Event

Juke Joint Jukebox

We are honored and excited to bring you a cabaret-style production about everything to do with the American Juke Joint. Our cast full of some of the best vocalists/performers in the Bay Area will embark on a (slightly over 2 hour) thrilling production singing one iconic song after another and narrating the historical development of the Juke Joint in America.

We start by going back to the community houses created during American slavery and sing songs slaves would use for relaxation/prayer and escape. We go to the traditional Juke Joints post Emancipation Proclamation and into Jim Crow period and observe the culture and music created then.

You will hear samples of the evolution of Jazz music from the American deep south and mid West and into larger metropolitan cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

As we get into the Depression and Prohibition era we get a magnified look at the artistic Renaissance of Juke Joint music through big band jazz and such musical artist as Bessie Smith, Cab Calloway, Frank Sinatra and many more.

Finally, we will take a glance and the amazing artist and music created during the World War 2 era and 1960s Motown and civil right movement, leading into the Vietnam War.