open Mic Night hosted by the Lafayette Harris trio, and Monday nights Patience Higgins and the Sugar Hill Quartet hold a late night jam session, a tradition of the past three years.
Lenox Lounge became an icon of historic Harlem, has been serving up swinging jazz and soul- food classics for almost about 70 years. Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, all the famous player set the place off to advantages. An art deco vibe permeates interior and exterior very calm and classic. The Lounge underwent a significant restoration; most of works have been done for Zebra Room where is having jazz performance in 1999. A new ceiling, lights, and mirrors were placed in. And Lenox Lounge, it has been updated with modern connivances. New floor tiles were spread out that replicated the original gray, black and burgundy hexagonal pattern, and the booths were replaced. In the Zebra Room are decorated black leather banquettes wrapping themselves around curving zebra- print walls, and some cozy tables are in the center of room. There is a small space for the band in the right that every seat in the room is having nice view and sound of the performance. Also, the frosted glass fins on the lights integrated with mood to feel jazzy.
Interior of the Zebra Room Lights
According to Kelly Loftus, “For me, the Lenox Lounge remains an important priceless touchstone, with my love of jazz and with so many of the clubs gone and often forgotten. One does not need to love music to revel in the beauty and style of the Lounge but that certainly does not distract from the experience. Its loving restoration has kept it true its old self. To alter the Lounge would be a tragedy when so many things have gone the way of corporate box stores. The quality and craft reflect pride and connection with Harlem’s history”[4]
Bibliography
Book
- Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto Negro New York, 1890-1930 Harper Torchbooks Harper& Row, Publishers New York and Evanston
Article
-Nina Moffitt ‘Lenox Lounge’ Historic jazz club, home of the famous Zebra Room , Places That Matter
Website
-Lenox Lounge official cite www.lenoxlounge.com
[1] Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto Negro New York, 1890-
[2] Ibid.
[3] Nina Moffitt ‘Lenox Lounge’ Historic jazz club, home of the famous Zebra Room , Places That Matter
[4] Kelly Loftus March 2008
http://www.divshare.com/download/11875443-2de
