Years: 1950-1960
Opening: Charlie Parker
Feature: Ella Fitzgerald

Boston is not a city known for jazz music. But Storyville brought some of the most fantastic jazz musicians in the world to the city. This was no dive bar but a classy and upscale venue that put Boston on the map for jazzers. The founder eventually left to start the Newport Jazz Festival, one of the premier Jazz festivals in the country.

It would be a fantastic story, would it not be for the racism that permeated the city. While most of the performers were black, the audience was predominantly white. This was not a segregated venue, although some of the venues and hotels in the area were. It is important to remember that Storyville, and Boston for that matter during the 1950’s, was not a comfortable space for black Bostonians.

The Story

New England’s cities have been home to some good jazz clubs over the years, even a few great ones. Perhaps the greatest of them all was Storyville, the Boston club operated by George Wein in the 1950s. Wein presented the best in jazz regardless of style—everything from piano soloists to big bands, and from bebop to Dixieland.

George, energetic and ambitious, was 25 in October 1950 when he opened Storyville in the Copley Square Hotel. He named it after the New Orleans red light district where many believe jazz was born. He closed the club after only six weeks, following a dispute with the landlord, but he reopened in the Buckminster Hotel in Kenmore Square in February 1951. When new owners assumed control of the Copley Square Hotel, he moved back in September 1953. Storyville stayed there until Wein closed its doors in May 1960.

That’s the thumbnail sketch. But what made Storyville such a great club? It was a combination of things: George’s energy and ideas, the vibe of the room, and the jazz artists who played there.

If there was one person synonymous with jazz in Boston in the 1950s, it was George Wein. He ran Storyville, as well as a second club, Mahogany Hall. He wrote a newspaper column, spun records as a deejay, and taught jazz history at Boston University. He managed artists. For three years he owned and ran Storyville Records. He produced concerts. Finally, he was an accomplished jazz pianist—he formed the Newport All-Stars and toured with the group every summer.

His crowning achievements were founding the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and the Newport Folk Festival in 1959. Jazz clubs still had a poor reputation in 1950, so he created a club to overcome it. It started with the location, in a Back Bay hotel. That sent the message that Storyville was anything but a dive bar. It was only a 20-minute walk to Izzy Ort’s on Washington Street, but the look and feel of Storyville was a world away from that raunchy downtown joint.

Inside, the lighting was subdued and the sound system was good. There was art on the walls. People still got dressed up to go out in the 1950s, and men wore jackets, ties were optional. No one would think of wearing jeans and tees to Storyville.

There is a footnote. The Storyville crowd was largely white. This was Boston in the 1950s, and although Wein’s doors were open to all, there were black Bostonians who felt uncomfortable in a Back Bay hotel. Some of those establishments—not the Copley Square—were still not admitting blacks as paying customers in that decade.

Source:
"Storyville." Music Museum of New England. May 29, 2018. https://doi.org/https://www.mmone.org/storyville/.

Continue on to the next venue: The Channel.  This is about a 21-minute walk (1 mile).

1. "Storyville." Music Museum of New England. May 29, 2018. https://doi.org/https://www.mmone.org/storyville/.

Performers (partial list)