The Cotton Club joins list of jazz clubs closing in Harlem

Jazz clubs are disappearing in Harlem.

Lenox Lounge reopened then closed in 2019, Showman's Jazz Club closed in 2020, and the historic Cotton Club recently announced it was up for sale.

Club owners feeling COVID's impact

So far, the owners have been approached with ideas to turn it into a boutique hotel or residential housing.

"Nothing's been solidified as of yet. It's a bittersweet, but at the same time, they realize it's the right time to put it on the market," realtor Tay Tiwoni said.

Tiwoni is a family friend of the owners of The Cotton Club and is helping to facilitate the sale.

"The legacy and the history still remains at the location regardless of what they do to the space," he said.

Current club owners say running a music venue has always been a challenging business, but that many club owners are still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs.

"Before COVID, for music point of view, we had a lot of tours. People, musicians from all over the world will come here and perform," said Sivan Baron Ouedraogo, one of the owners of Shrine World Music Venue. "And after COVID, things are shifted. You see maybe tours from the five boroughs, from out of state, but less from international."

Harlemites can still hear live jazz at Shrine, which has brought music from around the world to Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard for around 20 years.

Sivan Baron Ouedraogo's partner, Abdel Kader Ouedraogo, said they were inspired in part by Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician and activist who created New Afrika Shrine, an open-air entertainment center and cultural spiritual hub in Lagos.

Abdel Kader Ouedraogo is from Burkina Faso, while Sivan Baron Ouedraogo is Israeli, a unique crossover reflected in the variety of music performed weekly at Shrine.

On Monday nights, musicians from across New York gather for unrehearsed jam sessions, then on Thursday, you might catch a live show from an Afrobeats R&B singer. Abdel Kader Ouedraogo believes the range of music may be part of what has kept them afloat, while other more niche venues have closed. They've also made an effort to widen their community programming outside of just music.

Keeping jazz alive

Jazz advocates in Harlem agree that the change in the touring industry has affected how jazz musicians make a living. 

"Back in the day, jazz musicians would get a gig and go on the road, right? And that was their education," said Suzanne Pittson, the music department chair at City College of New York's jazz program in Harlem. "But I think the economy is prohibiting people from going traveling around the world like they used to."

At CCNY Jazz, students learn everything from jazz history and Brazilian rhythms to vocal jazz and blues workshops. Pittson said although jazz clubs are closing, many students have found other ways to perform their music. She believes that the ever-evolving nature of the industry reflects jazz music.

"It teaches us how to be bold, how to be brave, how to be non-judgmental, and how to take risks and then win in the end," she said. "That, to me, is what jazz is about. And I really feel that if we can look at it that way, that jazz has a bright future."

It's a sentiment echoed by Dale Dobson at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. The museum has free jazz performances at 2 p.m. every Thursday with exhibits focusing on the past, present and future of the genre. 

"It's still alive, even if we unfortunately don't have those venues. But there are other ways that it is still staying within the ecosystem of the larger jazz experience in New York City," Dobson said. "We're not only about the legacy of Harlem jazz, but that we're also about the evolution of what it means in the present day for jazz and Harlem, and really the preservation of it into the future."

Jazz has also been a foundation for musical genres that would dominate the world stage, like hip-hop. Jazz enthusiasts say that impact can't be understated. 

"How does jazz contribute to social justice, which, you know, Harlem being Harlem, has a big role in that. Harlem is a destination and as a Mecca for Black culture, most specifically, but not exclusively. I think that jazz plays a big role in that," Dobson said.

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