It makes us swing, bop, mess around,

scat and mop up. The word conjures the essence

of coolness and freedom. From the sophisticated

showmanship of Dizzy Gillespie to the bouncing,

scatting stylings of the great Louis Armstrong

to the lyrical swoons of Savannah’s own Johnny

Mercer, Jazz music today inspires a whole pop

generation of pork-pie-hat-wearing hipsters to

co-opt its coolness. Jazz is at once structured,

with its intricate notes and complex chord

progressions, and also freewheeling, with its

mandate for conversational improvisation. When

Louis Armstrong tried to explain it, he said, “If you

have to ask what Jazz is, you’ll never know.”

JAZZ IS TRANSFORMING. It is the only American

art form to crush racial and economic barriers;

in today’s climate of racial division, we need it

now more than ever. Born of African syncopated

drumming, Ragtime music, the Blues, and military

brass, Jazz is the American language that brings

us together in search of individual identity.

JAZZ IS HOT AND IRREVERENT. Its African

tribal syncopation, mixed with classical European

melodic structures excite people to exotic dance

moves, like the Camel, the Mess Around, and the

Turkey Trot. It is as comfortable in churches as it

is in a brothel.

JAZZ MUSIC, AMERICA’S ORIGINAL ART FORM, HAS BEEN UNITING RACES AND CULTURES SINCE THE LATE 19TH CENTURY. SAVANNAH BOASTS A RICH JAZZ HISTORY FROM ITS EARLY DOWNTOWN RED-LIGHT DISTRICTS, BAPTIST CHURCHES AND CLUBS, ALL THE WAY OUT TO TYBEE ISLAND WITH JOHNNY MERCER. JAZZ HAS BEEN UNITING PEOPLE OF ALL RACES SINCE ITS DAWN AND CONTINUES ON TODAY.

JAZZU N I T E D W E

JAZZ ROOTS & SAVANNAHAlthough New Orleans

claims the birthplace

of Jazz, Savannah’s

rich history of Jazz

is equally important.

It developed

concurrently; yet

with a different more

African vibe. Jazz

was borne of Southern

black cultures that

had no choice but to

improvise, to find a

way to integrate into a foreign place to which

they were subjugated. The Blues was nurtured

in black Baptist churches, working fields and

factories, wherein the “call” and “respond”

communication form of Jazz was derived. The

“hey’s” and the “ho’s” of today’s pop culture.

THE AFRICAN SLAVE CULTURES in New

Orleans’ Congo Square, starting in 1817, were

allowed to perform their tribal drumming,

singing and dancing for the first time, drawing

in white audiences with their foreign sounds

and exotic moves. The syncopation of this

African drumming is the seed of from which

sprang Ragtime, Blues, and Jazz music.

SAVANNAH HAS BEEN HOME TO Jazz giants

such as Louis Armstrong’s mentor, James

“King” Oliver, Johnny Mercer, Ben Riley, James

Moody, Kenny Palmer, Ben Tucker, and such

contemporaries as Teddy Adams, Howard Paul,

and Jody Espina. The Hostess City continues

to serve as a petri dish for nurturing great new

talent on the world stage of Jazz. The Coastal

Jazz Association was founded 35 years ago and

today carries on the traditions of Jazz music in

Savannah where, in its heyday, there were over

190 clubs offering Jazz music events in both

black and white social clubs and theaters along

West Broad (now MLK Boulevard), all the way

out to Tybee Island at the Tybrisa Pavilion.

DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH through the 1950s

was when the white folks went to black clubs to

be entertained, and Tybrisa was where whites

went to hear black bands and dance their feet

off to big swing bands with Johnny Mercer and

Cab Calloway. The evolution of this essentially

black art form has conjoined the races to

produce great white Jazz musicians including

Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman and

Stan Getz.

JAZZ.

➻

JOHHNY, GINGER MERCER 1936 DESOTO HOTEL LOCAL JAZZ SCENE LEGENDS

PHOTOS | 1. BEN TUCKER AND BASS | 2. AL CUTTER’S SNAPPY SIX | 3. HOTEL SAVANNAH ORCHESTRA

1.

3.

2.

Wr i t t e n b y PAU L A S . F O G A RT Y P h o t o g r a p h s c o u r t e s y o f D R . B O O H O R NS T E I NT E D DY A DA M S , P E T E R F I S H , DAV E S T RY K E R , & H OWA R D PAU L

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SAVANNAH’S SEA ISLAND SOUNDUnlike New Orleans, Savannah did not have a Colonial French Creole heritage. Creoles were better heeled and freer than their African counterparts. More educated, classically trained, and skilled, Creoles played more structured music than Blues musicians.

After the Civil War the Creoles and freed Africans started playing together, mixing classically structured music with tribal African drumming, Ragtime, and the raw Blues, creating the sound of New Orleans Dixieland Jazz. This was shared throughout the country by legends such as Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Mahalia Jackson.

Savannah was never exposed to this cultural melting pot, and according to Professor Charles Elmore in his book, All That Savannah Jazz, blacks in Savannah, “were developing jazz with a sea island, and not a Creole flavor.”

SAVANNAH BRASS AND RED LIGHTSHorns, trumpets, trombones and drums, to the fore! The available instruments left after the war dictated the form that Jazz would take, but the musicians always determined its substance. From the beginning, no Jazz number has ever been played the same way twice; this is part of its intrigue. At the turn of the century, Dixieland brass bands in Savannah led parades and funeral processions, and performed in parks and theaters from Lincoln Park to Star and Pekin Theaters on West Broad, and in churches and brothels all over town.

Like New Orleans’ Storyville, Savannah had red-light districts in Frogtown, Yamacraw, and elsewhere. Savannah’s brothel scene was such that it was listed as one of the “30 Most Immoral Cities in America” by the Baltimore Afro-American in 1920. The city then appointed a Jazz Inspector and passed an anti-Jazz ordinance to end what Professor Elmore cites as, “lascivious new music, which encourages immoral behavior by fast men and loose women,” but, this being Savannah, it was short-lived.

Jazz was everywhere throughout the city. Descendants of slaves would gather in the afternoons with tour trolleys full of attendees at the Heritage Planation o� Bay Street to hear great brass bands. Imagine them playing such great spirituals as “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and “Down By the Riverside,” all together; yet segregated.

THE LOSS OF A LOCAL LEGEND For a city who was hostess to Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Joe “King” Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Ethel Waters and Johnny Mercer in theaters, the Municipal Auditorium, and the DeSoto Hotel regularly from the 1920s to the 1950s, Savannah’s state of music today is ba�ing. There are have been no dedicated venues in which to hear Jazz music alone, or with food, or with a dance floor since the closing of local Jazz legend Ben Tucker’s Hard Hearted Hannah’s in Savannah.

Tucker died tragically when a speeding motorist on Hutchinson Island

struck his golf cart in 2013. He was so loved here that his funeral was nothing less than a Savannah celebration with over 1500 people at the church service followed by a parade and Jazz festival. Hannah’s was open in three di�erent venues for over 13 years, making it the longest running Jazz club in modern history. Since its closing in 2002, Jazz legends like Teddy Adams are hard-pressed for venues. Adams said that Hannah’s was to Savannah what The Jazz Corner is to Hilton Head today, currently in its 17th year of operation.

GO

Savannah Jazz Festival September 18 – 24

Venues include – Rancho Alegre, Hotel Indigo, Mansion

on Forsyth, Forsyth ParkSponsors include – City of

Savannah, Dr, Brad Durham, Miner Family Wines, Bernard Williams, Enmark, Critz Auto,

Seacrest PartnersActs include – Dave Stryker, King Solomon Hicks, Peter

Fish Group, Don Braden Audrey Shakirfacebook.com/

savannahjazzfestivalsavannahjazzfest.com

Coastal Jazz Association Monthly Concerts

Hotel Indigo201 W Bay Street

hotelindigosavannah.comfacebook.com/CoastalJazzSav

Rancho AllegreFri – Sat, The Jody Espina Trio,

and others402 Martin Luther King Jr.

BlvdSavannah

4490 Bluffton Park CrescentBluffton, SC

C OA STA L JA Z Z A S S O C I AT I O N

coastaljazz.org

L E A R NSavannah Jazz Hall of Fame

coastaljazz.org

R E A DCharles Elmore, All That

Savannah JazzJulius “Boo” Hornstein, Sites and Sounds of Savannah Jazz

“SAVANNAH’S BROTHEL SCENE WAS SUCH THAT IT WAS LISTED AS ONE OF THE ‘30 MOST IMMORAL CITIES IN AMERICA’ BY THE BALTIMORE AFRO-AMERICAN IN 1920.”

JOHHNY, GINGER MERCER 1936 DESOTO HOTEL LOCAL JAZZ SCENE LEGENDS

SAVANNAH TROMBONE VIRTUOSO, TEDDY ADAMS

DUNBAR THEATER ONE OF MANY JAZZ VENUES ALONG WEST BROAD STREET IN THE HEYDAY

THE 1950S DESOTO HOTEL JAZZ DANCE SCENE

TYBRISA PAVILLION AND DANCE CARD, THE EARLY SCENE OF BIG BAND JAZZ CONCERTS

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ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD – FINDING JAZZ IN SAVANNAH TODAYToday, Savannah Jazz lives on due to the e�orts of the Coastal Jazz Association whose President, and great Jazz guitarist, Howard Paul said, “The fact that there is no true music venue here is a reflection of the economic fact that it was once so deeply rooted in the African American culture, which is struggling today.”

Our biggest scene is the Savannah Jazz Festival. Unlike the Savannah Music Festival, it is a week of totally free concerts produced by the CJA and sponsored in part by the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural A�airs. It hosts both internationally acclaimed and regionally prominent artists. “We really provide a community service with this festival because it unites people of all color and class, improving our quality of life,” Paul explained. This year’s concert is September 18 through 24 with shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Forsyth Park.

CJA hosts monthly concerts for members and guests in the new The Hotel Indigo on Bay Street. Aside from these concerts, and the Jazz Festival, you can find some of the best Jazz at Rancho Allegre; The Cuban Restaurant on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Juan Rodriguez, the owner, understands the importance of Jazz. Each weekend at Rancho, you can find The Jody Espina Trio featuring rising stars like Maggie Evans, Bill Harris and Mitch Hennes, and other young musicians.

Other regular venues include Ruth’s Chris Steak House lounge where Paul often plays with such legends as Tony Monaco and Quentin Baxter. And the big band sounds from the Tybrisa era remain alive through Jeremy Davis’ Equinox Orchestra featured monthly at The Westin Savannah Harbor. Even “Gypsy Jazz” of the Hot Club of Paris can be heard thanks to regular local appearances by Ricardo Ochoa’s Velvet Caravan.

PASSING THE TORCHTeddy Adams and Howard Paul-both Savannah Hall of Fame inductees—mentor the next generation. Adams, who played at the end of the Tybee scene in 1956 and in the West Broad clubs, served in the Air Force in Japan after the Vietman War, where he played with legends such as Bob Blakey, Sadao Watanabe, Rufus Reid, and many more. He said because we have no dedicated Jazz venues, our young talent leaves Savannah.

Adams has had tremendous success in placing his students in the country’s most prominent conservatories and grooming them for significant careers. “We need more students and programs in schools, because they are the ones who encourage Jazz scenes.” His Teddy Adams and the Future of Jazz Band is comprised of members as young as 15 who are learning from a master, and it is a beautiful thing to watch.

The Coastal Jazz Association nurtures new talent by providing scholarships in Jazz each year to Georgia Southern and Armstrong State. It also awards

stipends to schools including Savannah Country Day and Savannah Arts Academy. The CJA also stewards the Savannah Jazz Hall of Fame whose members include many internationally acclaimed artists including Ben Riley, and Sahib Shihab.

Paul, also the President of the vaunted Jazz guitar company, Benedetto Guitars, in Savannah, serves the National Association of Music Merchants’ Taskforce (NAMM), educating Congress on the importance of music education. “Learning music at a young age helps with communication, math and engineering skills of all kinds,” said Paul.

MOPPING UP – THE LAST BEATBlacks and whites, rich and poor, the educated and the unschooled have all been unified through the American art form of Jazz music. The thing is, that the notes and the chords do not care what color or from what class you are. Wynton Marsalis summed it up perfectly in the awesome PBS documentary, Jazz, A Film by Ken Burns, “Jazz music celebrates life – the range of it; the absurdity of it; the ignorance of it; the greatness of it; the intelligence of it; the sexuality of it; the profundity of it. And it deals with it!”

Our own Johnny Mercer calls to us to enjoy the “Days of wine and roses laugh and run away, like a child at play,” so get out and discover Savannah Jazz in surprising venues and at the Savannah Jazz Festival. Everyone can play.

“IF YOU HAVE TO ASK WHAT JAZZ IS, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW.” LOUIS ARMSTRONG

“JAZZ MUSIC CELEBRATES LIFE – THE RANGE OF IT; THE ABSURDITY OF IT; THE SEXUALITY OF IT; THE PROFUNDITY OF IT.”

HOWARD PAUL MENTORING STUDENTS FROM THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON

HOWARD PAUL AND JOHN FADDIS AT SAVANNAH JAZZ FESTIVAL

CHID PRODIGY KING SOLOMON HICKS, COMING TO THE JAZZ FESTIVAL

COURTESY, DR. BRAD DURHAM

EMMY AWARD-WINNING PETER FISH, COMING TO THE JAZZ FESTIVAL COURTESY,

BERNARD WILLIAMS AND ENMARK

WORLD RENOWNED DAVE STRYKER, COMING TO THE JASS FESTIVAL

COURTESY, MINER FAMILY WINES

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