On Record Store Day (Saturday, April 22), the long-running Silver Spring, MD record store Joe’s Record Paradise invites music fans to join them for a special celebration of Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society. Joe’s Record Paradise will host a panel discussion featuring Left Bank’s own John Fowler, who will share anecdotes from Left Bank Shows starring Lee Morgan, Sonny Stitt, and the great Duke Ellington. One such story: the Duke, on his birthday, arrived solo to a show after his band’s plane was delayed and went on to put on a classic one-man show, walking the audience through a rough history of jazz and his own musical development.

Full event details are below.

WHAT:

A celebration and panel discussion about Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society

WHEN:

Saturday, April 22, 2023 (Record Store Day), beginning at 2pm ET

WHO:

Left Bank’s John Fowler, Joe Lee (owner of Joe’s Record Paradise), award-winning archival producer Zev Feldman (of the new Jazz Detective record label), and Katea Stitt (Program Director at WPFW and daughter of jazz musician Sonny Stitt, the subject of an upcoming Jazz Detective release). If you attended Left Bank jazz shows in the past and you want to share your stories, please come on by.

WHERE:

Joe’s Record Paradise (8700 Georgia Ave, Silver Spring, MD 20910)

OTHER INFO:

Food will be available from Anabel’s Mobile Kitchen.

Contact Joe’s Record Paradise at (301) 585-3269 // [email protected]

Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society was a hub for jazz musicians during the era. John Fowler, who worked on Left Bank’s concert promotions from the organization’s inception in 1964, notes the affection the players had for their Baltimore hosts: “After a while, it became the place to play. In the 50 years that we were in existence, no musician ever left Baltimore without their money, which I understand is unheard of. Once word got out that you can go to Baltimore, have a good time, get fed and get free drinks — and you’re going to get your money, it came a flood. Everybody wanted to play.”

The Left Bank Jazz Society is at the center of the latest project from Jazz Detective, the label of Montgomery County resident Zev Feldman (GRAMMY-nominee and Downbeat's “Producer Of The Year”), and Reel to Real Records, the partnership between Feldman and Vancouver-based impresario and musician Cory Weeds: A trio of hard-hitting, previously unissued LP releases by saxophonist Sonny Stitt, organist Shirley Scott, and pianist Walter Bishop Jr. for Record Store Day (April 22, 2023). The collection — spurred by Joe Lee’s introduction of Feldman to John Fowler — deepens Feldman and Weeds’ fruitful excavation of hitherto unheard music from shows mounted at the Left Bank Jazz Society in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.