Harlem Jazz Clubs Tradition

From the late 1920s on, New York City has been the epicenter of the jazz scene — the Big Apple, with its famous clubs and jazz restaurants, recording studios, home to the most famous musicians and even critics, the city for jazz musicians to see and be seen. Brasserie Julien continues this tradition, with excellent music
every weekend from Thursday through Saturday nights, fine food, a relaxed, friendly atmosphere, and no cover or minimum or “music charge.” In the Harlem of the 1930s through the 1970s, the musicians didn’t hide in the dressing rooms but drank at the bar or sat at tables in the dining room during intermission, visiting with the diners and even open to requests for tunes if they knew them and they were part of the group’s current band-book. This tradition continues at Brasserie Julien, where saxophonist Sedric Choukroun and members of his house group like guitarists Freddie Bryant, Ethan Mann, and Roni Ben-Hur or the French chanteuse Floanne regularly chat about music with friends at the bar during intermission.

Jazz Standards, Brazilian Tunes, American Pop and Funk

Choukroun’s musical repertoire is quite modern and varied, drawn
from a vast array of tunes by Jerome Kern, Jimmy Van Heusen, Gene De Paul, Harry Warren, Duke Ellington, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and other composers of the Great American Songbook, with an added selection of American jazz standards, Brazilian tunes and American pop and funk. It is more varied, and much more audience-oriented, than what one might hear at other New York City jazz rooms such as The Garage, Cleopatra’s Needle, The Village Vanguard, Iridium, or The Blue Note. Because of the high quality of the repertoire Brassere Julien is in its way even more musical than these other jazz clubs, which means more fun for everybody. It is typical to leave the restaurant at the end of an evening of jazz humming one of the famous
tunes Choukroun and his sidemen have played.

No Cover Jazz And Friendly Atmosphere

There is another important difference as well, an element where
Brasserie Julien excels, and that is the ambiance. Many of New York City’s leading jazz rooms have no ambiance whatever and don’t even care, Brasserie Julien, though, is an open, pretty room, with a friendly and attentive staff. Along with fine jazz by Choukroun and his sidemen and excellent food supervised by chef-owner Philippe Feret, there is an informal, welcoming atmosphere. There are no arrogant doormen and rude managers frowning at newcomers, no waiters pestering diners and drinkers to order more food and drinks or leave after one set as often happens at the downtown clubs, no outrageous cover charges of $30 or $40 to hear a single set of music. Brasserie Julien excels in quality of music, cuisine, and atmosphere.

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A Jazz New York Jam at Brasserie Julien

Brasserie Julien continues another part of the jazz tradition as
well, the openness to visiting musicians showing up to sit in with the house group, a tradition as old as jazz itself sadly almost frowned upon at many other New York City jazz clubs these days. On any weekend a visitor to this swinging restaurant might be surprised to hear a musician not booked with the house combo but simply playing jazz for the fun of it. Sometimes it is the 74-year-old New York City veteran guitarist Gene Bertoncini, or guitarist Ron Jackson, often one of Sedric Choukron’s sidemen, showing up to sit in on guitar for fun. Watching these unexpected visits is the pure pleasure of witnessing a reunion between musicians, a meeting of like-minded
friends.

Page Created By Tony Outhwaite