Arts & Culture
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The Tin Palace Jazz Club occupied a Federal-style three-story building built circa 1830 and became a vital part of New York’s alternative music scene in the 1970s. Allegedly a speakeasy run by gangster Meyer Lansky in the 1920s, the rundown property was converted into a club in 1970 by writer Paul Pines and partners, who presented Brazilian music and jazz and aimed to create a grass-roots place rather than make a killing at the door. After writer Stanley Crouch and saxophonist David Murray moved upstairs, they persuaded Pines to add a Sunday avant-garde jazz series. Pines left in 1976, but Crouch carried forward the club’s innovative spirit. Until its closing in 1980, it drew musicians and fans from around the world, fostered dynamic contemporary music by performers including Eddie Jefferson, Richie Cole, Shelia Jordan, Roswell Rudd, Jimmy Guiffre, James Blood Ulmer, Leroy Jenkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Paul Bley, Steve Swallow, and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, and hosted the first performances of the long-lived World Saxophone Quartet.
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New York, New York · United States
