Live jazz downtown is still kicking: HopCat calls it quits after more than a year, but SpeakEZ to feature Randy Marsh-led jazz beginning next month.
Drummer Randy Marsh’s final HopCat Jazz Jam takes place on Sunday, Sept. 16.
Don’t close the book on “The Return of Live Jazz to Downtown Grand Rapids” quite yet.
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Less than three months after the Gilmore Collection shut down Ottawa Tavern as a short-lived but much-celebrated downtown jazz club, HopCat plans to host its final Sunday night jazz jam on Sept. 16.
But another nightclub – the SpeakEZ Lounge on the north end of downtown – plans to pick up the ball and run with it, according to local jazz drummer Randy Marsh, launching its version of Sunday jazz nights on Oct. 21.
“I like the atmosphere at SpeakEZ,” said Marsh. “It’s really laid-back. … I think it’s going to be a good venue.”
The 7-10 p.m. Sunday music offering, according to Marsh, will tentatively be dubbed, “Sunday Jazz with Randissimo.”
The SpeakEZ Lounge, which opened in February, plans to feature jazz weekly starting this fall.
After debuting at HopCat at 25 Ionia Ave. SW in the summer of 2011, the popular HopCat Jazz Jams featuring Marsh and a rotating set of acclaimed Michigan jazz musicians brought a unique mix of patrons and players to the bar on Sunday nights, and helped provide a much-needed boost to the city’s jazz scene.
But the weekly sessions may have run their course, in part, due to a different HopCat clientele that didn’t spend as much on beer and drinks as other audiences that this particular bar attracts.
HopCat owner Mark Sellers, a jazz fan who worked with Marsh to start the jams last summer, conceded that while the shows were popular with a jazz-loving audience that was new to HopCat, they didn’t really draw bigger crowds to the bar than usual. And jazz fans were mostly there for the music, not to test the tavern’s impressive selection of brews.
“To be perfectly honest, we’re really busy all the time,” he said. “I have to pay the musicians and it was almost becoming like a charity. I love jazz. It was my personal little concert that I had for myself every Sunday almost. But those seats would be full whether we had jazz or not. I decided to let it play out, and then pass it on to somebody else.”
Sellers said he met recently with SpeakEZ Lounge owner Eric Albertson and suggested the newly revamped restaurant/bar which opened last February would be a “good fit” for taking over the jazz jams.
The restaurant/bar at 600 Monroe Ave. NW, formerly Cambridge House, currently features entertainment on a small stage a few nights a week.
Marsh said he’s grateful to Sellers for taking a chance with the jazz jams 15 months ago. “He’s been a great guy and let me do this. That’s a damn good run and it showed a lot of people that you can do successful things with jazz in this community,” said the drummer, who describes himself as an “obnoxious optimist” about West Michigan’s jazz scene.
For his part, Sellers credited Marsh for working hard to keep jazz alive in Grand Rapids.
“It’s Randy’s thing. If not for him, it would never have happened. Without him, it would die immediately,” he said. “He’s got a reputation among musicians in Michigan for being a straight-shooter who gets things done.”
The final HopCat Jazz Jam at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 will feature Marsh, pianist Steve Sandner (a Chicago native now based in Arizona) and bassist Ed Fedewa.
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
big props to Randy
Randy Marsh is a world class jazz drummer and it is great that some businesses recognize his formidable talent. Sellers sound like a cool cat to boot. Nice of him to take a chance on it AND to help find it a new home. He gave it a go, it didn’t work for him, but he saw it as potentially viable elsewhere and he pitched in. Very nice! Somethings are bigger than one- dimensional bottom line profits. Grand Rapids really is the musical jewel of the state and should be proud.
Randy has done an awesome job at keeping jazz alive in GR. Thank you, John for the encouragement and great coverage!