StreetLevel: Puppets Jazz Bar Reopening Soon
We’ve been kind of worried about Puppets Jazz Bar, which had to move out of its old North Slope digs in June and was supposed to start the show in its new location between 11th and 12th streets awhile back. The venue has yet to open for business, though, and we got even more concerned…
We’ve been kind of worried about Puppets Jazz Bar, which had to move out of its old North Slope digs in June and was supposed to start the show in its new location between 11th and 12th streets awhile back. The venue has yet to open for business, though, and we got even more concerned when we noticed the for-sale sign above Puppets’ new home. No need to worry, though: The building sale won’t affect Puppets, which has a 10-year lease, and one of the co-owners says that construction has simply proven more challenging than expected and they’ll probably open within the next six weeks or so. GMAP
good! i hope puppets is the gayest of gay bars! park slope needs another one…and with live jazz, it’ll keep the non-cultured, close minded “str8’s” away…figured i’d drop down to the level of ignorance that’s being thrown around. idiots.
Brooklynnative,
I think you’ve got it exactly right about the place. It’s kind of a jazz club version of a vanity press. But there’s good music there, whether the owner or someone else is keeping time, and, at the low cover he charges, it’s easy to drop in and out and catch some good music.
Thanks, Slopefarm. I do love me some puppets. But I also love Sufjan Stevens– a lot. So if this place books him, I’m probably gonna end up there. Thanks for the heads-up.
yeah, a few of the “gay bar” comments got put back in the closet.
looks like comments are getting axed. odd.
I don’t think the owner has any intention of making it profitable. I used to pass by it on my way home from work and I see the musicians playing to no one sometimes or just waiting for someone to walk in the door. I think the owner, who is the drummer, just loves playing live and this is an expensive hobby for him. (All very noble, but I also saw him once being very mean to a female bartender and making her carry up heavy cases of beer from the cellar while he just stood there and watched. He seemed to be a real Asshat.)
4:15,
Oh, man, the fate of jazz is a subject for some whole other website. You could probably get a 100-post war going on some jazz website on whether it is the musicians or the audience that keeps jazz on the fringe. I am not trying to start that here, but here’s my two cents.
Yes, it would be great if every top notch jazz musician could get a gig at the Blue Note and gain access to the money and recognition. Of course local neighborhood clubs are not on the tourist or expense account circuit, and require devoted fans of the music to turn out. There are so many good jazz musicians who are worth hearing live who have just not made it into some record company’s marketing scheme, and the audience, while broader than it has been, is still too small to support everyone. I wish it were otherwise and I hope the South Slope has enough jazz nuts like me to keep Puppets afloat, because the music is worth hearing even when the players aren’t famous.
So give Mr. Puppet (or whomever the owners are) some credit for investing in the music with his heart, money, time and sweat, and I hope he makes it. Lord knows, it isn’t the most profitable thing he could do with the storefront.
“The problem is no one appreciates jazz anymore.”
I don’t think these guys would have a problem drawing an audience if they were playing the Blue Note or Iridium or Birdland as opposed to “Puppets Jazz Bar.”
Puppet’s is doing way too much reno to have agreed to a month to month.