Minton’s Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Hotel Cecil at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem. Minton’s was founded by tenor saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938.^[1] Minton’s is famous for its role in the development of modern jazz, also known as bebop, where in its jam sessions in the early 1940s, Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian, and Dizzy Gillespie, pioneered the new music. Minton’s thrived for three decades until its decline near the end of the 1960s, and its eventual closing in 1974.^[2] After being shuttered for more than thirty years, the newly remodeled club reopened its doors on May 19, 2006, under the name Uptown Lounge at Minton’s Playhouse.^{[3] [4]} Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major black cultural and business center. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play out of the blue, trying to accomplish harmony without prewritten music. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... Kenny Clarke (born January 9, 1914 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania-died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France) was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. ... Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... May 19 is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The club's beginnings

Minton’s original owner, Henry Minton, was well known in Harlem for being the first ever black delegate to the American Federation of Musicians Local 802.^[5] In addition, he had been the manager of the famed Rhythm Club, in Harlem, in the early part of the 1930s, a place where Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, and Earl Hines frequented.^[6] Jazz writer, Ralph Ellison, wrote that because of his union background and music business experience, Minton was aware of the economic and artistic needs of jazz musicians in New York in the late 1930s.^[7] Minton’s popularity and his penchant for generosity with food and loans, made his club a favorite hang out for musicians.^[8] Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major black cultural and business center. ... The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) is a labor union of professional musicians in the United States and Canada. ... Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major black cultural and business center. ... Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901[1] – July 6, 1971) (also known by the nickname Satchmo, for satchel-mouth, and Pops) was an American jazz musician. ... Fats Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an African-American jazz pianist, organist, composer and comedic entertainer. ... James Price Johnson (February 1, 1894 - November 17, 1955) was a pianist and composer. ... Earl Kenneth Hines, better known as Earl Hines or Fatha Hines (28 December 1903 near Pittsburgh – 22 April 1983 in Oakland, California) was a prominent jazz pianist. ... Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1913[1] – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. ... Jazz is a musical art form that originated in New Orleans at around the start of the 20th century. ... A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... Official language(s) None Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ...

Minton started a policy of holding regular jam sessions at his club, which would later prove to be a key factor in the development of bebop.^[9] Because of his union ties, Minton was able to ensure that musicians would not be fined for their participation in jam sessions, an activity that was prohibited by the union.^[10] Dizzy Gillespie recalled that there were “walking” delegates from the union that would follow musicians around and fine them “a hundred to five hundred dollars” for participating in jam sessions, but that they were “somewhat immune from this at Minton’s because of Henry Minton.”^[11] According to Ralph Ellison, Minton’s Playhouse provided “a retreat, a homogeneous community where a collectivity of common experience could find continuity and meaningful expression.”^[12] A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play out of the blue, trying to accomplish harmony without prewritten music. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Union generally refers to two or more things joined into one, such as an organization of multiple people or organizations, multiple objects combined into one, and so on. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1913[1] – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. ...

Minton's in the 1940s

In late 1940 Minton hired Teddy Hill, a former bandleader, to manage the club.^[13] Building in the same direction that Minton had started, Hill used his connections from the Savoy Ballroom (where his band used to play), and the Apollo Theatre to increase the interest in the club.^[14] Hill put together the house band which included Thelonious Monk on piano, Joe Guy on trumpet, Nick Fenton on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums.^[15] Both Clarke and Guy were in Teddy Hill’s band before it disbanded in 1939.^{[16] [17]} According to Clarke, Teddy Hill wanted to “do something for the guys that had worked with him” by giving them work during difficult times.^[18] The house band at Minton’s in 1941, with the addition of frequent guests, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Christian, was at the center of the emergence of bebop in the early 1940s.^[19] Later, the band was augmented by tenor saxophonist Kermit Scott.^[20] The Savoy Ballroom located in Harlem, New York City, was a medium sized ballroom for music and public dancing that was in operation from 1926 to 1958. ... Entrance February 2005 This article is about the London theatre. ... A house band is a group of musicians, centrally organized by a band leader, that regularly play a venue every night it is open for business and are synonymous with the establishment. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... Nicholas Leonard Nick Fenton (born 23 November 1979) is a footballer based in the United Kingdom. ... Kenny Clarke (born January 9, 1914 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania-died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France) was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ...

Monday celebrity nights

A feature of Minton’s Playhouse during Teddy Hill’s tenure as manager was the popular Monday Celebrity Nights sponsored by the Schiffmans who owned the nearby Apollo Theatre.^[21] The Schiffmans treated their performers to free dinner and drinks after the conclusion of a long week of work.^[22] The food at Minton’s became almost as popular as the music as noted by many present at that time. In an interview with Al Fraser (1979), Dizzy Gillespie told his recollection of Monday nights at Minton’s: Entrance February 2005 This article is about the London theatre. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ...

On Monday nights, we used to have a ball. Everybody from the Apollo, on Monday nights, was a guest at Minton’s, the whole band. We had a big jam session. Monday night was the big night, the musician’s night off. There was always some food there for you. Oh, that part was beautiful. Teddy Hill treated the guys well.^[23]

Cutting sessions and duels

During the Monday Celebrity Nights, many notable guest musicians such as Roy Eldridge, Hot Lips Page, Ben Webster, Don Byas, and Lester Young would sit in.^[24] The trumpet duels between Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie became legend, with Gillespie eventually surpassing his mentor. Speaking to Al Fraser, Gillespie recalled how Thelonious Monk one night teased Eldridge after being out-played by Gillespie saying, “Look, you’re supposed to be the greatest trumpet player in the world...but that’s the best.”^[25] Even though Eldridge was an established musician in the older swing style, he was an active figure at Minton’s and contributed through his encouragement of Gillespie and Clarke to further their explorations.^[26] Roy David Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 6, 1989) was a jazz trumpet player in the Swing era. ... Oran Thaddeus Page (27 January 1908 in Dallas, Texas - 4 November 1954 in New York City), jazz trumpeter, singer, bandleader, better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians. ... Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909–September 20, 1973) was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. ... Carlos Wesley (Don) Byas (October 21, 1912-August 24, 1972) was a popular African-American jazz musician born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in the United States. ... Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed Prez, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. ... Roy David Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 6, 1989) was a jazz trumpet player in the Swing era. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... Look up swing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Eldridge and the other swing masters who participated in the early jam sessions at Minton’s played an important role in the evolution of swing toward bebop by inspiring the next generation of musicians. A young Sonny Stitt witnessed the great battles between the master saxophonists of the day in the early 1940s: A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play out of the blue, trying to accomplish harmony without prewritten music. ... Look up swing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Sonny Stitt, a quintessential bop saxophonist. ...

Can you imagine Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Chu Berry, Don Byas, and Ben Webster on the same little jam session? They had a place called Minton’s Playhouse in New York. It’s kaput now. And these guys, man, nothing like it. And guess who won the fight?...Don Byas walked off with everything.^[27] Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed Prez, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. ... Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins, nicknamed Hawk and sometimes Bean, (November 21, 1901 or 1904 - May 19, 1969) was a prominent jazz tenor saxophone musician. ... Leon Chu Berry (1908 - 1941) was an American jazz saxophonist born on September 13, 1908 in Wheeling, West Virginia. ... Carlos Wesley (Don) Byas (October 21, 1912-August 24, 1972) was a popular African-American jazz musician born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in the United States. ... Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909–September 20, 1973) was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. ... Official language(s) None Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Carlos Wesley (Don) Byas (October 21, 1912-August 24, 1972) was a popular African-American jazz musician born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in the United States. ...

Byas was one of the first tenor saxophonists to assimilate bebop into his style, in contrast to Young, Hawkins, and Webster, who stayed close to their swing roots through the development of bebop.^[28] Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ...

Herman Pritchard, who tended bar at Minton’s “in the old days”, would watch as Ben Webster and Lester Young would “fight on those saxophones...like dogs in the road.”^[29] Ralph Ellison believes that what was occurring at Minton’s from 1941 to 1942 was a “continuing symposium of jazz, a summation of all the styles, personal and traditional, of jazz.”^[30] Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909–September 20, 1973) was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. ... Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed Prez, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist. ... Ralph Ellison (March 1, 1913[1] – April 16, 1994) was a scholar and writer. ...

Charlie Christian and the house band

One of the pioneers of the new style, which would eventually become know as bebop, was the young electric guitarist from Benny Goodman’s band, Charlie Christian.^[31] Christian was in his early twenties in 1941 and although he would die later that year after being confined to a sanatorium stricken with tuberculosis, he played nightly at Minton’s and was one of its stars.^[32] As evidenced by recordings made by Columbia University student Jerry Newman in 1941, Christian’s playing was breaking new ground.^[33] Gunther Schuller’s assessment of Christian’s playing on those recordings is as follows: Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... Benny Goodman, born BenÅ‘ Guttman, (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American jazz musician, known as King of Swing, Patriarch of the Clarinet, The Professor, and Swings Senior Statesman. // Goodman was born in Chicago, the son of poor Jewish immigrants from Hungary who lived in the Maxwell... Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones and joints. ... Columbia University is a private university whose main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. ... Gunther Schuller Gunther Schuller (born November 22, 1925) studied at the St. ...

His work here seems to me relentlessly creative, endlessly fertile, and is so in a way that marks a new stylistic departure. Indeed, it signals the birth of a new language in jazz, which even [Charlie] Parker did not have as clearly in focus at that time.^[34] Charlie Parker Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ...

Kenny Clarke and the band at Minton’s would look forward with anticipation to Christian’s arrival after finishing his set with Goodman.^[35] Christian was admired by his peers at Minton’s, including Thelonious Monk who “loved listening to Charlie play solos with fluid lines and interesting harmonies.”^[36] Kenny Clarke (born January 9, 1914 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania-died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France) was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ...

Bird and Dizzy

Soon after Charlie Christian’s death, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker would emerge as a new leader of the bebop movement. Parker’s collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke, at sessions at Minton’s, would build on the earlier experiments of Christian.^[37]Before 1942, Parker was known to have spent more time at Clark Monroe’s Uptown House, another Harlem club where jam sessions extended into the early morning, than he spent playing at Minton’s.^[38] After leaving Jay McShann’s band at the end of 1941, Parker joined Earl Hines’s band in 1942 and was reunited with Dizzy Gillespie, who he had met some time earlier.^[39] It was during this period of time starting in 1942 that Parker, nicknamed ‘Bird’, could be found sitting-in at Minton’s on Monday nights as recalled by Miles Davis: Charlie Christian (29 July 1916 – 2 March 1942) was an American jazz guitarist. ... Charlie Parker Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ... Thelonious Sphere Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was a jazz pianist and composer. ... Kenny Clarke (born January 9, 1914 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania-died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France) was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. ... Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major black cultural and business center. ... A jam session is a musical act where musicians gather and play out of the blue, trying to accomplish harmony without prewritten music. ... James Columbus (Jay or Hootie) McShann (born in 1909 or January 12, 1916) is an American blues and Swing pianist, bandleader, and singer. ... Earl Kenneth Hines, better known as Earl Hines or Fatha Hines (28 December 1903 near Pittsburgh – 22 April 1983 in Oakland, California) was a prominent jazz pianist. ... John Birks Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. ...

On Monday nights at Minton’s, Bird and Dizzy would come in to jam, so you’d have a thousand [players] up there trying to get in so they could listen to and play with Bird and Dizzy. But most of the musicians in the know didn’t even think about playing when Bird and Dizzy came to jam. We would just sit out in the audience, to listen and learn.^[40]

Parker never was officially a member of the house band at Minton’s during that period, however sensing his importance to the bebop movement, Clarke and Monk approached Teddy Hill about hiring Parker into the band. Hill refused so Clarke and Monk decided to pay Parker out of their salaries.^[41]

After Parker’s arrival on the scene in Harlem, a new generation of player followed. Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, Max Roach and many others were drawn to Minton’s.^[42] Miles Davis’s search for Charlie Parker brought him to Minton’s where he “cut his teeth” at the jam sessions.^[43] Miles remembered: Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. ... Theodore (Fats) Navarro (24 September 1923 – 6 July 1950) was an American jazz trumpet player. ... Dexter (Keith) Gordon (February 27, 1923 - April 25, 1990) was a New York tenor saxophone musician. ... Arthur (Art) Blakey (October 11, 1919–October 16, 1990), also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. ... Jazz in 3/4 time cover released in 1957 on EmArcy Maxwell Lemuel Roach (born January 10 (according to the official records, though his family claims January 8), 1924)to parents Alphonse and Cressie Roach. ... Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926 – September 28, 1991) was one of the most distinguished jazz musicians of the latter half of the 20th century. ... Charlie Parker Charles Bird Parker, Jr. ...

The way [it] went down up at Minton’s was you brought your horn and hoped that Bird and Dizzy would invite you to play with them up on stage. And when this happened you better not blow it...People would watch for clues from Bird and Dizzy, and if they smiled when you finished playing, then that meant your playing was good.^[44]

Davis’s remarks reflect on the frenzy in Harlem for the new sounds of bebop that surrounded Parker, Gillespie and Minton’s. Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ...

Sitting-in at Minton's

Minton’s Playhouse became so popular in those days that the house band began to develop ways of weeding out the musicians who couldn’t play that wanted to sit in. According to bassist Milt Hinton, Gillespie prompted the band to play standards, such as Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”, in difficult keys in order to discourage beginners from sitting in.^[45] Bassist Charles Mingus remembers being required to audition to get up on stage: Milt Hinton (born Milton John Hilton in Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 23, 1910; d. ... George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer who wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works in collaboration with his elder brother lyricist Ira Gershwin. ... Charles Mingus (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979), also known as Charlie Mingus, was an American jazz bassist, composer, bandleader, and occasional pianist. ...

To play at Minton’s you couldn’t just walk in and grab a bass. They made you go in a back room or a kitchen and call a few tunes. They did it to me too. They said, “Can you play ‘Perdido’? Can you play ‘Body and Soul’?”^[46]

Practices such as these challenged up and coming jazz musicians to get their acts together in order to participate in the jam sessions, which kept the music at a high level.

The end of an era

Minton’s changed its open jam policy in favor of big name acts in the 1950s.^[47] By the late 1960s bands were no longer at the cutting edge. Harlem writer, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) wrote in Black Music (1967), that “The groups that come into Minton’s are stand-up replicas of what was a highly experimental twenty-five years ago.”^[48] Although the club was open for a little more than three decades, Minton’s Playhouse will always be associated with the 1940s and the jam sessions that gave birth to bebop. Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones on October 7, 1934, in Newark, New Jersey) is a American writer of poetry, drama, essays, and music criticism. ... Bebop or bop is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos and improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody. ...

See also

• List of jazz clubs