Throughout Detroit’s rich jazz history, there have been many entertainment venues that have at one time or another hosted jazz performances.
In Detroit’s historic Black Bottom/Paradise Valley, where most of the African Americans lived when they first migrated to Detroit from the South to take advantage of job opportunities in the automobile factories beginning around 1914, there were eventually such venues as the Paradise Theatre (now Orchestra Hall), 606 Horseshoe Lounge, Club Plantation, Club 666, the Tropicana Bar, Club El Sino, the Flame Show Bar, the Music Bar and many more.
Some of the world’s top jazz stars of the era were frequent performers at many of the aforementioned venues, which included Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ethel Waters, Sarah Vaughan, Nat “King” Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Eckstine, Pearl Bailey, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Fletcher Henderson and many more.
However, looking back, Detroit’s most famous jazz club was Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. Located at 20510 Livernois near Eight Mile Road, the club, which opened in 1934, is still alive and vibrant. Baker’s claims to this day is that it is the world’s oldest jazz club.
“It really is the world’s oldest, still in operation jazz club,” said Eric Whittaker, who along with business partner Hugh Smith, has owned the iconic jazz venue since 2011. “There were some famous jazz clubs that operated before Baker’s, but they aren’t around any longer. Baker’s has never closed its doors since 1934.”
Baker’s was originally opened by Chris and Fannie Baker as an establishment that specialized in making and selling deli sandwiches. Soon, the couple’s teenage son, Clarence Baker, got the idea of bringing in local jazz pianists to perform at night when the lunchtime deli was closed. Before long, Clarence Baker was making more money with his jazz pianists than his parents were selling sandwiches.
After taking over for his parents when they could no longer physically operate the establishment, Clarence Baker went full-steam-ahead with booking keyboard players from outside the Detroit area. In the early 1950s, and after a physical makeover of the venue, he began to book national and international jazz stars, including, among others, Fats Waller, Errol Garner, Art Tatum, George Shearing, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson and Horace Silver. Any national or international true jazz star of the 1950s and 1960s most likely played Baker’s.
There were also local jazz artists who played Baker’s who had national and international prominence, including Barry Harris (piano), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Kenny Burrell (guitar), Yusef Lateef (saxophone/flute/oboe), Betty Carter (vocals), Earl Klugh (guitar), Alice Coltrane (pianist) and many more.
There are countless stories about the famed venue and its long list of performers. World-class vocalist Barbra Streisand performed at Baker’s in 1961 when she was virtually unknown. Pianist Liberace once visited the venue, saw its famous piano bar and went home to Hollywood to replicate what he had seen, but with a swimming pool.
There is also the story of legendary trumpeter Miles Davis who performed at Baker’s in the early 1950s while living in Detroit for about six months. At the time, he was fighting drug addiction and needed to get away from New York’s jazz scene.
By some accounts, one night, Davis walked into Baker’s from a pouring rain, soaking wet, with his trumpet stuffed inside of a brown paper bag. He abruptly went on stage, where a band led by jazz legends Clifford Brown (trumpeter) and Max Roach (drummer) was playing.
In his book, “Miles, the Autobiography,” Davis acknowledged playing at Baker’s in the 1950s, but vehemently denied the account that has swirled around for decades. Miles claims that Roach invited him to the Baker’s Keyboard stage. The Miles story is one of many attributed to Baker’s and the hundreds of jazz legends that have played the club.
“I’m not sure if the Miles account is true or not,” said Whittaker. “What I do know is that when I around 17 years old, many years ago, I saw Miles perform at Baker’s Keyboard Lounge. He was awesome. It was the best jazz performance that I have ever witnessed at Baker’s.”
Currently, Whittaker and his business partner are moving forward with the continuation of Baker’s rich jazz heritage which received Historic Site honors in the mid-1980s from the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office.
“We are proud of what Baker’s has accomplished in its first 80 years,” said Whittaker, a native Detroiter. “We want to continue to broaden the types of jazz artists and performances that come to Baker’s. There have been some discussions about opening other Baker’s clubs, possibly in downtown Detroit or in other cities. However, this Baker’s on Livernois and Eight Mile Road will always be here to bring the best caliber of jazz and the best jazz artists in the world to our world famous stage.”
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