Big Apple Jazz   

2236 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Bl
New York, NY 10027
212-283-5299
www.bigapplejazz.com

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Jazz is a nighttime gig -- the smokey stages, the dark alleyways, the shadowy sax player, the jam sessions until sunrise -- which makes this Harlem haunt all the more striking. It's not a nightclub, but a dayclub. Run by a longtime New York jazz aficionado to "create the jazz district", the place is divided into two sections. The front area sells merchandise, memorabilia and albums, many related to "The Corner", the historic spot where Duke and Louis hung out and where Miles recorded "On the Corner". The backroom is EZ's Woodshed, a simple, spare performance space and art gallery built by friends with wood brought in from Michigan. Its name refers to 'woodshedding', the jazz term for practicing your chops (EZ refers to the initials of a musician friend who died tragically in a plane crash). Come for an afternoon show to see greats and rising stars jam, from Afro-Cuban bopper Manny Duran to hip hop poet Toni Blackman to pianist Rudel Drears. There are some light refreshments, like sandwiches and Snapple, but to keep the place pure, no "bad stuff" (alcohol or coffee).