Here's hot news about a cool place: Baker's Keyboard Lounge, an 80-year-old northwest Detroit legend with a global reputation, could open a second jazz club this year.
The new site would be downtown, dBusiness magazine editor R.J. King reports.
Baker’s Keyboard Lounge is opening a second location this fall, and is working with Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services to find space in downtown Detroit’s lower Woodward corridor or in Capitol Park near the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel.
The original Baker’s Keyboard Lounge opened as a sandwich shop in 1933 and began booking jazz pianists the following year.
"We will take the same experience we have on Livernois and transport it to downtown Detroit," co-owner Bill Smith says. (Facebook photo)
King speaks with co-owner Hugh William “Bill” Smith III, who acquired the legendary club in 2011 with Eric Whitaker:
“The acoustics are our first concern, followed by the aesthetics. We’re going to have all of the things Baker’s is known, for including a piano-shaped bar, booth seating, and a stage area. . . .
“We’re looking at two or three options right now, and if we go on Woodward we’ll have around 175 seats, while in Capitol Park we can have 200-plus seats,” Smith says. “We’re also planning to have a kitchen. . . .
“We really want our 80th anniversary to be special, and we will take the same experience we have on Livernois and transport it to downtown Detroit."
The current club near Eight Mile, billed as "the world's oldest operating jazz club, has a Wikipedia page that lists dozens of top-rank stars who performed there -- a Who's Who of jazz royalty.
-- Alan Stamm
