Buffalo Rising Online

Jul 20th, 11:46am By Eli George

Last year, around 4,000 people packed in the area between Michigan Ave. and Elm St. by 145 Broadway St. in downtown Buffalo for the Queen City Jazz Festival. This year, president of The Colored Musicians Club (CMC) of Buffalo, George Scott, says “The crowds have been getting bigger and bigger as it goes on.”

As the fourth annual festival, this year promises to be a big event. There will be a beer tent and food vendors and this year the gallery to the CMC will be open. The gallery is a precursor to the CMC’s museum efforts and features artifacts, pictures, videos of interviews and old performances, as well as a tour of the bar and the area the bands played.

The CMC was founded in 1918 and chartered in 1935 and had many of the great black performers of the day play at the club. The history is a long and arduous one. The club is one of only a handful of survivors from the days when there were many black clubs and performers unions. Many were lost and so was a lot of rich history of the struggle of black performers when the unions were ordered to desegregate. When the smaller black unions joined the white and larger unions, they often lost their chances at performing.

Since the CMC was a separate entity from their union, Local 533, and owner of the building at 145 Broadway, they were able to retain the club to continue to bring well-known black jazz musicians to Buffalo. Musicians throughout the history of the CMC have often times come to hang out and play a set, including such well-known musicians as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald.

The CMC, according to Scott, has always served to help local jazz musicians have a place to play. Scott says, “It’s a celebration of our existence as the Colored Musicians Club. It’s a way also of featuring the local jazz talent in the area, but most importantly, to have a jazz festival. It’s a shame [there isn’t more jazz festivals] because Buffalo was known for years and years for jazz.”

The festival is on July 26th, from Noon to 8 PM. It features Art Anderson’s Modern Sounds, the JWN Band featuring Joyce Wilson Nixon, Jazzline, The Carol McLaughlin Quartet, Charles Reedy and Friends, Joyce Carolyn and Company, The Will Holton Experience, and Round Midnight featuring Kenny Hawkins.

According to Scott Art Anderson’s Modern Sounds is a Big Band. Scott says the closing acts, The Will Holton Experience and Round Midnight featuring Kenny Hawkins, will be a good way to end the evening. The Will Holton Experience plays contemporary jazz and Round Midnight features Kenny Hawkins, who Scott says is an excellent guitar player who can play anything.

For more information about the event or The Colored Musicians Club, check out their website www.coloredmusiciansclub.com or call the CMC at 855-9383.