Harlem

Music spots

• Venue

  The Cotton Club (Harlem)

  1923–1936

  The Cotton Club stood on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, before it moved to Broadway. Black people at first could not get in, though it featured many of the most popular Black entertainers of the era; Lena Horne began here as a chorus girl at sixteen, per Wikipedia. Louis Armstrong played the Harlem club often, per Clio.

  Wikipedia ↗ · Clio ↗

  • LALouis Armstrong
  • LHLena Horne

• Venue

  Savoy Ballroom

  1926–1958

  The ballroom on Lenox Avenue between 140th and 141st Streets was open from 1926 to 1958. Ella Fitzgerald, fresh from a 1934 talent show win at the Apollo, became the teenage singer with Chick Webb’s house band, and in 1938 Count Basie’s band challenged Webb’s. A plaque for the ballroom was unveiled on the block in 2002, per Wikipedia.

  Wikipedia ↗

  • EFElla Fitzgerald
  • CBCount Basie

• Venue

  Apollo Theater

  1934

  On 21 November 1934 the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald, a would-be dancer, decided on the Amateur Night stage to sing instead. She faltered, tried again with the emcee Ralph Cooper’s help, and won; within the year Chick Webb had discovered her, per HISTORY.

  HISTORY ↗

  • EFElla Fitzgerald

• Venue

  Minton’s Playhouse

  1941

  The nightclub in the Hotel Cecil, at St. Nicholas Avenue and West 118th Street. In 1941 its house band, formed by the drummer Kenny Clarke, included Thelonious Monk, and its Monday-night jam sessions drew bebop innovators. The building became a city landmark in 2023, per the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

  NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission ↗

  • TMThelonious Monk

• Moment

  “A Great Day in Harlem”

  1958

  On 12 August 1958 Art Kane photographed 57 jazz musicians for Esquire on this block of East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, where police had blocked off the traffic. Count Basie sat down on the curb and a dozen children followed; Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins are in the picture too, per Wikipedia. In August 2021 the Amsterdam News announced a ceremony co-naming the block Art Kane Harlem 1958 Place.

  Wikipedia ↗ · Amsterdam News ↗

  • TMThelonious Monk
  • CBCount Basie
  • SRSonny Rollins

• Moment

  Harlem Cultural Festival, Mount Morris Park

  1969

  Six free Sunday concerts in Mount Morris Park in the summer of 1969, known informally as “Black Woodstock” and the subject of the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul. Ray Barretto was among the performers, and a young Luther Vandross sang with Listen My Brother in the final week, per Wikipedia.

  Wikipedia ↗

  • LVLuther Vandross
  • RBRay Barretto

• Venue

  Harlem World

  1978–1985

  Harlem World, at 116th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, was a club from 1978 to 1985. In 1979 Sylvia Robinson saw Lovebug Starski rap on its stage and decided to find and fund her own group to put hip-hop on record; by the end of that summer the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”, on her Sugar Hill Records, had introduced hip-hop to the world at large, per Vital City. Kool Moe Dee roasted Busy Bee here in December 1981, in one of the earliest documented rap battles, per Wikipedia, and Doug E. Fresh was among those who cut their teeth at the club, per Time Out.

  Vital City ↗ · Wikipedia ↗ · Time Out ↗

  • DEDoug E. Fresh
  • KMKool Moe Dee
  • SRSylvia Robinson

• Moment

  Rucker Park

  2002–2003

  Holcombe Rucker Park, which ABC7 calls the heart and soul of New York City basketball, is also entrenched in hip-hop culture. In 2003 the Rucker teams of Jay-Z and Fat Joe both reached the finals, per ABC7. Nas stops at the court in his 2002 video for “Made You Look”, per Time Out.

  ABC7 ↗ · Time Out ↗

  • JJay-Z
  • NNas
  • FJFat Joe

• Moment

  Lamont “Big L” Coleman Way

  2022

  The corner of 140th Street and Lenox Avenue was co-named Lamont “Big L” Coleman Way after a petition by the team behind a Big L documentary, and friends and fans gathered for the unveiling of the sign, per Complex. The ceremony was on 28 May 2022, per Okayplayer.

  Complex ↗ · Okayplayer ↗

  • BLBig L