


































103-Article Text-327-3-11-20200511


 

VOL. 9, NO. 1 
SPRING 2020 

 

 SPECIAL ISSUE: DETROIT  

Cultural and Social Mecca 
Entrepreneurial Action and Venue Agglomeration in Detroit’s Paradise 
Valley and Black Bottom Neighborhoods 

Jeremy Peters 
Wayne State University 

ABSTRACT: Detroit’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley were African-American 
neighborhoods that housed a vibrant and active popular music scene between 
World War I and the 1960s. They were home to a dense network of music venues, 
many of which were owned or managed by African-Americans. Urban renewal 
projects during the late-1950s destroyed much of the heart of these places. 
Unfortunately, discussion of this activity is largely missing from the academic 
literature on placemaking, cultural entrepreneurship, and music scenes in Detroit. To 
address this gap, I propose a solution that marries discussion of these 
neighborhoods with a method to measure and compare entrepreneurial activity in a 
music scene using venue density as a construct. 

This article examines the nature of entrepreneurial action in the collection of music venues that 
supported jazz musicians in Detroit’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods during 
the period of strong African-American business ownership between World War I and the 1960s. 
Aspects of entrepreneurial agglomeration and placemaking as they relate to musicianship are 
discussed. This discussion leads toward a methodology of measuring the vibrancy of a scene. 
Specific attention is paid to the creation of musical venues in the Paradise Valley and Black 
Bottom neighborhoods in Detroit before destructive urban-renewal projects took place in the 
early 1960s. These two neighborhoods are viewed using the lens of a modern-day music scene, 
oft described as vibrant and active. The relative density of music venues as a proxy for their 
activity is used as a method to compare the historical vibrancy of Paradise Valley and Black 
Bottom with a well-known contemporary American popular music scene in Austin, Texas. 



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Included in the investigation is a commentary on the nature of government support for music 
venues, and in the case of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, a particular lack thereof in the 
1960s. Over time, Detroit’s black music venues organized, dissolved, and re-organized during 
cycles of growth and struggle in the city’s history. Much of the narrative that discusses 
placemaking, cultural entrepreneurship, and the nature of music scenes in Detroit covers the 
Motown-era forward, and this article focuses on an era of strong musical scene-making which 
pre-dates this time.  This article focuses on a cross-section of those venues (jazz, blues and jump 
venues) to chart the density of entrepreneurship during a period of Detroit’s musical history, 
from just after WWI to the early 1980s, and also makes clear the impact of race-based redlining 
and the governmentally-mandated destruction of the historic homes of African-American 
musical entrepreneurship in the city of Detroit. 

Placemaking and the Narratives of Revival in Detroit Today (and Yesterday 
There is a tradition in both academic and popular discussions of the roles artists play in the 
city’s revival. Darroch discusses and takes to task the ability of “scattered hip enclaves” of culture 
in Detroit to change “acres of abandoned buildings and vacant lots” (Darroch 2015). This 
discussion attacks what seems to be a consistent theme in the popular press, which Darroch 
quotes as an exemplar: “Detroit is attracting artists in numbers large enough to earn it a 
designation as another Berlin: a city with a struggling economy where creative types can live 
and work cheaply” (Yablonsky 2011). Siobhan Gregory, in her discussion of the language on 
artistic entrepreneurship in the city of Detroit, agrees with Darroch, stating that “If Detroit is 
out-of-place, then many of the Detroiters who have occupied and sustained the city for decades 
are thus considered irrelevant, indefinable, or, at worse, deviant” (Gregory 2012). 

While there is discussion in academic literature about the cause of Detroit’s decline, and 
an overwhelming number of popular news articles about the causes (Alexander 2013; Beachy 
2013; Beyer 2018; Block 2013; Bomey & Gallagher 2013; Chait 2013; Fernholz 2013; Graham 
2013; Kurtzleben 2014; Mandell 2013; Niquette 2013; Oosting 2013; Salenger 2013; The 
Economist 2013; Uberti 2014; Wayland 2013; Weber 2013), discussion about how the city is 
wide open for outside artists to move in seems rampant. The size of the problem has even been 
picked up by recent work of academic researchers in the arts (Cappuccitti 2019; Pincus & 
Christian 2017). During the height of Detroit’s 2013 bankruptcy declaration, journalistic 
narratives seemed to focus on how Detroit is inexpensive yet cool (Ager 2015; Nelson 2009), a 
burgeoning home for creative New Yorkers priced out of town (Conlin 2015), a place for 
budding artists from the west coast (Mudede 2019), a drawing place for creatives (Ryzik 2010; 
Wheeler 2019) and mural artists (Sargent 2017), with a “wide-open” canvas (Archambault 
2010). These artists, some claim, will transform the city anew (Yablonsky 2010, 2011). 

In context, journalism by local Detroiters, angry about their absence in this narrative, 
makes sense. By way of example, discussion of the “cheapness” of the city for artists is 
questioned (Kerschen-Sheppard 2014). Others write to dispel statements that the city is an 
excellent place for artists to live (Abbey-Lambertz 2016; DeVito 2014, 2015; Voon 2019), while 



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trying to uncover the sustained work of 
residents who were there before any new-
found interest in the city as a home for non-
domestic creatives (Mavros 2010). Many of 
the same artists who operated there before the 
bankruptcy now deal with pressures that may 
marginalize their existence (Spinelli 2017). 
Furthermore, space is becoming increasingly 
difficult for creators to maintain (Fournier & 
Aguilar 2017; Kurth 2019; Neavling 2019). 
Artistic gentrification and the response of 
native Detroiters are directly discussed, with 
filmmaker Noah Stephens quoted by Wasacz 
as stating: the city is “not a blank canvas, there 

are pre-existing conditions. Newcomers can contribute with their drive and their income” 
(Wasacz 2011) when speaking about how Detroiters may not be as welcoming to outsiders as 
the ‘come to Detroit’ articles purport. Those articles, as Gregory points out, “illustrate how 
language that makes up the public narrative of urban neighborhood identity can lead to negative 
feelings and resentment” (Gregory 2012). 

Yet, this same rhetorical anger is tied, necessarily, to the placemaking work (both 
intentional and unintentional) in which the artist-entrepreneurs have participated. This making 
of a place where creatives have thrived enables journalists to market the city to entrepreneurial 
creatives who see Detroit within a causal lens: the city has vacant space, inexpensive rent, and 
therefore it should be easy to move there and set up shop. These outsiders are then taking part 
in the process of entrepreneurial agglomeration (Holcombe 2011): they buy-in to the narrative 
of a scene (Arnaud 2017; Marotta 2011; Millar 2018; Silver & Miller 2013; Woo et al. 2018), and 
therefore create a density of creatives that might not have otherwise existed. 

Furthermore, it is essential to note that even though emotions run strongly in the rhetorical 
battles in the popular press, it is not possible to state that the development of a neo-art scene or 
the work of entertainers did not have any role to play in the long post-industrial (and post-
bankruptcy) rebirth of the city. Such action is noted in research on the role of sports and 
entertainment in Detroit directly (Che 2008; Davies 1997; McCarthy 2002), not to mention an 
ethnographic study of entrepreneurial communities in the post-industrial city (Rencher 2012).  

The Destruction of Paradise Valley and Black Bottom in s Detroit 
While Detroit’s recent bankruptcy comes to mind, it is not the first time that cultural 
entrepreneurs in the city have faced existential threat. Many studies of Detroit’s music history 
discuss the nature of popular music-making at specific points along the historical arc. These can 
be roughly grouped into a few distinct eras across a handful of historiographies. The first 
grouping covers discussions of pre-jazz age popular music history (Bjorn & Gallert 2001f; Boyd 

Figure 1. A map of the boundaries of the 
Paradise Valley (gray) and Black Bottom 
(red) neighborhoods in the City of Detroit1.  

 



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1984b) as well as the early jazz age and the growth of the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom 
neighborhoods (Bjorn 1984; Bjorn & Gallert 2001c, 2001d). The second narrative places music 
in relation to the 1940s rebellions, the post-war industrial revolution, and the precursors to the 
urban renewal projects of the 1960s which destroyed Paradise Valley and Black Bottom (Bjorn 
& Gallert 2001b, 2001g, 2001e; Bond & Boland 2002; Boyd, 1984a).  

Other narratives cover the industrial era and renewal (Bjorn & Gallert 2016a; Macías 2010; 
S. E. Smith 2009), or focus mainly on the time period and after-effects of the 1963 and 1967 
rebellions, (Cosgrove 2017; Early 2016; Gholz 2011; Music et al. 2018; Quispel 2005; Sicko 2010) 
as well as post-industrialization (Albiez 2005; Che 2016). More recently, a number have 
discussed the recent bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy renewal (Gholz 2009; McCarthy 2002; 
McCollum 2019a; Steinberg 2016; Vecchiola 2006, 2011) and how it relates to musicianship in 
Detroit 

Additionally, a few address specific genres such as jazz in an extended form (Stryker 2019) 
or individual stories1 (Bjorn & Gallert 2016a, 2016b; Carner 2016; Gabriel 2016; Harris 2016b; 
Heron 2016; Sinclair 2016d; Young 2016), Detroit blues (Jones, Sr. 2016; Music 2008, 2016; 
Sinclair 2016b, 2016c; Spangler 2016), Motown & soul (Benjaminson 2016a, 2016b, 2016c; 
Boland 2016a, 2016b; Edmonds 2016; Graff 2016d; Harris 2016a; Hurtt 2016; Jordan 2016b, 
2016c, 2016a; Martin 2016; M. Smith 2016a, 2016b; S. E. Smith 2009; Thomas 2016; Whitall 
2016), Detroit rock (Bangs 2016; Blackwell 2016; Carson 2006; Derminer 2016; Dewitt 2016; 
Dutkewych 2016; Graff 2016a, 2016b, 2016c; Kroha 2016; McCollum 2016; Miller 2013; Morgan 
2016; Moseman 2016; Rodwan Jr. 2016; Sinclair 2016a; Spodark 2016; Trimble 2016; Uhelski 
2016; Wilson 2016), hip-hop (Deapo 2016; Holdship 2016; S. M. Liebler 2016; Marcus 2016), 
country and western (Maki 2016; Maki & Cady 2013), electronic music (Dalphond 2014; Echlin 
2016; Hanf 2010; D. Jones 2016; Mueller 2007), or weave a narrative of the whole (Slobin 2019).  

To this end, the historical discussion of means and changing opportunity aligns with the 
discussion of place-based entrepreneurial activity within the City of Detroit. This paper cannot 

 
1 The exact boundaries of these neighborhoods are oft contested. The boundary lines shown in Figure 1 are an 
approximation of the boundary lines of the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighborhoods. See Borden, 2003; 
Kutil, n.d.; McGraw, 2017; Williams, 2009; Zoghb, 2018 for  further context and discussion. 

Figure 2. Generalized overview of time periods and social movements in Detroit music 
historiography. 



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attempt to uncover the nature of activity in all of these 
historiographies and time-periods but must choose a specific 
point in Detroit’s musical-time in order to compare the nature 
of entrepreneurship against the placemaking and 
agglomeration that is taking place today. By extending the 
work of Preece’s in-depth study of entrepreneurial bricolage 
activity in the development of the Grand River Jazz Society in 
Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada (Preece 2014) to look at 
entrepreneurial agglomeration, we can explore the narratives 
of musical-entrepreneurship documented in Detroit Jazz: 
Who’s Who (Boyd & Bjorn 1984) and Beyond Motown: A 
History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-60 (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a), 
supplanted by further narratives in Heaven Was Detroit: From 
Jazz to Hop-Hop and Beyond (M. L. Liebler 2016). These 
sources serve as case studies that the author can use to look at 
the density of venues and the entrepreneurial action of venue 
owners in the city. 

Seeing Jazz Venue Agglomeration in the Paradise 
Valley Neighborhood 
Before urban renewal projects tore numerous venues to the ground (Detroit Historical Society 
n.d.-b) the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighborhoods “served as a cultural and social 
mecca for Detroit’s black community from the 1920s through the 1950s,” (Borden 2003) and 
was “the go-to” location to hear blues and jazz in the city (Zoghb 2018). The nature of this 
neighborhood, and the number of venues operating in the area or nearby in the accounts by 
Boyd & Bjorn, Bjorn & Gallert, and Liebler et al. (fifty-two by the author’s count), makes a 
strong argument for the owners of these music performance venues benefitting from the kind 
of entrepreneurial agglomeration spillovers during the boom period of the Black Bottom and 
Paradise Valley era. If one were to go just past the boundaries of Black Bottom and Paradise 
Valley, northward to New Center and the North End, or eastward to Virginia Park, another 
thirteen venues were close by. To that end Bjorn & Gallert make a strong point about the nature 
of venue concentration, stating “Detroit had grown into a ‘Nite Club Mecca’ starting with the 
opening of Sportree’s Bar in 1946.” They went on to note that:  

“Detroit’s black musical community was booming during the last part of the 1940s. From 1945 
thru 1949, venues for black music were opening up at a rate faster than ever, and the largest and 
most numerous venues were within the black community or within reach on Woodward Ave.” 
(Bjorn & Gallert 2001a, 74) 

One such venue was the legendary Flame Show Bar on John R street, dubbed the “street of 

Figure 3.  Detroit venues in 
the Paradise Valley and Black 
Bottom neighborhoods. 
Compiled from narratives in 
Boyd & Bjorn 1984; Bjorn & 
Gallert 2001; Liebler et al. 
2016 and plotted by the 
author on Google Maps. 



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music” by Detroit’s African-American press, (Gallert & Bjorn 2004) which opened in 1949 and 
presented shows until 1963. In Bjorn & Gallert’s account, baritone saxophone player Thomas 
“Beans” Bowles was quoted talking about the effervescence of that scene: 

“On the weekends the traffic would line up; you could not drive down Canfield or John R. That 
was hustle night. . . . It was like Las Vegas. People would come out from everywhere. It was the 
center of entertainment. There was no entertainment like that in the city at that time. We called 
it Sugar Hill really. Everything there was just poppin’. Lights and glitter, valet parking. . . . 
Nobody bother you or nothing. White people would come from all over to come to the Flame, 
because we had all the top shows” (Bjorn & Gallert 2001b, 72)2. 

Figure 3 displays a list of jazz venues in the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom 
neighborhoods culled from the Boyd, Bjorn, Gallert, and Liebler et al. mentioned above. The 
mapped representation shows a dense collection of performance venues operating at nearly the 
same time in Detroit. For comparison, Figure 4 maps the entire collection of venues compiled 

 
2 Of note, the founder of Motown records, Berry Gordy, hung out often at the Flame, and is quoted as saying 
“John R Street was jumping with clubs” and is connected with the Flame in many other ways. Gordy met many 
Motown musicians thru Gwen, his sister, who worked there. See Gordy (1995) for more information. 

Figure 4.  Detroit venues in the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom neighborhoods, in context of 
Detroit venues on the whole. Compiled from narratives in Boyd & Bjorn 1984; Bjorn & Gallert 
2001; Liebler et al. 2016 and plotted by the author on Google Maps. 



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from Boyd, Bjorn, Gallert, and Liebler 
et al. A rough estimate of the density of 
venues is approximately 30 venues per 
square mile. By the author’s count 
there were 52 venues in a 1.71 square 
mile area. The calculation of square 
mileage was done using the polygon 
tool in Google Maps. Comparatively, 
Figure 5 shows that the well-known 
dense collection of music venues of 
downtown Austin, TX (compiled from 
a list provided by Austin’s Convention 
& Visitor’s Bureau in 2019 [Austin 
Convention & Visitor’s Bureau n.d.]) 
is not significantly more dense than 
Detroit, with 36 venues in an area Google Maps calculated to be .948 square miles. Sadly this 
density is not recognized in Music Scenes, a multi-author book covering the nature of music 
scenes (Bennett & Peterson 2004), and the tendency seems for this to be the case, having 
surveyed other books and papers on the topic. Florida’s work on music scenes and clusters, and 
the book The Rise of the Creative Class talk about Detroit, for instance, but only mention the 
Motown-era forward and the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, respectively (R. Florida et al. 
2010; R. Florida & Jackson 2010; R. L. Florida 2006). Quispel’s article in Built Environment does 
better in discussing some of the precedent, but still heavily focuses on Motown (2005). 

When we look at the entirety of Black Bottom and Paradise Valley venues compiled 
together as a table (Table 1), the venues which came into existence from just before 1920 
through 1950 comprise the majority of the list. Surely, jazz venues continue to exist in Detroit 
to this day, with Baker’s Keyboard Lounge operating continuously since 1934. Significantly, 
Baker’s is the subject of a long running argument with New York’s Village Vanguard and 
Chicago’s Green Mill about which is the longest running jazz club (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a). 
Baker’s is, however, on the edge of Detroit’s north central border, just south of the city of Oak 
Park. Entrepreneur Bert Dearing ran a number of jazz venues in the late 1960s and opened up 
a sprawling performance venue in Eastern Market called Bert’s Marketplace in 1987 at 2727 
Russell (Stitt 2018). Otherwise, Cliff Bell’s has now re-opened and hosting jazz performances. 
Furthermore, Cliff Bell’s is somewhat significant, in that the location is essentially just past the 
southwest border of the area that was traditionally known as Paradise Valley. Another original 
Paradise Valley venue, the Willis Show Bar, was opened in 1949 and continued operations into 
1978. The space was recently reopened as a jazz venue once again in 2018 (Kurlyandchik 2017; 
Willis Show Bar n.d.). 

Entrepreneurial Action and Placemaking 

Figure 5. Austin, Texas music venues in the 
Entertainment District near 6th Street. Compiled 
from a list supplied by the Austin Convention and 
Visitor’s Bureau (2019) and plotted by the author 
on Google Maps. 



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A growing line of research on the role of creator-artists bolsters the claim that creators are both 
influenced by and supported by their proximity to available resources (Fuller & Ren 2019; Hearn 
et al. 2007; Voss & Voss 2008). Following that logic, the closer a creator-artist is to the resources 
they need to create, the more able they are to develop their work. This proximity to resources 
can result in a density of creator-artists as well as providers of the necessary resources to make 
art.  

Additionally, investigators of arts-entrepreneurship have discussed the role of artists in 
placemaking, noting the “seminal role” they play by creating places where residents feel 
welcomed, and “belong” (Kuhlke et al. 2015). This research is supported by urban studies and 
planning theorists in a growing body of research, which attempts to inform institutional actors 
of ways to not “squander” relevant opportunities to engage with artists (Markusen & Gadwa 
2010b). On the whole, this research claims that artists have the potential to affect communities 
(Andersson et al. 2011; R. L. Florida 2005, 2005; R. L. Florida et al. 2015; Schneekloth & Shibley 
1995), and have done so historically and for extended periods (Cottrell 2017; Stewart 2019) 
across the world (Attali 1985; Bader & Scharenberg 2010; Johansson & Bell 2016; Bishop 2005; 
Cannady 2014; Connell et al. 2003; R. Florida & Jackson 2010; Mayor’s Office of Media and 
Entertainment & Boston Consulting Group n.d.; Watson 2008). 

Furthermore, the nature of placemaking leads artists to develop ties to non-arts sector 
employers “who employ artists to design products” and “improve work processes” (Markusen 
& Gadwa 2010a), both of which businesses highly value (Austin & Devin 2003; Schiuma 2012). 
Indeed, arts-entrepreneurship researchers are looking at the nature of placemaking, and a 
significant research symposium in this field focused explicitly on the nature of artistic 
“entrepreneurship in, with, and for communities” (Arizona State University 2017).  

Importantly, there has been some work to bridge gaps in terminology between the ideas of 
how scene-making occurs and how placemaking happens. Scenes have been generally defined 
as locations renowned for a form of creative expression (Peterson & Bennett 2004; Straw 1991). 
Placemaking and place-keeping are, on the other hand, borne from a line of thinking that argues 
that it is important to save, protect, or support that which makes a geographic area distinctive 
(Jacobs 1961). While this gap in terminology has existed for a while, the gap has closed thanks 
to research on the intersection of arts-entrepreneurship and place. These investigations have 
looked at the role that music scenes play in the rebirth, growth, and change of cities (Bennett et 
al. 2018; Krims 2007), the role of social equity in the process (Webb 2014), whether or not arts-
entrepreneurship in the context of creative placemaking is scalable (Arroyo 2017) and, even 
how large locales such as Toronto can move toward a future as being thought of as a “creative 
city“ (Goldberg-Miller 2015). 

Meanwhile, Seman’s research is particularly insightful as it relates to the idea of the built 
environment, particularly music venues, and how they contribute to the notion of scene making 
in a geographic area. His discussion of the building of the Slowdown (a venue in Omaha, 
Nebraska) adds to an already active line of discussion about the relationship of music 
performance in a city. Furthermore, Seman actively questions how an entrepreneur opening a 
music venue in a certain place and at a certain time relates to whether or not that city becomes 



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a known-entity, or music scene (Seman 2010). On the whole, the two separate notions of 
entrepreneurial action, placemaking, and scene-making are tied up together in a number of 
accounts that Seman builds upon (Bennett & Peterson 2004; Hesmondhalgh 2005; O’Connor 
2002; Straw 2004). In short, a musical scene cannot exist without those entrepreneurs willing to 
open up venues for musicians to play at and audiences to congregate within. Conversely, a 
known music scene helps bring more attention to the venues and musicians that operate within 
or nearby that known location.  

Entrepreneurial Action and Placemaking in Paradise Valley and 
Black Bottom 
The owners of these venues in the heyday of Paradise Valley and Black Bottom did not 
necessarily know that they were contributing to an economic pattern which would benefit 
entrepreneurs outside of these two neighborhoods. The agglomeration economy created by the 
venue owners who chose to locate in Paradise Valley and Black Bottom participated in a scene-
making process which led to positive external benefits for entrepreneurs who chose to start 
venues outside of these two culturally dense locations. The density of venues in Paradise Valley 
and Black Bottom, thus, created a “boom of new jazz venues in white neighborhoods” outside 
of the traditionally African-American neighborhoods that are the subject of this paper. 
According to Boyd & Bjorn, “most of these new venues were located on the West Side of Detroit, 
that is, West of Woodward Avenue” (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a). Among these venues which 
benefitted from the agglomerative and scene-making effects was The Blue Bird Inn (1501 
Tireman), which hosted numerous performances by national touring musicians such as Miles 
Davis, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, and others (Bjorn & 
Gallert 2001g, 2016a). The Blue Bird Inn still stands, and was recently acquired by the Detroit 
Sound Conservancy as they hope to preserve a part of this era in physical form (Detroit Sound 
Conservancy, n.d.).  

By quickly generating a musical scene, these musical entrepreneurs transacted on the 
density of venues nearby. Therein, they made Paradise Valley a place, enacting placemaking, 
although in a non-institutional sense. Indeed, governmental support to make Paradise Valley a 
‘place’ in the modern sense of the word (creative placemaking) was non-existent. Again, 
discussion of the history of Detroit consistently mentions the action of the government to 
‘renew’ (raze) Paradise Valley and make way for processes of urban renewal . Times were not 
easy, even in the heyday of music making in Detroit.  

The tight labor market in Detroit meant steady work and good wages, particularly in the eyes of 
southern migrants. On the other hand, there was a lack of leisure time and consumption was 
limited by [war] rationing and supply problems. Housing was in very short supply, even after 
government public housing problems began. For the African-American population, housing 
was even harder to come by given problems of racial discrimination in public and private 
housing . . .  



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 One of the major instances of racial conflict in 1942 was over the Sojourner Truth public 
housing project. A riot by whites in effort evicted black renters and kept public housing in 
Detroit racially segregated, at least temporarily. In the private market a prospective black home 
buyer faced the discriminatory practices of sellers, real-estate agents, and banks, which until 
1948 were supported by law.” (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a, 62) 

Conclusion  
The placemaking actions of entrepreneurs in Paradise Valley far predates any scene-making 
action governments may have undertaken to date. Furthermore, any sort of agglomeration or 
attractive force for creatives thanks to narrative journalism must be considered in the context 
of the full-throated scene-making activities of venue owners in the Paradise Valley 
neighborhood. As this action occurred before discussions of placemaking and creative cities 
occurred, it is crucial to connect available information on venue density to recent discussions 
of how the density of musical venues in a city contribute to that city being considered as a ‘scene’ 
or for residents to consider it place-made as a vibrant artistic center. Historians who discuss the 
Paradise Valley neighborhood and the musical action therein consistently mention the buoyant 
atmosphere and attractant features of the district for live musical performances. Bjorn and 
Gallert state that “the business and entertainment center of the African-American community 
was at the intersection of St. Antoine and Adams” in Paradise Valley, and go on to mention that 
the boom in jobs after World War I (which resulted in the great migration and lead to a doubling 
of the African-American population during the 1950s) meant that there was a density of 
African-American ownership in these areas (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a).  

This atmosphere drew famous artists such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and a host of 
others to visit what was a burgeoning jazz hub during this period  (Bjorn & Gallert 2001a, 2016a; 
Boyd 1984b; Boyd & Bjorn 1984; Carner 2016; Macías 2010; Stryker 2019; Young 2016). It 
furthermore made for a place where there was ample work for musicians, an additional positive 
externality thanks to the density of venues which supported that work. Bjorn & Gallert mention 
this poignantly: 

The postwar economic boom also worked in Detroit’s favor by providing challenging jobs for 
jazz musicians. Jobs in music result from the joint activities of audiences and musical 
entrepreneurs. Detroit had an audience for modern Jazz from the mid-1940s, and there were 
businesspeople with an interest in catering to that audience. From the latter half of the 1940s to 
the mid 1950s there was a steady growth of jobs for modernists in night clubs, dance halls, and 
after-hours spots. Numerous jump bands provided jobs for aspiring players who could hone 
their craft while earning a living playing music.  
 When there are no challenging jobs, talented and well-trained musicians will leave for 
larger jazz centers, like New York, once they have completed high school. Detroit in the 1940s 
and 1950s was a place where jazz artists stayed around until their mid-twenties.” (Bjorn & 
Gallert 2001a)  



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Unfortunately, the growth of that hub was forestalled by the government moving to ‘clean 
up’ and ‘renew’ this neighborhood. While entrepreneurial action by artists in the city has not 
ceased in the interim, the level of vibrancy and action per square mile does not seem to have 
continued. The epilogue to this article establishes a personal narrative of the nature of what 
remains, other than the few jazz venue holdouts and revivals mentioned previously in the article. 
It is the author’s hope that the future holds the possibility of a city-wide analysis of venue 
operation after the period discussed here, which collates research done on separate but equally 
important music scenes such as Motown, soul, Detroit rock, Techno, hip-hop and forth into the 
music of today. As the city argues for its place in music history as a music scene, there is ample 
opportunity for a longitudinal study of venue density, which can incorporate the work begun 
here, and more clearly scene creation in the city over time. As that story is able to emerge, it will 
become easier to compare this period against others within Detroit’s music history overall. 

Epilogue: Detroit’s Music Venues Today 
Jazz venue activity in what was Paradise Valley and Black Bottom, let alone the entire city, is 
much less dense currently than it was during the time in question. A simple search for “Detroit 
music venues” on Google Maps today lists approximately thirty venues, compared to the over 
one hundred in Table 1. Future research would benefit from a point-in-time survey of the 
number of music venues currently operating in the city. There is hopeful news, however, efforts 
are underway within Detroit to restart the long-shuttered entertainment commission (Hooper 
& Cross 2019), and the city has hired a Director of Arts & Culture who may lead efforts to survey 
the current landscape (Siacon 2019). Still, the author’s experience attending shows over the past 
twenty years, and as a promoter of them for the past fifteen, serves as a longitudinal survey of 
scene making today in comparison to the 66 venues noted above during the Paradise Valley 
heyday. Musical performance in the city, by the author’s account, is limited to a handful of 
venues across the city. These spaces, including El Club (4114 W Vernor Hwy) in Mexicantown, 
where performances of electronic music, independent rock, and hip-hop take place.  

Additionally, there are locations nearer to the areas focused on in this article. Marble Bar 
is located at 1501 Holden St, just east of Virginia Park and south of New Center, and hosts 
mainly contemporary electronic music shows (including the 20th Anniversary show for Ghostly 
International, where the author was once employed and opening parties for Movement 
Festival—the predecessor to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival). In Corktown, just east of the 
southeastern terminus of Paradise Valley, PJ’s Lager House and the UFO Factory regularly host 
independent music performances. In Woodbridge, east of the north side of Paradise Valley, 
Trumbullplex is a home for avant-garde and up-and-coming acts.  

There are more venues in the area just north of where Paradise Valley once was, which is 
now called Midtown. These venues include the old Paradise Ballroom which was originally, and 
is now the home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The Old Miami was “established in 1975 
as a haven for Vietnam veterans” (Haber n.d.), but often hosts indie rock and electronic music 
performances, especially surrounding the Movement Festival when lines can be seen extending 



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for blocks to get in to day-long parties hosted by Detroit alum Seth Troxler and others. St. 
Andrew’s Hall and the Shelter (which played a role in 8 Mile, the Eminem biopic) began 
regularly hosting performances in the 1980s (Live Nation n.d.). 

The Majestic Theatre (4120 Woodward Ave) was originally a playhouse which opened in 
1915, but transformed into a movie theatre, and in 1984 began a transformation toward its use 
as music complex (including a second venue, The Magic Stick) (Detroit Historical Society n.d.-
a; McCollum 2019b). Today, both the Majestic and Magic Stick host mainly independent rock, 
electronic, and some hip-hop performances. The Majestic is one of the larger, often sports-
centered venues in the city, filling a gap between smaller venues and larger spaces. These bigger 
venues all host concerts regularly and include the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts 
(which normally hosts large performances upstairs and jazz downstairs), Fox Theatre, Fillmore 
Detroit (formerly the State Theatre), Cobo Arena (which was torn down in 2019) and the 
stadium venues which host major performers. Concerts have been held in Comerica Park (home 
to Detroit Tigers baseball), Little Caesars Arena (home to Red Wings hockey and Pistons 
basketball), and Ford Field (home to Lions football).  

As evidenced by the accounts of popular music spaces that currently operate in Detroit, it 
is clear that popular musical performance has not left the city. That being said, it has changed 
somewhat, and by count, is less dense than it was during the Paradise Valley and Black Bottom 
performance eras that the body of the article focuses on. Perhaps what prevents Detroit from 
being at the tip of audiences’ tongues as a contemporary scene is the comparative lack of venue 
density. What remains to be seen, however, is how these venues face the upcoming changes and 
challenges they may face and what the landscape of performance venues will look like in the 
future. 

 
Table 1. Detroit Jazz (as well as Jump and Blues) Venues, open and close dates, and addresses. 
Compiled from narratives in Boyd & Bjorn 1984; Bjorn & Gallert 2001; Liebler 2016. 

Name Notes Open Approx. Close Approx. Address 
Arcadia    Unknown   Woodward Ave 

Vaudette Theatre       Gratiot 
Pier    Unknown   E Jefferson 

Crystal   Y Unknown   Woodward 
Hotel Ellwood    Unknown   St. Antoine 
Palais de Danse    Unknown   E Jefferson 
Koppin Theatre     Y  Gratiot 
Blue Bird Inn    Unknown   Tireman 

Graystone Ballroom       Woodward 
Royal Garden Cabaret   Y Unknown  Gratiot and St. Antoine 
Rose Palace Cabaret   Y Unknown   St. Antoine 

Grande    Unknown   Grand River 
Jefferson Beach    Unknown  E Jefferson and Grand 

Monticello Ballroom    Unknown   E Jefferson 
Vanity    Unknown   E Jefferson 

Garden Terrace    Unknown   E Warren 
Musicians Club       St. Antoine 
Pendennis Club   Y Unknown   St. Antoine 

Musicans Booking &       St. Antoine 



ARTIVATE 9.1 
 

 32 

Service Bureau 
Club Plantation Norwood Hotel      E Adams 

Michigan Democratic 
League Club 

    Y 
Livingstone and St. 

Antoine 

Buffalo's 
Buffalo's  or Apex 

Club 
 Y    E Adams 

Palm Garden Café    Unknown  Warren and Russell 
Jess Faithful's Rhythm 

Club 
  Y Unknown   St. Antoine 

Harlem Cave   Y Unknown  Canfield and Brush 
Rhythm Club    Unknown   E Warren 

Baker’s Keyboard Lounge    Open   Livernois Ave 
Chocolate Bar       Livingstone 

Cliff Bell’s Original      Park Ave 
Cozy Corner       Hastings 
Rose Bud Inn    Unknown   Hastings 
Little Sam's st     Hastings 
B & C Club   Y    St. Antoine 
Broad's Bar   Y  Y  Oakland 
Heat Wave   Y Unknown  Oakland Ave 

Brown Bomber’s Chicken 
Shack 

    Y  E Vernor Hwy 

Melody Club       St Antoine 
Tuxedo Grill (Club 

Tuxedo) 
   Unknown   Hastings 

Ace Bar     Y  Hastings 
Earl Walton's Studio Club   Y Unknown  Unknown 

Cotton Club    Unknown   Livingstone 
Club Paradise       St. Antoine 

 Horseshoe Lounge       St. Antoine 
Club Zombie   Y Unknown   Oakland 
Little Sam's nd    Y Beaubien and E Warren 

Joe’s Record Shop   Y Unknown   Hastings 
Midway Club      Hastings and Columbia 
Three Star Bar   Y Unknown  Hastings and Brewster 

Club Congo & Congo 
Room 

Norwood Hotel      E Adams 

Club Three Sixes (Three 
) 

      E. Adams 

Forest Club       E Forest 
Paradise Theatre       Woodward 

Club Owens       St. Antoine 
Double V     Y  Conant 

Turf Club (Turf Bar)    Unknown   St. Antoine 
Club Sudan       E Adams 

Lee's Sensation    Unknown   Owen 
Swamp Room Mark Twain Hotel   Unknown   Garfield 
Civic Center   Y  Y  Erskine 

Mickey's Show Bar       E Seven Mile 
Bizerte   Y Unknown   Oakland 

Bowl-O-Drome Tropical Show Bar    Y  Dexter 
Chic's Show Bar    Unknown   Hamilton 

Club Deliese       E Davison 
Garfield Bar Garfield Hotel   Unknown  Garfield and John R 

Garfield Lounge Garfield Hotel   Unknown   John R 
Palms Theatre       Woodward Ave 
Parrot Lounge Garfield Hotel   Unknown   John R 



 ARTIVATE 9.1 
 

 33 

Waha (Wal-ha) Room Garfield Hotel   Unknown   John R 
Frolic Show Bar     Y  John R 
Royal Blue Bar    Unknown   Russell 

Sportree's Music Bar       Hastings 
Chesterfield Lounge    Unknown   John R 

Crest Lounge    Unknown   Fullerton 
Crystal Bar  

(Crystal Show Bar) 
   Unknown   Grand River 

El Sino       St. Antoine 
Parrot Lounge    Unknown   E Canfield 

Wyoming Show Bar       Wyoming 
Club El-Morocco       E Davison 

Club Juana       Woodward Ave 
House of Joy       W Warren 

Club Valley Ballroom       E. Adams 
Congo Lounge    Unknown   Gratiot 

Falcon Show Bar     Y  Van Dyke 
Flame Show Bar       John R 
Willis Show Bar Original      Third 

Alvito's Bar   Y Unknown   Russell 
Klein's Show Bar   Y Unknown   Twelfth 

Hobby Bar    Unknown   Linwood 
Ernie's Caribee    Unknown  E Jefferson 

Denny's    Unknown   Linwood 
Oriole Show Bar   Y    Linwood 
Rouge Lounge       Coolidge Hwy 

Shangri-La  
(Club Stevadora) 

  Y Unknown   Harper 

Spot Bar    Unknown   Twelfth 
Twenty Grand     Y  Fourteenth 

West End       S West End Ave 
World Stage     Y  Woodward 

Eagle Show Bar    Unknown   Twelfth 
Larry's Show Bar    Unknown   Gratiot 

LaVert's    Unknown   Linwood 
Rage Show Bar    Unknown   Davison 

Roosevelt Lounge     Y  Mack 
Strand Bar and Grill     Y Unknown 

Hajji Baba   Y    Gratiot 
Blue Note Room Hotel Capri  Y Unknown   John R 
New Bohemia &  
Club Bohemia 

      Woodward Ave 

Minor Key       Dexter 
Little Wally's      Mack and Maryland 

Dummy George’s   Y Unknown   W. McNichols 
Rainbow Room       W Lafayette 

Savoy Room       W Lafayette 
Park Avenue Club Detroit Jazz Center      Park Ave 
World Stage Café Detroit Jazz Center      Park Ave 

Café Detroit       W Palmer Ave 
Bert's on Broadway  Unknown  Unknown   Broadway 
Bert's Marketplace    Open   Russell 
Jazz on the River      Belle Isle 

Bert's Black Horse Saloon       Gratiot 
All That Jazz      Unknown 
Bert’s Place   Y  Y  W. Jefferson Ave 
Cliff Bell’s Reopened   Open   Park Ave 



ARTIVATE 9.1 
 

 34 

 

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Hastings Bar  Unknown  Unknown  Hastings and Erskine 
Mirror  Unknown  Unknown   Woodward 

New Hollywood Ballroom  Unknown  Unknown  Unknown 
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Rainbow  Unknown  Unknown  Hastings and Adams 
Russell House  Unknown  Unknown   E Adams 
Silver Lining  Unknown  Unknown  Unknown 
Sliver Grill  Unknown  Unknown  Unknown 

Sonny Wilson’s  Unknown  Unknown  Unknown 
Stone’s  Unknown  Unknown  Unknown 

Young's Cocktail Lounge  Unknown  Unknown   Plymouth 
Oriole Terrace  Unknown  Unknown   Grand Blvd 



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