Jazz In Covington (Article Published in The Covingtonian-2007 Edition)

Jazz In Covington
By Kareem A. Simpson

Telling people that you were born and raised in a city like Covington, Kentucky, people from other parts of the United States are more prone to ask the number of cows that you had on your farm. Surprisingly, Covington is a jewel all unto itself. When one starts to conjure words about Covington, Kentucky, many descriptions float to the tip of one’s tongue. If you are a visitor from out of town, you may only see Covington as a thorough fare to get to Cincinnati from the airport or simply, Cincinnati’s southern sister city. During the time when the United States enlisted to believe that slavery was economical, to African Americans, Covington was a welcomed stop.

This was because the slaves knew that the free state of Ohio was just across the water. Those of us, who have lived in Covington for most of our lives, conjure different adjectives depicting this northern Kentucky city. Instead of describing this city with supercilious adjectives, some may bring to mind some of Covington’s prize positions like The Madison Theatre on Madison Ave or Saint Mary’s Cathedral located a few block south. Though long gone, some may reminisce about the Latonia Race Track and there many, including myself who can call Holmes High School, the only public high school in Covington, al ma mater.

To lovers of jazz music, Covington was and still is the bedding ground for some of the most of the successful musicians of our time. Music is a large part of many people’s lives. Though pop and rap lyrics have largely popularized the Billboard charts over the past few decades, there has been several type of music that have stood the test of time. One of those statuesque musical art forms is jazz.

At the start of each calendar year, we are all busy with wrapping up lose ends left by the holidays while trying to re-charge our lives by just thinking of the upcoming New Year. Very seldom do people see this time of year as a period for reflection, or looking into our past. In retaliation to this time of year’s urgency to look forward, with jazz’s beginnings is where we will begin.

The true origins of jazz have been disputed over the years, but most musicians and lover of the craft believe that this style of music spawned from the combination of African and Western traditional music. More specifically, the clash of New England hymns and European music with the spirituals, blues and ragtime music originating from West African people. The musical style of ragtime morphed into jazz in the 1920’s due to many factors including the onslaught of World War I and the popularity of railroad travel as opposed to traveling via riverboat. With Ragtime being the popular entertainment on riverboats and Cincinnati being a riverboat town, The Queen City was a perfect breeding place for jazz once it became popular. Fats Waller, a talented pianist with a knack improvisation made waves in Cincinnati in radio long before he went on to popularity with the songs like "Keepin' Out of Mischief Now", "Ain't Misbehavin'”, "Blue Turning Grey Over You", "Honeysuckle Rose", the piano cutting piece, "Handful of Keys", "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling", and "Jitterbug Waltz". Some would even go as far as to comment that Cincinnati’s Cotton Club, rivaled its New York City sister entertainment club bearing the same name. The Cincinnati version of the jazz club hosted the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Dixie Lee, Kid Draper and Billie Holiday.

There are few people currently who could provide first hand accounts of Cincinnati’s jazz hay day, but one Covingtonian was there and found himself nestled in the midst of the great musicians and singers who traveled around Cincinnati during this grand time. In his book My Life In Jazz, Nelson. Burton recounts his life long love of music and how it fostered his childhood in Covington, KY. Growing up on 9th Street on the east side of Covington, through My Life, Mr. Burton tells us the story of his youth by speaking of times when he sneak away from his house while his mother though him to be asleep and creep through the back of a local jazz club on his street. Once there, he would listen to famous musicians such as Fats Waller.

Like in most African American areas of major metropolitan areas during this period, juke joints, hot spots and speak easy came and went with the frequency of a riverboat floating on the Ohio River, so very few of are documented to have existed in Covington. Mr. Burton did mention that his musical partner Clarence Washington (A.K.A. Tubby), after they both toured the United States with Jack Johnson and the Jumpin’ Jacks, returned to Covington and open The Corner Pocket at the corner of 9th and Greenup Streets in Covington.

In his own right, during his career Nelson Burton established himself as an excellent performer by providing drums for the accompaniment of many outstanding and successful vocal artists of all time. As stated before, Burton was born into humble beginnings in Covington, KY. And though loosing his father at a young age, Burton watched as his mother worked long hours to support him and his family. It is inferred from My Life that his mother’s gumption, coupled with his own intelligence and his love of fancy clothes, Burton set out to help the family, by finding odd jobs as a teenager. Though most of Burton’s opportunities were found across the river in Cincinnati, Burton retells the story of a cow floating in right into his work area while he was a dishwasher at Booth Hospital, located in Covington’s historic Riverside neighborhood during the flood of 1937. Though not having to worry about a lack of intelligence, Burton never managed to graduate high school. Despite this, he was able to attend Kentucky State University, a historically African American university located in Frankfort, KY, on a football scholarship. With a wife and child to support at the time, Burton decided to for go his career in academia to follow his passion for music, which provided a more stable and immediate source of income.

My Life goes on to depict the music scene of Cincinnati in the 1930’s. A bustling, pork driven town, the city of Flying Pigs also was a music-filled metropolis, enhanced with a sense of history and grandeur, though crippled by a distinctive division between the races. Burton recounted that Vine Street, a street in downtown Cincinnati that still runs North and South, separated the African American part of the downtown Cincinnati area from the white part. If you were an African American musician looking for a playing gig, you would have better luck spending your time “at the rail” outside of the Cotton Club on the east side of Vine. Later in life, Burton traveled the country with Jack Johnson and the Jumpin’ Jacks. Though his travel kept him away from his family, with the Jacks, Burton was able to perform with such musical greats as Nat ‘King’ Cole.

Although Nelson Burton no longer resides in Covington, the love and passion for the art of jazz has not strode far from this far city. Some would go as far as to say that it had never left. Covington currently boasts a number of jazz venues that would rival Cincinnati’s former Cotton Club. One example can be found with the restaurant Dee Felice, located on the corner of 6th and Main Streets in Covington’s historic Mainstrasse district. Since 1984, Dee Felice has provided both food to fill your stomach and music to tickle your ears. Such noted singers as Mark Murphy have graced the stage at this establishment. Other noted musicians include Ed Schonessy, from the Tonight Show during Johnny Carson’s era, and Bill Gimmer who played in the Count Bassie Band. Local favorites include Kenny Poole, Bill Berry and Frank Vincent. With a performance scheduled every night except Tuesday, Dee Felice announces the fact that on any given evening, you can see couples having a quiet dinner and listening to a great jazz band or you can find music students experiencing their craft.

Just across Main Street, Chez Nora restaurant marches to the beat of a similar drummer. Just over five years after they expanded and added a rooftop performance area, Chez Nora has hosted many jazz performers to include local favorite Rickey Nye and the John Zappa Quartet. Making continuous move into the future by turning an old strip club into a restaurant/club, The Ave is Covington’s newest jazz establishment. Located just south of 4th Street on Madison Ave, The Ave hopes to broaden their repertoire of musical guests in the upcoming year.

As with Ragtime, time has caused Jazz to produced offshoots of its original form, from Swing and Be-bop to current day crooners such as Jill Scott and Norah Jones. As a Covingtonian by birth and heart, it is wonderful to think that those who have cut their teeth in the craft of music in this fair city had such a great influence on today’s music. A note to lovers of jazz, men like Nelson Burton should be saluted. There are more men like him than you think.