Real Deal
A new jazz club takes root in Cambridge
By Joanna Massey, Globe Staff *|* November 11, 2004
As the Teddy Wilson song goes, it's the little things that mean so much. For Fenton Hollander, Boston's grand marshal of jazz club booking, that list of little things includes a room to hear music where the views are unobstructed, the sound system clear, and the bar quiet. All three are impeccably achieved at the Real Deal Jazz Club & Caf, located in the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center.
After two decades of booking local and national acts at the area's premier jazz club, Regattabar, in the Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Hollander's company, Water Music, was given the boot earlier this year when hotel management decided to take the club in a new direction. Rather than singing the blues, Hollander set off to find a new space conducive to jazz and accessible by public transportation. Following failed negotiations with another local hotel, Hollander accepted an invitation from Shelley Neill, a singer and executive director of the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, to check out the performance hall at the center's elegant, nearly 200-year-old building on Second Street.
Tucked between homes in a quiet neighborhood near the CambridgeSide Galleria, the center is close to the Lechmere T station and several sizable public parking lots. One, about a block away, is $3 on nights and weekends. "If students can't get there, you're not going to do well," Hollander says of the club's location. But access is nothing if the product isn't high quality, says Hollander, who hung heavy black curtains behind the raised stage to deaden live space and moved the bar and food-preparation area behind closed doors. "It's like a concert hall," he says. "It's turned into an incredible listening center. You can hear a note's attack, as it goes to full power and decay."
The hall itself resembles a cozy Mediterranean piazza, with tiled floors, a gold-encrusted mosaic ceiling, wide doors on either side of the room and a sweeping balcony circulating above. It seats about 220 at modest plastic tables for five or six. A limited menu includes sandwiches and appetizers, as well as wine, beer, and soft drinks.
Named with a nod toward bringing jazz performance space back to its community roots, the club has succeeded primarily through word of mouth. Its first show, by vocalist Maria Muldaur in August, sold out even though a schedule hadn't even been mailed out yet.
The recent lineup included Latin-jazz acts such as Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, the Gonzalo Rubalcaba Quartet, Brazilian composer and guitarist Sergio Brandao, and Colombian singer Marta Gomez. Hollander said Latin musicians make up a large chunk of the club's bookings due to their loyal audiences and strong presence in the Boston jazz scene.
Hollander says the club's mission is to connect "good audiences with good artists." He says he hopes to draw both local and national acts, with an eye toward "making sure young people hear this music." This weekend, the Abdullah Ibrahim Trio arrives at the Real Deal, celebrating the 70th birthday of Ibrahim, a South African pianist, as well as the release of the trio's new CD, "African Magic."
During Sergio Brandao's recent show, families with toddlers intermingled with a group of college-age students sharing a bruschetta plate and middle-aged couples sipping wine. "There's a very relaxed vibe," Hollander says of his new venture. "We want people to leave feeling like they really shared an experience with the artist."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/liv.../11/real_deal/
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