Looking back at historic Central Avenue, L.A.’s jazz oasis
From the 1920s to the 1950s, jazz clubs along Central Avenue in Los Angeles featured some of the world’s best musicians.
In its heyday, the Dunbar Hotel was among the Central Avenue hot spots, featuring some of the world’s best musicians. The hotel also served as a vital center for the African American community in South Los Angeles. (File photo)
Actress and chanteuse Dorothy Dandridge performs with the Count Basie Orchestra in Los Angeles, circa 1943. (Shades of L.A. Collection )
Duke Ellington is joined by Alice Key as he performs at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles in 1941. (Herald-Examiner Photo Collection)
Nat King Cole, shown in an undated photo, was among the performers on Central Avenue. (Los Angeles Public Library )
A photo hanging on a wall at the former Dunbar Hotel shows Billie Holiday performing there in the 1940s. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Performers at the Jack Basket Room in Los Angeles in 1949. (CSUN collection)
Early jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton played to full houses between 1917 and 1922 at the Cadillac Cafe on Central Avenue. (File photo)
Charlie Parker, left, shown performing with Miles Davis at an unspecified location, also was among the greats to appear on Central Avenue. (Courtesy of Theatre Projects)
Patrons at the Downbeat, circa 1941. (Los Angeles Public Library )
The Dunbar Hotel was called the Hotel Somerville when it opened in 1928. (Los Angeles Public Library)
An undated photo of a crowd at Club Alabam. (Los Angeles Public Library)
The Lincoln Theater, built around 1926, was one of the most elegant buildings on the Central Avenue corridor. Because it featured many of the same artists who performed at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, it became known as the “West Coast Apollo.” (CSUN collection)
Lionel Hampton and others outside Club Alabam. (Shades of L.A. Collection)
Patrons at the Last Word on Central Avenue in an undated photo. (CSUN collection)
An undated photo of Gordon Sheppard, left, at his playhouse in Little Tokyo. (Los Angeles Public Library)
Charlotta Bass, center, former publisher and editor of the California Eagle, with staff members in an undated photo. The Eagle was California’s largest and most influential Black newspaper. (Security Pacific National Bank Photo Collection)
Entertainers and their friends in Los Angeles, including actresses Louise Beavers, third from left, and Hattie McDaniel, second from right, circa 1948. (Shades of L.A. Collection )
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then 19, with jazz legend Thelonious Monk. (Courtesy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the wedding of jazz artist Gil Scott-Heron in 1978. (Courtesy of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar)
The Dunbar Hotel in 2013. (Los Angeles Times)
Gerald Wilson leads his orchestra at the Central Avenue Jazz Festival in 2009. (Los Angeles Times)
