RUFFIN: NOW, A JAZZ MOMENT

Fast and Freaky 

RUFFIN: NEW YORK CITY: IT WAS ONCE HOME TO ICONIC JAZZ CLUBS LIKE THE FIVE SPOT, THE SAVOY BALLROOM, AND MINTON'S PLAYHOUSE. NEA JAZZ MASTER LOU DONALDSON KNEW THE LATTER VERY WELL; HE USED TO PLAY MULTIPLE SETS FROM 10PM 'TIL 4 IN THE MORNING. 

DONALDSON: It was what we call a walk-in place. You know, you didn't have to pay anything. You'd just be walking down the street and you'd hear that music and you go in that place.

Fast and Freaky up, under

Everybody came there. It was like a celebrity hangout because you had people like Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan. They worked downtown, but their jobs ended at twelve o'clock, one o'clock. Minton's stayed open ‘til 4 o'clock. So about two o'clock, all of them were there. So the people knew they would be there and so the people would flock in to see them. Joe Lewis came in there, the famous fighter. Malcolm X used to come in there. All those kind of people came in, used to come in to hear the music.

Fast and Freaky

RUFFIN: THIS JAZZ MOMENT WITH ALTO SAXOPHONIST LOU DONALDSON WAS PRODUCED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.

____________________________________________________________

Excerpt from "Fast and Freaky” from the album, Live on the QE2, used courtesy of Chiaroscuro Records and used by permission of Tunemaker Music. (BMI)