This program features a walking tour that introduces participants to over a century of Philadelphia jazz history, from the early 20th to early 21st century, highlighting, in particular, locations and stories from the mid-20th-century heyday of Philly jazz, when the city was teeming with jazz clubs and home to some of the most transformative musicians in the history of the music. Beginning near the site of the Earle Theatre at 11th and Market Streets, the tour winds through Center City and down South Broad Street, ending at the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts at Broad and Fitzwater Streets in South Philadelphia. It lasts about two hours and covers about 1.5 miles.
Stops include, but are not limited to, popular jazz clubs like the Earle Theatre, the Downbeat Club, and the Zanzibar Blue; other venues are on the tour, too, such as supper club Arcadia Café, the Black vaudeville theater turned movie theater Dunbar Theatre/Lincoln Theatre, or auditorium Club Elate, which hosted Black dances and jazz groups. Other sites include record stores like Music City Records and the headquarters of Cameo-Parkway Records at 309 South Broad Street, and many more.
Registration closes on July 14, 2025. Space is limited to 15 people. The price of the tour will be $20 with no refunds; no-show payments will be donated to Penn's Village general fund. An email will be sent out three days before the tour with directions for where to meet.
Jack McCarthy is an archivist and historian who specializes in three areas of Philadelphia history: music, business and industry, and Northeast Philadelphia. He regularly writes, lectures, and gives tours on these subjects. His book In the Cradle of Industry and Liberty: A History of Manufacturing in Philadelphia was published in 2016 and he curated the 2017–18 exhibit Risk & Reward: Entrepreneurship and the Making of Philadelphia for the Abraham Lincoln Foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia. He serves as consulting archivist for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Mann Music Center and directs a project for Jazz Bridge entitled Documenting & Interpreting the Philly Jazz Legacy, funded by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
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