Cafe Tatant

In thinking about plans for Café Tatant I’m reminded of a review that Eden Page wrote of jazz journalist Nat Hentoff’s memoir, Boston Boy (2001), for www.amazon.com: “Nat Hentoff eloquently reminisces about a time when the soulful sound of trumpet and clarinet, piano and bass—pained, glorious, yearning, introspective, challenging, alien even—could inadvertently reach out of the smoky, dark, cave-like clubs of Washington and Columbus Avenues, and so mesmerize a young boy that it could change his life.”

After reading Hentoff’s memories of the music scene in the South End during the 1940s, Page wrote: “He leaves one desolate that—much too soon!—things changed, and he leaves one wondering why Boston let it happen; why the city couldn't swiftly rally to support a once-thriving jazz community.”

What has happened in the past 50 years is that the scene has fractured and moved in opposite directions, with the greater part of the African American population shifting into Roxbury and then Dorchester and Mattapan, while the venues for touring jazz musicians have been established in Cambridge near the major universities. There’s a disconnection between the outlets and the community that created the music.

Although there were several local night spots in Roxbury through the 1980s and into the 1990s, they have all gone out of business. There are a few clubs in the South End and along Massachusetts Avenue on the edge of Lower Roxbury that offer live music, notably Slade’s Bar & Grill, Wally’s Café, Verve Lounge, The Beehive, and now Darryl’s Corner Bar and Kitchen. This is all good and we wish them well.

What Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall is trying to do with Café Tatant is to host less of a noisy, stand-up nightclub and more of a relaxed, sit-down listening room. We’ll be serving a gourmet meal and beverages every Thursday night, but the focus will be on the performers. We’ll be honoring the legends of Boston jazz, many of whom are now elderly, and also shining a light on younger, contemporary players.

The idea is not to recall the “smoky, dark, cave-like clubs” of the 1940s but rather the elegant supper clubs of the same era. Café Tatant will take place in a beautiful ballroom in a non-commercial setting, where proceeds will benefit the programs of Roxbury Center for Arts. At the same time, we’ll be offering fine dining, drinks and dancing not only on this side of the Charles River but in Dudley Square, in the heart of the African American community.

Dillon Bustin, Director
Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall