The Bradford Hotel was the last location for George Wein's fabled Storyville jazz club. Yesterday we told you about the history of the hotels that have occupied 275 Tremont Street in Boston. Today we'll tell you a bit about the musical legacy of this location.
Vintage drawing of the Bradford Hotel by Jack Frost.
Boasting the largest ballroom in New England, this Theatre District hotel always had music in the air.
Image from The Tichnor Brothers Collection, Boston Public Library
I have to believe that during the years when it was the Elks Hotel, there were a few informal sessions conducted within its walls.
In those days, you advertised which orchestra guests would find in your ballroom.
By 1960, George Wein had moved his Storyville jazz club to the Bradford Hotel for one last year of great jazz performances in Boston before dedicating his full-time attention to the Newport Jazz Festival that he had founded in 1954. The Duke Ellington Orchestra played an opening, one-week engagement on September 12, 1960.
To learn more about this club and George Wein's memories of jazz in Boston, I suggest you read this wonderful three-part interview over on JazzWax.com by Marc Myers.
Additional suggested reading on the topic would be The Boston Jazz Chronicles
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Words: Penny Cherubino
Images as credited under each