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The Apex Club was an influential American jazz club in Chicago's South Side at 330 East 35th Street, between Prairie and Calmut Avenues, 2nd floor. It opened in July 8, 1927, and closed in the spring 1929 due to a prohibition era liquor code violation.

History

The Apex Club was well-known and amply chronicled as the venue for Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, the house band from the night it opened in 1927 to the night it closed in 1929.^[1] The club was reputed to have served fine food and featured outstanding jazz entertainment for mixed-race clientele. The second floor Apex one or two doors over from the first floor Plantation Cafe, at 338 East 35th Street, where King Oliver and His Dixie Syncopators performed from 1925 to 1927.

As was the case for all nightclubs and cabarets with exclusive membership requirements, the Apex Club did not need a license from the city, provided that no admission was charged, according to a ruling handed down July 16, 1927, by Assistant Corporation Council James W. Breen. The ruling was sought on behalf of several clubs by Alderman Louis B. Anderson (1870–1946).^[2]

By 1925, the venue was the Zion Hill Baptist Church.^[3] Chicago's notable black community newspaper, The Chicago Defender, was directly across the street from both the Apex and Plantation, another notable jazz club, both on Prairie Avenue.^[4] The Sunset Cafe, run by Joe Glaser, also, was across the street.

The song bearing the club's name, "Apex Blues" — composed by Jimmie Noone, Earl Hines, and Joe Poston (de), and recorded by Jimmie Noone in Chicago on July 23, 1928 — has endured for ninety-five years as a jazz standard. According to the online The Jazz Discography (an index of jazz-only recordings), "Apex Blues" has been recorded 188 times (as of May June 2018).^[5]

Former names

The 1920 to 1922, the venue was Club Alvadere, where, from 1920 to 1921, Junie Cobb led his own combo. From 1922 to 1926, the venue was The Nest Club.^[a] The Apex Club served fine food and outstanding jazz entertainment. Between 1926 and 1930, Jimmy Noone and his Orchestra (featuring Earl Hines) appeared here regularly. White guys who considered themselves jazz men flocked here to see Noone play, and it’s safe to say that one of those guys was local Chicagoan Benny Goodman. Previously, Jimmy Noone played in Doc Cooke’s Dreamland Orchestra in what is currently the West Loop neighborhood.^[6]^[7]

Owner-manager

Julian Alfred Black (1896–1976), born in Milwaukee, was once a Chicago numbers runner, boxing promoter, and finally, real estate agent.^[8] From about 1932, Black co-managed, with John W. Roxborough (1892–1975), boxer Joe Louis. Julian Black was a close friend of Pittsburgh-born Daniel Mckee Jackson (1870–1929), South Side undertaker and political boss.^[8]

Managers

Bill George (né H Willaim George; 1882–1934), Apex manager at the grand opening in 1927, was a former partner in the Plantation of Chicago. In September 1933, George became co-owner, with Melvin Frazier (né Melville H. Frazier; 1888–1967), a former musician, and Jesse Wynn, of the:

Renaissance Restaurant & Cafe in Harlem at 2359 7th Avenue (same location as Renaissance Restaurant & Cafe at 150 West 138th Street?), which rapidly rose in popularity.^[9]^[10] In the 1950s, it was known as the Renaissance Ballroom.

The Cafe Boulevard at southeast corner 7th Avenue and 133rd, in 1924, was the same venue own pre-prohibition by various owners, including Jesse Wynn, "Kid" Griffin, and Barron Wilkins.^[11]

Walter Williams Burton (1888–1928), assistant manager, shot and killed July 16, 1928, reportedly by Walter Jay for refusing to admit Jay and his wife, Cleo, into the club.^[12]^[13]

Son of Bill George's wife??

Hostesss

Nora Holt-Ray, hostess in 1927^[14]

Notes and references

Notes

^ There was also a Nest club on 132nd Street in Harlem during the 1920s.

References

^ "Chicago's Jazz Age: Hotter Near the Lake" (cover story), by Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 5, 1993, pps. 12–14, 16, 18, 24 (club map, "Mapping Out the Scene," is on p. 16; accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/image/418387324)
^ "Rules Private Clubs Don't Need City Licenses," Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1927, part 1, p. 5 (accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/image/354871473)
^ "In and Around Chicago – For Righteousness Journey to this Block" ( Associated Negro Press), Plaindealer ( Kansas City, Kansas), Vol. 37, No. 39, October 4, 1935, p. 3 (assessable via GenealogyBank.com)
^ "Extracts From Jimmie Noone: 1895–1944," by James K. Williams, p. 120 (full article; pps. 117–121), Vol. 3 of 4, Storyville Yearbooks:
Storyville 1996-7 (1997)
Storyville 1998-9 (1999); OCLC 48363703
Storyville 2000-1 (2001); OCLC 48363701
Storyville 2002-3 (2003)
Storyville Publications (Storyville Club; publisher of Storyville magazine)
^ The Jazz Discography Online, Tom Lord (ed.), Lord Music, (retrieved May 30, 2018; subscription required; accessible at many libraries); OCLC 690104143
^ "Apex Club," The Red Hot Jazz Archive (online) (retrieved May 29, 2018)
^ Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904–1930, by William Howland Kenney, Oxford University Press (1993); OCLC 888576791
^ ^a ^b "Joe Louis' Manager, Julian Black, Dies at 79," Jet, Vol. 50, No. 4, April 15, 1976, p. 9
^ The Harlem Business Guide: The Renaissance Restaurant" (advertisement), New York Age, June 9, 1934, p. 2
^ "Friends Pay Last Tribute to the Late William George," New York Age, June 16, 1934, p. 2
^ "Special Service Officer From Downtown In Drunken Frenzy Shoots Up Harlem Cafe, Wounding Two Men, One Seriously," New York Age, March 1, 1924, p. 1
^ "Club Manager is Slain," Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1928, p. 8 (accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/image/354932223)
^ Gray, Christopher (18 February 2007). "A Harlem Landmark in All but Name" – via NYTimes.com.
^ Associated Negro Press
"Much Sued Nora Opens Chicago Night Club," Baltimore Afro-American, July 9, 1927, p. 7
"Nora Holt Opens Chicago's Finest Night Club; Hundreds Attend Debut," Pittsburgh Courier July 9, 1927, p. 1
( Pittsburgh Courier edition accessible via Newspapers.com at www.newspapers.com/image/40805059)