By Shauna Stuart | For The Birmingham Times
Janice “Jan Ham” Hamilton has traveled the world to attend jazz festivals: “I just follow the music,” she said. When she’s not globe-trotting, Hamilton can be found at jazz events and venues in and around Birmingham — jam sessions at True Story Brewing, Jazz Happy Hour at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and shows at the Uptown Jazz Lounge among other venues.
“It’s soothing and calming and gives you a good feeling,” she said of jazz shows. “It just takes the edge off. I like seeing the younger people play. And the way [more seasoned musicians] embrace the younger people to bring them in, make them aware of jazz music, and keep jazz music alive is very refreshing.”
Long after Birmingham’s heyday of jazz clubs, which dates back to the early 20th century, the city is experiencing a jazz renaissance. In August 2024, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame museum reopened after seven years of renovations. A month later, the jazz hall resumed its free Saturday morning jazz lessons. This year, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame introduced a new slate of jazz concerts and programming at the Carver Theatre featuring both homegrown and touring musicians.
Musicians are playing in more jazz jam sessions around Birmingham, and more local bars and restaurants — including the ones Hamilton likes to visit —are hosting jazz bands for nightly entertainment. To name a few: Dobber’s in Five Points South has a jazz jam every Monday; True Story Brewing Company in the Crestwood community hosts a jazz jam on Tuesdays; the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame has Jazz Happy Hour on Thursdays; and the Uptown Jazz Lounge showcases mostly smooth jazz and blues throughout the week.
“There’s An Energy Here”
In February 2025, the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, a nonprofit music education network, hosted its renowned Peer-to-Peer jazz program at five Alabama schools, including three in Birmingham, and a jazz jam session at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
In the spring of 2025, Create Birmingham, a local arts organization, partnered with the city to officially honor the late Birmingham native musician SunRa with a day in his name.
Over the past three years, independent filmmakers have also released films about the Daniel José Carr Quartet, Tuxedo Junction, SunRa, and the history of Birmingham’s jazz scene, including commentary from authors Carol P. Ealons and Burgin Mathews.
This year, Hoover High School’s First Edition Jazz Band was a finalist in the renowned Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, New York. The honor makes the ensemble, housed about 19 minutes away from Birmingham, one of the best high school bands in the world.
“There’s an energy here,” said Bernard McQueen, bassist for the Daniel José Carr Quartet and bass instructor at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. “We’ve got this rich jazz history in Birmingham, Alabama, so why can’t we keep it going? In order to do that, we have to be more aware, learn more about jazz, more about the people and the music itself. Let’s try to be true to it.”
History of Jazz
It’s a history McQueen is proud to tell.
In October, when the Emmy and Grammy award-winning bassist Endea Owens and her band, The Cookout, played at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB’s) Alys Stephens Center, some quick thinking from local musicians led to Owens playing McQueen’s bass for the evening. After the show, McQueen told the band about Birmingham’s jazz traditions and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
Housed in Birmingham’s historic Carver Theatre for the Performing Arts, the museum and nonprofit music education program highlights photographs, exhibits, and artifacts dedicated to preserving Alabama’s role in the history of jazz, including a bass played by Cleve Eaton, who was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1979.
The Hall of Fame museum, which had been closed for renovations for about seven years, hosted its grand reopening in 2024 with the induction of bassist Ron Carter.
Alabama has birthed numerous jazz icons and pioneering jazz musicians, including Eaton, Sun Ra, Dinah Washington, and the Clarkes, the family of former Birmingham City Councilwoman Carol Clarke.
“Maker of Musicians”
From 1917 to the 1950s, John T. “Fess” Whatley led the music program at Birmingham’s Industrial High School (now Arthur Harold Parker High School). Through the decades, Whatley gained a reputation as a legendary “maker of musicians,” and alumni of his program went on to play in bands for jazz icons like Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.
Both the historic Tuxedo Junction in Birmingham’s Ensley community and the historic Black Business District on Fourth Avenue located downtown were beacons for jazz legends. Musicians, including Ellington and Count Basie, performed at Magic City venues, including the Carver Theatre and the grand ballroom inside Birmingham’s historic Prince Hall Masonic Temple.
McQueen is one of a circle of musicians in Birmingham trying to preserve the city’s jazz history and culture. It’s a reverence and respect for the music he learned from the greats.
McQueen’s high school band director was Amos Gordon, a saxophonist and composer, former member of the Bama State Collegians, former director of the Birmingham Heritage Band, and one of the first inductees into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.
Walking The Bass
McQueen’s first bass lessons were from Early Billups, a revered musician and educator who directed several Birmingham City Schools bands. Billups started McQueen on the electric bass. As McQueen progressed, he’d get more instruction from veteran musicians, including Jothan Callins and Jesse Taylor, both of whom are Alabama Jazz Hall of fame inductees — Callins in 1979 and Taylor in 1983.
It was Taylor, McQueen said, who taught him how to walk the bass. (A walking bass line is a smooth, steady sequence of bass notes that creates a flowing rhythm, often moving in quarter notes. It’s commonly used in jazz [and other music genres] …, providing the foundation that keeps the music moving forward — hence the name “walking” bass.)
In the 1970s, McQueen, trumpeter Daniel José Carr, and pianist Willie Jackson formed the band Pizazz, which initially played mostly R&B at venues around the city, including Carr’s family club, Studio 98.
McQueen says the group leaned into playing jazz in the early 1980s. Carr, who had recently graduated from Alabama State University (ASU), stopped by McQueen’s house to tell him he wanted to start a jazz jam session at Studio 98. The group would eventually start playing under different monikers for different genres—Pizazz for R&B and the Daniel José Carr Quartet for jazz.
“From Pizazz to now, you’re looking at 45 years,” said McQueen. “We’ve been playing for 45 years. You develop a kinship. We’ve always had that. We’re good. We’re like brothers.”
“A Serious Statement”
Carr was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 2015. The Daniel José Carr Quartet, which now includes drummer Timothy Huffman, is one of the most in-demand jazz groups in Birmingham. Their weekly jam session, now housed on Tuesday evenings at True Story Brewing in Crestwood, is one of the longest-running — and most famous — jazz jam sessions in the city. The three-hour show brings out fellow Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame inductees and jazz elder statesmen, including trumpeter Collins “Bo” Berry, director of the Birmingham Heritage Band. Musicians also come from around Alabama and across state lines to sit in.
In a 2023 interview with AL.com, Carr describes himself as a late bloomer on the jazz scene. He used the term to describe his career transition. The Ensley-born trumpeter attended Council Elementary School then later went to Jackson-Olin High School.
“I was listening to jazz back then, but my mind was not serious. I was playing R&B and all that stuff. But I always hung around cats that played the music,” he told AL.com. “At school, the older guys would come back and see the band director, and I would have a chance to meet them. They were real good players.”
Carr attended ASU in Montgomery, Alabama. In the 1930s and 1940s, the school was regarded for its esteemed jazz programs: The Bama State Collegians, The Revellers, and The Cavaliers. The programs were so popular, in fact, that when ASU suffered severe financial hardship in the 1930s, the three programs played at balls and parties to generate revenue to help keep the school open. But by the time Carr joined the freshman class, ASU was better known for its marching band.
“So, I started seeking jazz by myself in the city. I started playing by ear,” he recalled.
Carr has said his mission is to keep jazz alive in the city of Birmingham, from preserving the history to mentoring the jazz musicians who will inherit the city.
“Most guys had to play all kinds of music because of their financial situations,” he said. “I’m playing music for the cause. I’m trying to keep this alive. You say you play jazz. … That’s a serious statement.”
You can see Bernard McQueen and all of the musicians in the Daniel José Carr Quartet at their weekly jam session on Tuesdays, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., at True Story Brewing Company (5510 Crestwood Blvd., Birmingham AL 35212).
