a dozen standout records were made.

The style of jazz played there was progressive hardbop, often in a minor key, and executed at world-class levels of passion and precision. The Night Lights show Live at Cafe Bohemia features live recordings made at the club by Mingus, Davis, Blakey, Dorham’s short-lived Jazz Prophets group, and pianists Randy Weston and George Wallington.

Jazz The Facts

Oscar Pettiford’s jazz standard “Bohemia After Dark” was titled in honor of the club (Pettiford gigged for awhile as the club’s house band director).

Billy Taylor: “It was a hip place, more like a club in Harlem than anything on 52nd Street.”

Roswell Rudd: “It was a rectangular room, with the bar and bandstand the long way. The music was right in your face. It was great to be 10line the walls in symmetrical rows. They include covers by the Bohemia’s two current stars – Miles Davis and Teddy Charles.

The fact that the Bohemia ever turned into a jazz club in the first place is almost accidental. Owner Garofolo, a lifelong Villager who lives across the street from his bar, explains: “For six years I tried to make the place pay, first as a bar and restaurant, then with girly shows, and then with various acts. One night I had to throw out a character who’d been drinking brandy alexanders without any money to pay for them. The next thing I knew, he was back offering to play a few weeks here to pay off his obligation – and because he wanted a regular home base from