[Dixielandjazz] Another take on the Central Plaza

[Stephen G Barbone]

Below is an excerpt of a note sent to The Riverwalk Show, after their  
program about Nick's in NYC last June. One band everybody leaves out  
when remembering the Plaza is "The Southampton Dixie Racing and  
Clambake Society Jazz Band" or SDRCS as we called it. We did a few  
gigs at the Plaza in the mid/late 1950s.

Note the operative description of the Central Plaza audience: "These  
audiences were not so much hard-core jazz fans as kids looking to have  
a good time and meet girls". I guess that was before jazz became "art"  
music. <grin>

But don't look down on that audience for, as Pogo might say, "They was  
us." Look at the bands that played for them, adding those led my Henry  
"Red" Allen. Hot Lips Page and others.

And when talking about NYC jazz Clubs shortly after WW 2 ended, lets  
not forget the Stuyvesant Casino. That's where Bunk Johnson became the  
symbol of the "OKOM is art" movement. He played there in the 1940s  
with George Lewis, Jim Robinson et al. (as well as with Bob Wilber  
band circa 1947 or so) The audience? Does the below sound more  
familiar except for age? <grin>

"Bunk and his bandmen couldn't understand why almost no one got up to  
dance. Instead, the audience of three or four hundred sat with mouths  
agape, listening. Mostly the audience was in its thirties: they didn't  
swoon and scream, like bobby-soxers; they talked about the art of it.  
Many had the conspiratorial smugness of insiders." (from a TIME  
article circa 1945)

Cheers,

Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband



I am a trumpet player and leader of a six-piece jazz band, "Bob  
Cantwell and The Saturday Night Stompers," which was the Saturday  
night band at New York's famous Red Blazer Too for 24 years starting  
from 1978. Other bands performing there were those of Vince Giordano,  
Sol Yaged, Stan Rubin, and other well known traditional jazz and swing  
groups. Sol Yaged is presently our clarinet player (yes, the band is  
still going strong).

The reason for this message is your article on the old Nick's in  
Greenwich Village. While this club is deservedly famous and a source  
of much nostalgia, there is another venue from fifty years ago which  
is equally important and generally ignored. I am talking about the  
Central Plaza, located on 2nd Avenue at 6th Street in the East Village  
section of New York City. "The Plaza," as we old fans used to refer to  
it, operated only on Friday and Saturday evenings, and featured two  
trad bands on each of those nights.

The audiences were mainly kids in their 20s, and dancing was a big  
part of the attraction. The action took place in a large ballroom on  
the top floor of a 5-story building. These audiences were not so much  
hard-core jazz fans as kids looking to have a good time and meet  
girls, yet the bands were staffed exclusively by top-notch names in  
jazz. The popular libation was a pitcher of beer for $2.50, although  
hard liquor was available. "The Plaza" was in operation from the early  
‘50s to about 1963, when the promoter died suddenly. This promoter,  
who doubled as M.C., was Jack Crystal, who was the father of comedian  
Billy Crystal.

Let me name some of the bands and musicians who appeared there  
regularly:

Wild Bill Davison, Freddy Moore, Willie “The Lion" Smith, Max  
Kaminsky, Phil Napoleon and his band, Tyree Glenn, Big Chief Russell  
Moore, Tony Parenti, Conrad Janis (an actor and trombone player,  
tremendously popular), Harry DeVito, Tony Spargo, Panama Francis, and  
many, many others. Louis Armstrong was there once.

It is a shame that this venue is so overlooked by nostalgia buffs. I  
was a regular patron (from age 19) and can tell you that the Central  
Plaza was possibly the best of all the jazz venues in New York during  
the ‘50s and early ‘60s.

Just remembered two more names: Gene Cedric and Dick Wellstood. . .