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Cotton Club

Cotton Club

NightclubWikipedia

Search complete. 101 mentions across 39 episodes found for "Cotton Club".

Oct 23, 2026

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

Shane Hewitt and The Nightshift

A 50-Year-Old Party Could Be Your Best Movie Night

Oct 23 · 3 Mentions

#79 CA
Richard CrouseGUEST
16:52
We're going to go to Harlem.
Richard CrouseGUEST
16:54
We're going to go back a few years, though, back to the Cotton Club.
Richard CrouseGUEST
16:59
which was at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue.
Richard CrouseGUEST
17:04
And it was the club I think that most people closely associate with Harlem because of the movie.
Richard CrouseGUEST
17:21
And because they were open during prohibition, they had a lot of kind of sneaky drinks that they would serve that were illegal at the time, but sort of equally delicious.
Richard CrouseGUEST
17:33
So I found a few of them, one called a Harlem Cocktail.
Richard CrouseGUEST
17:36
And this one is obviously named after the neighborhood and it's strongly linked to the Cotton Club.
Richard CrouseGUEST
17:45
It was a Prohibition era cocktail.
Cricket Magazine: Cricket ages 9-14

Cricket Magazine: Cricket ages 9-14

Cricket Magazine: Cricket ages 9-14 - Friday, 10/23/26

Oct 23 · 1 Mention

#106 AU
Tara SalazarNARRATOR
18:14
Dancing as a social activity was wildly popular in 1930s Harlem, and you could always find the best dancers and the best musicians at the Savoy Ballroom.
Tara SalazarNARRATOR
18:24
Unlike Harlem's famous Cotton Club, which featured Black entertainers performing before all-white audiences, the Savoy was one of the first integrated public places in the country.
Tara SalazarNARRATOR
18:34
In 1937, a famous battle of the bands took place.
Tara SalazarNARRATOR
18:38
It featured bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman with his drummer Gene Krupa versus bandleader and drummer Chick Webb.
Let It Roll

Let It Roll

Swing King Chick Webb Brought Ella Fitzgerald to the World: Let It Roll From the Beginning... 4.7

Oct 21 · 1 Mention

Top 40%
Nate WilcoxHOST
22:43
The underground dance scene was quite integrated, but around World War One, the Jim Crow edicts came down and segregated everything.
Nate WilcoxHOST
22:50
So this is breaking down that imposition of segregation and even, you know, yeah, the famous Cotton Club.
Nate WilcoxHOST
22:57
But one thing that really blew me away was the capacity of this club.
Nate WilcoxHOST
23:02
Four thousand people at a time.

Unknown podcast

Harlem Renaissance

Oct 18 · 2 Mentions

speaker_1NARRATOR
30:05
This included writers and performers like Langston Hughes and Ethel Waters.
speaker_1NARRATOR
30:10
In the music scene of Harlem, venues like the Cotton Club and Rockland Palace often hosted drag shows alongside other performances.
speaker_1NARRATOR
30:20
Performers such as Gladys Bentley and Bessie Smith were part of this movement, helping to introduce these cultural expressions to a wider audience.
speaker_1NARRATOR
30:29
While the contributions of women were sometimes overlooked in the past, modern critics have worked to recognize the importance of their work.
speaker_1NARRATOR
34:02
Musicians also experienced a mix of positive and negative outcomes.
speaker_1NARRATOR
34:07
Nightclubs and cabarets in Harlem provided a stage for performers and a place for residents to dance.
speaker_1NARRATOR
34:15
But some of the most famous locations, like the Cotton Club, were restricted to white audiences only.
speaker_1NARRATOR
34:22
The black musicians who played there often became very successful in the mainstream music scene.
Voice of the Arts

Voice of the Arts

Chamber Music Pittsburgh - Valerie Coleman and Friends

Oct 16 · 4 Mentions

Jim CunninghamHOST
3:01
... on this program.
Jim CunninghamHOST
3:02
Uh, we've got the William Grant Still Summerland and, uh, Valerie's pieces, Portraits of Langston, The Cotton Club, Juba.
Jim CunninghamHOST
3:11
What are you gonna choose here to, to tell us about, okay?
Mariam AdamGUEST
3:15
When Imani Winds in this early incarnation with the three of us as founders, we played Summerland.

14 MINS LATER

Monica EllisGUEST
17:29
So all of those wonderful, wonderful organizations that, uh, have still, are still making great music and, and, um, you know, representing Pittsburgh really well.
Jim CunninghamHOST
17:39
One last thing.
Jim CunninghamHOST
17:40
Gotta ask, uh, Valerie about, uh, the Cotton Club Juba.
Jim CunninghamHOST
17:43
Now, I've never seen the Juba-
Smithsonian Magazine

Smithsonian Magazine

10.15.26

Oct 15 · 1 Mention

Rebecca ShoreHOST
14:01
Everyone was afraid of him because he had a psychotic streak, and he was a killer, says Raines.
Rebecca ShoreHOST
14:07
Madden owned the famous Cotton Club in Harlem and muscled his way into part ownership of a variety of other nightclubs.
Rebecca ShoreHOST
14:15
In 1935, seeking a quieter way of life, he relocated to Hot Springs, which he'd visited a few times.
Rebecca ShoreHOST
14:23
Leaving his rowdy ways behind him, he married the postmaster's daughter and settled into a comfortable life.

Unknown podcast

Monk's Minton's House: How One Piano Transformed Jazz

Oct 13 · 3 Mentions

speaker_1UNKNOWN
5:43
Alright folks, after dissecting how Monk reshaped the piano roll, let's pivot to a different kind of jazz revolution.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
5:51
I want to talk about Cab Calloway, that flamboyant vocalist who turned the Cotton Club into an arena for cultural negotiation.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
6:00
He wasn't just a singer, he was a brand architect and a political actor in the 1930s Harlem scene.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
6:08
His career gives us a lens on how race, spectacle, and commerce collided when defining what jazz could become.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:43
It also introduced the first widely used call and response structure in popular music, engaging listeners as participants.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:52
This success forced record labels to rethink marketing strategies toward African American audiences.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:59
The Cotton Club was a paradoxical venue.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
8:02
It showcased black talent while reserving the dance floor for white patrons.

Unknown podcast

Armstrong’s West End Blues Cadenza: Myth, Market, and Musical Legacy

Oct 13 · 3 Mentions

speaker_1UNKNOWN
6:46
That influx set the stage for a new kind of collective improvisation that would redefine what jazz sounded like.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
6:53
Venues like the Cotton Club and Savoy Ballroom were the epicenters of this transformation, but they had a paradoxical relationship with race.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:04
The Cotton Club, for example, was an all-white club that showcased black talent to white audiences.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:12
while the Savoy welcomed a mixed crowd in a dance hall that turned into a laboratory for swing.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
7:19
Musicians had to read the room and adjust their arrangements on the fly, turning every set into a negotiation between artistic vision and audience expectation.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
9:36
Yet racial realities never fully disappeared.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
9:40
Black musicians faced segregation in hotels, on tour, and even within their own clubs.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
9:47
The Cotton Club's policy of white patrons forced performers to adopt a polished, clean style that could pass for mainstream entertainment while still retaining African-American grit.

Unknown podcast

Habanera & Tresillo: The Rhythm That Shaped Jazz

Oct 13 · 2 Mentions

speaker_0UNKNOWN
12:43
What makes Johnson's story resonate is that he wasn't just playing notes.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
12:48
He was negotiating space in clubs like Cotton Club and on radio waves that were still being coaxed into the mainstream.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
12:56
The early 1920s saw him record The Charleston for Brunswick, a tune that became an anthem of the roaring 20s, but also a battleground where record companies began to see jazz as marketable commodity rather than niche art.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
13:11
But it wasn't just about dollars.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
14:04
In the club scene, Johnson pioneered what became known as stride.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
14:09
a left-hand technique that walked bass lines while the right hand launched melodic leaps.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
14:14
That approach mirrored African polyrhythms and also allowed him to improvise within a framework that could be understood by dancers at the Cotton Club or patrons in Harlem's Savoy Ballroom.
speaker_0UNKNOWN
14:26
But perhaps his most enduring legacy is how he turned the piano into a vehicle for cultural dialogue, bridging gaps between black and white communities through music.

Unknown podcast

From Church Basements to Bent Horns: The Foundations of Jazz

Oct 13 · 1 Mention

speaker_1UNKNOWN
8:14
Yet the economic reality forced them to play in venues where they could earn a living.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
8:20
Ellington's Cotton Club gigs were lucrative, but came with the price of performing for a segregated audience.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
8:26
Musically, the problem was clear.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
8:29
78 RPM records and radio broadcasts demanded concise arrangements that still allowed room for improvisation.

29 more episodes mention Cotton Club.

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