Open Jam night, with the famous and celebrated pianist Lafayette Harris who provides wickedly subtle accompaniment, has moved to Stop Time (right in the neighborhood, people!) because the wonderful Lenox Lounge (but so far away) has closed for the usual F-ed up reason everything good closes up these days.
I stopped in a few weeks ago on a bitter night and walked into Heaven. Angelic and devilish voices, one after the other—some hot vocalists followed Mr. Harris from Harlem to Bed-Stuy, and some locals dropped in too.
So easy to get to—the corner of Bedford and Halsey, the A train to Nostrand Ave—a couple blocks away.
And seriously, Stop Time has live music every night, it’s new and I fervently want them to survive, so please go.
Just a word about the American Songbook and Classic Jazz Standards: There’s no real Book and no Final List. They are created by whatever jazz singers and musicians continue to want to play. The audience knows the songs—think Everything Happens to Me, Time After Time, Throw it Away—and the singers know you know them, they have to know the history, call up their best chops and make it new.
The thrill when Steve “Sonny” Williams walks in, doesn’t even take off his jacket or hat and kills with Body and Soul or when Mary Lovelace gets over her initial shyness and lets loose on Since I Fell for You—all your troubles melt away.
And just a note to the painters, it’s like painting a bowl of apples. It’s been done before, it ain’t easy, but ah, when it comes off! – CNQ
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