I Love Germantown! Since moving to Philadelphia from the suburbs many years ago, I’ve been attracted to the Germantown section of the city with its historic architecture, active business sector, and diverse communities.
Over the years, I have always found myself in the area for various reasons, from the food to the music. Germantown Avenue, the cobblestone street that leads you on a path all the way up to the neighboring Mount Airy section of the city, tells a story unfolding in the presence of the many 18th-century homes, boutiques, and other colonial buildings. If you Google this neighborhood, you will find historical lineages that go all the way back to the American Revolutionary War, laced with Abolitionists and enslaved Africans. The mix of the old and the new provides an intrinsic backdrop fit for any daydreamer to compose upon. The music of Jazz has been a part of the charm of Germantown for decades.
According to the Germantown Historical Society website, today’s Germantown was formed as a German Township, independent of Philadelphia, in 1683. It incorporated what is now called Mt. Airy and East Mt. Airy. Jazz music has been interwoven throughout the area. In the Mt. Airy section of Germantown, clubs offered Jazz, such as Slim Coopers Lounge on Stenton Avenue next to the Martin Luther King High School.
Further up that road, saxist Tony Williams (RIP) hosted his weekly Monday Night Jazz Jam at Lakey’s on Stenton Avenue and Mt. Airy Avenues. He had some of the city’s best jazz musicians play in the house band, and he himself was a saxophonist with great depth and experience. Tony later moved his jazz jam to 5531 Germantown Avenue to the famed LaRose’s Jazz Club at Germantown & Schoolhouse Lane. I can fondly recall visiting and later performing there. It was sad to see it close, leaving a void for music lovers in the area and beyond.
Various other spots in the area that presented Jazz came and went without much fanfare. Several churches in the area picked up the jazz baton for Germantown and began holding vespers, but not on a regular weekly basis, where jazz lovers could converge and support the music. So, a very important piece of the community’s cultural history was lost.
Prior to the advent of COVID, a new jazz venue emerged in the neighboring Chestnut Hill area called The Paris Bistro. It featured the atmosphere and music of the great golden era of Jazz. The American Songbook, Gypsy Jazz, and Straight Ahead Jazz with a bistro menu and wine. It fell victim to the scourge of the Coronavirus Epidemic of 2020.
Simultaneously, another venue in the East Mt. Airy section of Germantown emerged called the 7165 Lounge. It frequently offered jazz acts along with other genres of music. It, too, was not sustainable, and the venue has changed hands and names numerous times in the last decade.
Interestingly enough, Germantown has its own music school called the Settlement Music School at 6128 Germantown Avenue. According to historical archives, the building used to be the home of the ‘Colored’ YWCA. The school offers a nationally acclaimed arts enrichment program. In its West Philadelphia branch, it teaches jazz studies and has its own youth jazz ensembles. The Germantown branch hosts monthly live jazz concerts in collaboration with community arts nonprofits such as ‘The Jazz Bridge’ group.
Another historic educational site in the area, The Germantown Friends School, at 31 W. Coulter Street, was established in 1845, 179 years ago, and has its own Music Education Department with several Jazz Studies programs and ensembles. So, when I first approached them about helping to create a jazz quilt for Germantown that ties together its historical roots in music and its love for Jazz, Brian Bersh, the current Music Education Department director, was aboard!
It makes sense then that the newly formed Germantown Jazz Festival 2025, April 25-27, make its debut on their campus. The school administrators are currently in the midst of building a new state-of-the-art Performance Arts Center on campus adjoining the old one. They project that the new multi-million dollar facility will be completed by April of next year. What better way to celebrate than to have a Jazz Festival opening?
Other venues approached to hold the Festival include the Germantown First Presbyterian Church, 35 W. Chelten Avenue, Friends of Vernon Park, and the Germantown Settlement Music School. They have all agreed that curating a first-ever Germantown Jazz Festival in 2025 would benefit the area and bring neighborhoods together. Each has agreed to contribute to its creation by hosting one of the three-day festival events.
So, where does the money to make this happen come from, you may ask? That’s a good question, indeed. So far, we’ve gotten an offer from the PA Council for the Arts to match a $10,000 grant for their Catalyst Grant. We’re meeting with local politicians this month to propose support for what has great potential to become a yearly event that can attract thousands to the area and the region.
We’re sending grant proposals regularly and have recently formed a Germantown Jazz Festival (GJF) Fundraising Committee that meets weekly online to field ideas. One huge idea of this writer was to contact the camp of 8-time Grammy Award Winning Philadelphia bassist Christian McBride. Frankly, his management said they’d be glad to come and headline “if” we can raise the many thousands of dollars requested.
The question begs, “Can We Do It?” Imagine having such an outstanding leading Philadelphian who attended schools here, including one of the Festival’s projected partners, the Settlement Music School, come home to a local community and represent our love for the music of Jazz. Christian has joined the ranks of jazz legends who are from our hometown region, such as Lee Morgan, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, Dr. Trudy L. Pitts, Shirley Scott, Stanley Clarke, and Cliff Adams, to name a few.
We can even claim that this effort is female-driven because, at this point, the movers and shakers behind this push are predominantly women. You know what happens when we women get together and decide we want something done, it usually gets done.
What do we need? Germantown People Power!!!
We need local stakeholders like businesses, banks, churches, and community groups to join us in making this happen. We plan to stage several huge vendor markets along the Chelten Avenue, Greene Street, and Germantown business corridors.
If everybody pitches in, this can be a colossal success and a boost for both established commercial businesses and the cottage industry in the area!
Our website is currently being constructed, but we can be reached at (267) 603-4498 for more information, to volunteer, donate, or make suggestions that help answer the question, “Can we do it?” Can we take on this tremendous task as a community and create something new and exciting with a spectacular potential for sustainability? Or email us at energyhealingcenterofphl@gmail.com.
Even better help would be to have Germantown residents contact the office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass and let her know you support the Germantown Jazz Festival coming in 2025 and want her, too, by calling (215) 686-3424.
