Here’s a look at the fascinating history of the 9:30 Club—one of the country’s best-known and most-loved places to see live music.
Minus the crowds, the lights, the noise, everything seems a little too bright and a lot too quiet—less like a concert venue than some creaky old library. That was certainly the case at theone recent afternoon. But the odd vibe also felt right. Because I wasn’t there to hear some band: I wanted to dig into the past.
But have you ever wondered about the building itself? Most visitors probably aren’t aware of its long history, stretching back to its days as a nightclub in the 1940s. As I walked around the empty room with Seth Hurwitz—who owns the club, as well as the Anthem and other local venues—it was easy to envision the early years, when Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington might have had the place hopping.
The project was a big undertaking: a large-scale hall that would hold 3,000 people. To design it, he hired the prominent African American architect Albert I. Cassell, who had previously served as the official architect of nearby Howard University. Rosenberg promised that while his place would be smaller than Harlem’s famed Savoy Ballroom, it would be “much nicer.”
The new owners renovated the space and invested in a big sign that no doubt turned heads on V Street. Duke Ellington’s opened on October 22, 1948, with a ten-day run by Ellington and his orchestra. This time, the scene was more muted—the first gig didn’t even sell out.reviewer wondered if the $1.80 cover charge might be too high, while mentioning that the club didn’t have a revenue-generating liquor license. The sound system was also malfunctioning, making singer Kay Davis hard to hear.
The smart boys, whoever they were, turned out to be right. On December 1, less than six weeks after Duke Ellington’s opened, thewrote that the place had shut down for “alterations” after failing to attract capacity crowds. The plan was to reopen on Christmas Eve with a different concept involving a floor show and chorus line. That revamp was short-lived: Duke Ellington’s was open on New Year’s Eve , but after that, it seems to have shuttered for good—a remarkably brief run.
WUST’s programming attracted passionate fans. Al Bell had a particular interest in Southern R&B, and he started adding records by grittier artists like Otis Redding. But the station manager and co-owner, Dan Diener, told him to cut it out. “He said, you know, ‘Black people are more sophisticated in Washington, DC,’ ” Bell recalls. “ ‘The music you’re playing is not the kind they want to hear.
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