Jazz Greats! ...In Windsor?

The Elmwood Casino Hotel - the swankiest night club in the district - opened in 1946, beginning an era of big names, top bands and putting Windsor on the big time entertainment circuit. One such name was jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald - who performed in February of 1971. This Advertisement in a local newspaper (most likely the Windsor Star, but the exact origin is unknown) documents Fitzgerald's arrival in Windsor. 

Many Windsor musicians were actually employed by the Elmwood for years - those that are still around pass on stories to young players in the city who struggle to find work about "the old days" when they were working six nights a week and getting paid a decent wage for their talents. 

Gil Grisutti, a Windsor saxophone player and high school music teacher, is one of the musicians who played with Ella Fitzgerald back in 1971. Today, he still teaches a sizeable studio of saxophone, clarinet and flute students in both the classical and jazz idioms. People like Gil have inspired new generations of musicians to study jazz and keep the tradition going in Windsor. 

Jazz was played in a wide variety of venues around town. Some histories have only survived through brief advertisements, now hidden in archives across the city... For example, this ad for the Serious Moonlight Cafe (1412 Wyandotte St. E) was taken from the first known concert at the University of Windsor School of Music to include jazz selections on the program - "A Classical and Jazz Benefit Concert for the School of Music" featuring Alexander Zonjic, the Alexander Zonjic Quintet, and members of the School of Music faculty. The Advertisement specifically mentions that they have live jazz on Sunday nights. 

Other venues have only survived in the brief descriptions on YouTube videos - like this video of Windsor native Tom Borshuk playing at a place called Traiteurs Bistro in Windsor. 

Tom Borshuk is one of Windsor's jazz legends - His name still comes up in any conversation with seasoned jazz musicians about this city's musical history. Although he passed away at a young age, his legacy lives on in many of Windsor's top jazz musicians today. 

The following video shows him performing at a small bistro in Windsor with Regina Carter - a Detroit-native violinist who would soon become a legend in the both the local Detroit scene and the international scene. It has been said that Tom Borshuk gave her career its start...

The Top Hat was one of the last of its kind in the region, a genuine 50s-60s era supper club that featured old-style lounge acts, impersonators and comedians for the cocktail set until its close in the late 1990s. Windsor had a thriving supper club scene, with venues such as the Metropole and Elmwood Casino. Although it was home to a large variety of acts, local jazz groups were regularly featured on its stage. Numerous musicians still tell stories of this music venue -

Kevin Masterson, Mike Stone, Mike Seguin, Phil Seguin, and Bob Fazecash to name a few. 
The Top Hat was demolished to make way for a Burger King restaurant in 2008.

Windsor Jazz Series'/Festivals

Local traditional-jazz performer, Hugh Leal, started his career as a jazz promoter in Windsor in 1977, bringing some of the then-remaining pioneers of 1920's and 30's "hot jazz" such as Wild Bill Davison, Vic Dickenson, Doc Cheatham, Art Hodes, Buddy Tate, Bud Freeman, Sammy Price, Franz Jackson and Cozy Cole. Later promotions (including five Windsor Jazz Festivals 1992 to 1996) featured artists Tommy Flanagan, Zoot Sims, Mundell Lowe, Ray Bryant, Rob McConnell, Oliver Jones, Bucky Pizzarelli, Peter Appleyard, Ed Bickert and many others. From 1987 until his 2015 passing, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave became a major focus of Leal's promotional work. 

Leal's Promotional work would consist of three or four jazz shows every year - presented either as night-club/saloon "cabarets concerts" or productions at some of Windsor's main concert stage venues: The University of Windsor, Mackenzie Hall, and The Art Gallery of Windsor. This trend has lasted over 30 years, and has had a major impact on the jazz scene in Windsor - bringing high quality groups of musicians to the city and putting Windsor on the map! Leal's concerts focus on the traditional, or "hot jazz" styles, and have influenced countless Windsor musicians over the decades. 

Leal's promotions include:

Hugh Leal Presents (1977 to 1980), the Art Gallery of Windsor Jazz Series (1981 to 1992), the Windsor Jazz Series and Windsor Jazz Festivals (1993 to 2000), and culminating with theThe Capitol Theatre Jazz Series (2001 to 2006).

Leal continues jazz promotion with a current series featuring his Speakeasy Quartet at historic Mackenzie Hall. For More information on the Speakeasy Quartet, visit The Current Scene page. 

A New Generation

In the early 2000's, a new generation of jazz musicians arrived on the scene, eager to challenge perceptions of the music and create a safe place for those who wanted to experiment - a popular trend in the worldwide scene at that time. 

These players found a long-time home at what would soon become one of Windsor's iconic downtown hangouts - Milk Coffee Bar. The tiny fixture on University Avenue in the heart of the city, was like no other place in the city - established in 1998 to "nurture the creative spirit of Windsor," it featured local art on its walls and local music of all genres on its stage. Playing at Milk became a rite of passage for bands in Windsor. 

Early on, Milk became a central location for the jazz community with the creation of the Monday Milkmen - a group of young musicians who started their long tenure at the bar in 1999. Every Monday for almost a decade, this collective would hold a jam session, encouraging musicians from all over town to bring their instruments and sit in. The post-jam conversations between musicians and jazz enthusiasts are a main reason for the survival of the jazz community throughout the years; The Monday night jazz shows at milk were not by any means formal, sit-down events... They were friendly hangouts - the music peaked people's interests and curiosity, but it was the conversations, laughs, and lessons (both musical and philosophical) that kept them coming back week after week. 

The video below, filmed by Tom Lucier (owner of Phog Lounge and avid show promoter in the Windsor area) documents an interview with the owner of Milk Coffee Bar, Angelo Marignani. The two bar owners discuss the impact that Milk Coffee Bar has had on the local community, and the legacy of the Monday Milkmen.