Minton's Playhouse, Legendary Harlem Jazz Club, to Reopen

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Classic Arts News Minton's Playhouse, Legendary Harlem Jazz Club, to Reopen Minton's Playhouse, a Harlem club that helped give birth to modern jazz, will reopen later this year, the New York Times reports.

By Ben Mattison

March 16, 2005

The club opened in 1939 and served as the laboratory of the bebop movement in the 1940s, when Thelonious Monk was house pianist and Dizzy Gillespie visited after hours to experiment with the oblique harmonies and tricky rhythms of modern jazz. It closed in 1974.

According to the Times, several attempts have been made to revive the club in the past, but all have sputtered. It is now owned by Housing and Services Inc., a developer of low-income housing, which plans to reopen it under the management of Earl Spain, former manager of St. Nick's Pub.

"Minton's is a Harlem treasure," said Clare Haaga, president of Housing and Services. "It's where bebop was born and took off. The polished acts all went downtown, but the experiments took place here."

Plans for the reopening will be formally announced at the Grand Hyatt Hotel tonight.

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