Patrons applaud as the Dino Losito Trio performs Friday, the last day Green Pastures in Elmira was open. / JASON WHONG / STAFF PHOTO
Patrons bid goodbye to Elmira's historic jazz club
Music
lovers packed Green Pastures on Friday to celebrate the historic Elmira jazz
club and its owner.
At
just after noon, about 10 people sat at the bar enjoying chicken lunches and
spending time with tavern owner Howard Coleman Sr., 85, who retired Friday as
his liquor license expired. Later in the evening, dozens of people filled the
club to hear the Dino Losito Trio performing smooth, long-lasting jazz.
Patrons
had to squeeze between each other to get to the end of the bar, where Coleman
sat, surrounded by well-wishers. "It's so sad that a piece of history is
going to be gone," said Sharon Mashanic of Elmira. Now, top music students
at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and other schools have lost a good
venue where they could have made a name for themselves, she said.
Cindy
Emmer of Elmira agreed: "One of Howard's contributions is he's let young
musicians from high school come and play here," she said. "And a lot
of them, like Christian Li and Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, have gone on to do a lot
of other good things."
Green
Pastures, which has been open since 1930, is unique, said Franc Laux of Elmira.
"For
all that time, it's been a place for sophisticated jazz music," Laux said.
"It's
a great attraction, widely known on the East Coast." Coleman has told this
newspaper in the past that jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Benny
Goodman, and lesser-known musicians such as Max Roach, Joe Venuti and Eddie
"Cleanhead" Vincent, came to the tavern in the 1930s and '40s to try
out new songs before playing bigger venues.
Back
then, many of the musicians were unable to stay in local hotels because they
were black. People in the audience would take them in, Coleman said.
Coleman,
who started working at Green Pastures as a go-fer when he was 4 years old,
bought the club in 1974. It has been called the second-oldest continuously
operating jazz club in the United States.
Laux
will miss the camaraderie, good food and outstanding music. "It's the most
comfortable place in town," he said. -
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