The “1369 Jazz Club” was one of a number of small clubs in Cambridge and Somerville, Ma. during the 1980’s that competed to host some of the most important bands and individual players of the day.
An abbreviated list of performers who appeared at the 1369 Club, might include in no particular order: Johnny Griffin, Branford Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Clifford Jordan, The George Adams / Don Pullen Quartet, Bill Frisell, Paul Motian, Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano, Red Rodney, Woody Shaw, Julius Hemphill, Marion Brown, Kenny Garrett, Rachel Z, Mike Stern, Oregon, Jerry Gonzalez, Kevin Eubanks, Billy Bang, Henry Threadgill, Archie Shepp, Jameel Moondoc, Jack McDuff, Don Patterson, Charles Earland, Jimmy Cobb, Randy Weston, Mel Lewis, Geri Allen, Bob Dorough, ……
From 1985 to it’s closing in 1988, the club was also the venue for a documentary film by independent film maker Richard Broadman, entitled “A Place for Jazz”. The movie had it’s premiere in 1991 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, followed by a showing at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Los Angeles Times Film Critics Festival where it was reviewed enthusiastically by Kenneth Turan, (currently heard on NPR).
Prior to the film’s commercial release, Richard Broadman passed away. The film is about music in general, jazz in particular, and the importance of there being places in a community for music to be played and heard. The movie captures both performances and interviews with some of the most gifted and articulate musicians of this era, as they perform and reflect on the music and the clubs in which the music is played.
Nearing the 25th anniversary of the closing of the “1369”, friends of Richard Broadman have set themselves to the task of completing the work left unfinished by his premature death.
On February 7, 2013, we launched a one month fund raising project (“A Place for Jazz”) on the crowd-sourcing web site, www.Kickstarter.com . Money generated by this campaign will pay for the licensing of copyrighted material, reformatting the film, and possibly pay for an initial printing of the completed DVD.
Any encouragement, contribution, feedback, or other assistance that folks reading this can provide, would be greatly appreciated by all involved.
Thank you,
Bob Pollak, et. al.
PS Richard Broadman’s other films are available through www.DER.org . The films of Assistant Director, John Bishop, (known for his work with Alan Lomax, “Land Where the Blues Began”), can be viewed at www.media-generation.net.
