Minton's, Where Bebop Took Shape

A small plaque marks the door at 206 West 118th Street, on the ground floor of the old Hotel Cecil. Behind it, in the early 1940s, jazz changed shape. Henry Minton, a saxophonist and the first Black delegate to the musicians' union Local 802, opened Minton's Playhouse in 1938. His standing with the union meant players could sit in at his jam sessions without being fined, and on Monday nights, when the theaters were dark, musicians came uptown to try out ideas. Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell were among them, and what they worked out here became bebop. The players themselves later called those sessions the seedbeds of the new music. The club closed in 1974 and has reopened more than once since. The hotel and club building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.