Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts is ranked highly as a must visit venue that offers America’s original art form jazz on a regular basis. Founded in 1966 by James Adams and members of an African American musicians union Local #274, membership included Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sara Vaughn, Sonny Stitt, Art Blakey, Dinah Washington, Max Roach, Clifford Brown, Shirley Scott, “Phil
ly” Joe Jones, Tootie Heath, Jimmy Heath, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Grover Washington, Jr., and Nina Simone among others were in attendance. The Music Education Programs began in 1985 as the Clef Club members began to recognize a decline in new and available Philadelphia jazz talent. Member-driven outreach initially included local musicians who volunteered their time and energy to teach jazz to local youth who were interested. By 1988 the Clef Club received a seed grant that helped to establish the initial Jazz Education efforts. It moved to its present facility, a new four-story building on the Avenue of the Arts, in 1995. The Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts located at Broad and Fitzwater Streets, was the first new building in the city’s ambitious Avenue of the Arts development project. The new three-story building, houses a cabaret and performance space, archives, classrooms and rehearsal rooms. The William Penn Foundation was the first investor that made it possible for the Clef Club to be located on South Broad Street by providing operating and capital support. Over the years, the Clef Club was a Lila Wallace Readers Digest National Jazz Network Site and presented a spring and fall season of jazz performances, workshops and residencies. The Clef Club hosted several distinguished Artists-in-Residence during its history including Bassist Larry Ridley, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation “Living Legacy Awardee,” saxophonist Oliver Lake, saxophonist Makonde McIntyre and jazz hip-hop workshops, all through The Coltrane Project. Today, musicians such as Christian McBride, Joey Defrancisco, James Carter, George Burton, Sherry Wilson Butler, Monnette Sudler, Molyka Sanofa, Billy Paul, Bernard Purdie, Lou Cioci & Buddy Cifone, Larry McKenna, Brian Pasto, Ellen Gahnt, Tony Vicola, Michael Andrews and Roots of Music present concerts at the Clef Club. Today, the Clef Club is part of Berklee School of Music’s Berklee City Music Network, utilizing a proprietary curriculum called the Berklee PULSE music method that is centered around present day music styles, the instruments that youth tend to select, and the incorporation of essential theoretic, listening, improvisational and performance skills. It is through the education program and our performance ensemble and presenting program that we preserve the legacy and insure the future of this great American music. The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts mission is to celebrate and preserve the legacy of jazz through education and to support the evolving form through public programs. For more information, call 215-893-9912 (www.clefclubofjazz.org)
