The Outrageous, Uncensored Oral History of Seventh Avenue South— the Brecker Brothers’ Era-Defining Club
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New York Nights THE OUTRAGEOUS, UNCENSORED ORAL HISTORY OF SEVENTH AVENUE SOUTH— THE BRECKER BROTHERS’ ERA-DEFINING CLUB MARCUS MILLER JACO PASTORIUS JOHN SCOFIELD MILES DAVIS SEX, DRUGS & JA Z Z By Shaun Brady THE ORAL (AND NASAL) HISTORY OF SEVENTH AVENUE SOUTH— THE BRECKER BROTHERS’ HARD-PARTYING, BAND-BUILDING, ERA-DEFINING NEW YORK CITY NIGHTCLUB 2 JAZZTIMES • JULY/AUGUST 2016 ← With Miles Davis and Chaka Khan hanging at right, the Brecker Brothers tear up the upstairs music venue in 1981. Pictured are saxophonist Michael Brecker, guitarist Kazumi Watanabe and bassist Marcus Miller. Drummer Richie Morales is obscured; trumpeter Randy Brecker is out of frame PHOTOS COURTESY OF KATE GREENFIELD & RANDY BRECKER OF KATE PHOTOS COURTESY unique meeting place for jazz cats, fusion pioneers and in-de- to open a restaurant. It was just one of mand studio musicians, Seventh Avenue South, located at that those things; at any moment we could thoroughfare and Leroy Street in Manhattan’s West Village, have not done it, but we just kept mov- ing forward. [Cooper] was supposed to became one of New York City’s hippest hangs for a hectic know the business and teach me, since decade. Michael and Randy Brecker, along with a restaura- I was going to be the working partner teur and educator named Kate Greenfield, owned and operated the club from 1977 with him, but it became apparent that he to 1987, where it became a convergence point for everyone from Cedar Walton to didn’t know as much as he professed to Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis to Chaka Khan. It was also the launch pad for several know. He would show up in the middle notable groups, including Steps Ahead, the Bob Mintzer Big Band, Pastorius’ Word of the day with a racing form and a bag of Mouth, the 24th Street Band with future David Letterman band members Will of chips. So we gave him some money and bought him out. Lee and Hiram Bullock, and Marcus Miller’s Jamaica Boys. It was also a hub for, in the words of more than one of its regulars, “sex, drugs and jazz.” Here is the story of BRECKER: Mike and I were meant to be Seventh Avenue South in the words of those who lived to tell its often-riotous tale. more or less silent partners, but it ended up that we weren’t so silent. Our modest investment increased by leaps and bounds. RANDY BRECKER (TRUMPETER, CO-OWNER): [Cooper] found a space that he thought That’s really how it started. It was a mere Mike and I became friendly with a guy might be suitable to resurrect a club, and accident and it continued for 10 years. named Bob Cooper, who managed a club he needed a modest investment. called Boomer’s on Bleecker Street that DAVE LIEBMAN (SAXOPHONIST): Sam Rivers was a cool hangout. It was somewhere you KATE GREENFIELD (CO-OWNER): I was had Studio Rivbea and Rashied Ali had Ali’s could really feel comfortable, have a drink, working in the Brooklyn Criminal Court Alley, so it wasn’t unknown for musicians listen to music, see other musicians— in a counseling program, but I was very to have a club. But in that generation, for where you weren’t just asked to leave after interested in food and I had a little bit that kind of music, it was probably the first the set. Several months after it closed, of money saved up. I decided I wanted one—maybe the only one. JAZZTIMES.COM 3 ← Co-owner Kate Greenfield, second from left, hangs with friends upstairs during the club’s opening week in 1977 BRECKER: It was two floors. The music STEVE FERRONE (DRUMMER, THE BRECKER BOB MINTZER (SAXOPHONIST): The majority [space] was on the second floor and held BROTHERS, AVERAGE WHITE BAND): Bill of the clubs in town were run by proprietors about 120 people, and there was a long Cherry was the real jazz bartender. He that had very specific likes and dislikes bar à la Bradley’s downstairs with a little was such a cool guy. He had the Afro and when it came to jazz music, so they booked section where people could sit and a couple everything, like a Snoop Dogg character, accordingly. But Seventh Avenue South was of tabletop video games and stools around. if you want to put him in modern terms. wide open. Every kind of music imaginable The first floor became the hang if you didn’t was played in there, and I think they hired want to go upstairs and listen to the music. JASON MILES (COMPOSER, PRODUCER, acts based on the merit of the music alone. KEYBOARDIST): To me, Bill was the first WILL LEE (BASSIST): I would sit in the back social-media dude. He brought people LEE: This was a time when going into and play Missile Command all night. They from Mikell’s with him down to Seventh a nightclub meant there was so much had a great sit-down Atari arcade game that Avenue South. People used to follow bar- cigarette smoke that you were going to was built into a table. They also had a juke- tenders around. Bartenders were almost have to have your clothes dry-cleaned just box. I think the most played record there of the leaders of their own clan. from walking in. It was very difficult to all was probably [hums] “Blue Train.” Of all walk in and hear lame music. It was one of the tunes that were played on there, I think LEE: There was always a Bill Cherry party the places that you could count on to hear that one set the atmosphere that defined the going on. He wasn’t a crazy, wild guy. He great, great stuff. It wasn’t a snobby place way that room felt. It was just chill. was just a really sweet, sensible guy who where every note you played was being made you feel at home, and a lot of us judged, or a place where the music was LIEBMAN: The upstairs and the downstairs wanted to feel at home. so loose that it ended up being valueless. were two different worlds. Downstairs it There were probably more good notes per was people drinking and hanging and get- MARCUS MILLER (BASSIST): If you had a gig capita played there than anywhere. ting high. Upstairs it was no different, but at Seventh Avenue South, during your we had music. [laughs] We had an excuse. break you could walk three blocks to JOHN SCOFIELD (GUITARIST): To me, it was Sweet Basil or one more block up to the the center of the jazz world at that time. BILL CHERRY (BARTENDER): I was working at Village Vanguard to see who was hitting There was the Village Vanguard, but this Barbara’s, a small jazz club on West Third over there, so maybe you could catch 10 was the real contemporary jazz scene in and Thompson, after [the Upper West Side minutes of somebody else’s set. There was New York. It was a time when fusion music jazz club] Mikell’s. Kate got to know me and a lot of crosspollination. It was a really didn’t have the bad reputation that it got mentioned that she and Randy and Michael vibrant community, and Seventh Avenue after smooth jazz came along. It was still were opening a spot, and asked if I would South was at the center of it. cutting edge. It was also a meeting place be interested in getting involved from the for jazz musicians and studio musicians; ground up. I had a following, and in the bar PETER ERSKINE (DRUMMER): Mike and Ran- there’s always been a big overlap between business if you have a bartender that has a dy were living the dream. They created those worlds. So it was a place not only to following you can start with at least some- a place where like-minded, like-souled hear great music but also to be part of the thing going on until you can build it up. musicians could play. music world. 4 JAZZTIMES • JULY/AUGUST 2016 BRECKER: You’d be downstairs and see MINTZER: It was never my intention to have casting a radio show from Seventh Avenue Cecil Taylor hanging out with Hiram a big band. Just on a lark I called all the South and she was working with some Bullock. It was a melting pot of different guys that were playing there, never imagin- promoters in Japan. [The Japanese record styles of music. ing that they’d all be interested in doing this label] Nippon Columbia heard the group and they were, to my surprise. One of the and liked it very much and offered us a FERRONE: It was a mixture of what I, first big band gigs I did there, the club was deal. At the time I was signed to Warner being from England, would call “jazz- full of people and the energy was incredi- Bros. in the United States as a solo artist, so ers,” and studio musicians. Some nights ble. Dave Liebman was in the audience and I couldn’t call that band the Mike Mainieri you’d go down there and Max Roach or couldn’t control himself—he stormed the Quintet. I gave it the name Steps, and then Dexter Gordon would be playing, and bandstand and grabbed David Sanborn’s we called the group Steps Ahead when we then you’d have Jaco Pastorius and the soprano and started playing.