The Philadelphia Clef Club Of Jazz And Performing Arts

The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts: a Short History
Jazz swings and sways to the feelings and emotions of the artists creating it; and, like its focal art form, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts responds to the needs of its changing environment. The 1960's were an exciting time to be a musician in Philadelphia. Nightclubs featured live music in every neighborhood. The Civil Rights movement shed light on matters of racial inequality. And unions protected the interests of the city's workforce. It was in this point in our nation's history that Union Local No. 274 of the American Federation of Musicians - Philadelphia's Black musicians' union - founded The Clef Club as their social club in 1966.

The Clef Club served as a foundation for the city's jazz community, advancing projects to benefit jazz musicians, providing a welcoming space to socialize and experiment. With members such as John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie, Local 274 was an important organization in the development of jazz in Philadelphia and the world.

By the end of the 1970s, it became clear that the organization needed to redefine its mission, create a new administrative structure, develop financial support, and acquire a better facility in order to continue to grow and serve the community. The Clef Club continued its function as a social club until 1978 when it expanded its mission to include jazz performance, jazz instruction, and the preservation of Philadelphia's rich jazz history. This change gave rise to The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts as the charitable nonprofit we know today.

In 1982, Dr. Bernard C. Watson, the president of the William Penn Foundation, allocated funds to construct a new facility at 738 South Broad Street, as part of the development of cultural organizations on the Avenue of the Arts. In 1989, the William Penn Foundation's board approved $2.8 million for a new Clef Club headquarters; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided an additional $1 million. A ten-day festival celebrated the opening of the new facility in October 1995.

During the construction period, The Clef Club continued its programming and underwent a major strategic planning process. A milestone from that transition period is the Clef Club sponsored concert at the Academy of Music in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In January 1993, an audience of over 2,500 applauded some of the leading jazz artists in the world, including Jimmy Smith, George Benson, Sonny Fortune, Peter Nero, Red Rodney, Johnny Coles, Lou Tobacin, Mickey Roker, Bobby Durham, Clifford Adams, Randy Brecker, Trudy Pitts, Shirley Scott, Tim Warfield, Charles Fambrough, and Kenny Barron.

Today, The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts represents a major development in the cultural environment of not only this city but the nation by being the first facility ever constructed specifically as a jazz institution. The facility houses a performance hall that can seat over 200 patrons, and contains two levels of classrooms and practice studios for its educational programs. A cherished asset of the Philadelphia community, The Clef Club boasts some of today's finest jazz musicians as former students and continues to present world-class performances in its mission to celebrate and preserve the legacy of jazz.