Arts & Entertainment
A Reckless Night of Jazz at the Red Bank Woman's Club
Drop in on the monthly music event at the Reckless Estate on Broad Street.
A man sat in the shadows of the grand front porch of the Reckless Estate on Broad Street. “This is a nice way to end the week, the month,” he said as he stretched out his body, barefoot, appearing to bathe in the cool spring air. Dimly lit, the interior of the estate, a house full of tables full of music lovers, was a vision from the gaslight past. People sat on the steps that led in and those that led up to the second floor. And the music…the music was bold and old and blaring at once and then suddenly soulfully soaring around the high-ceiling parlors and maze-like hallways. The Reckless Estate on the evening of its Reckless Steamy Nights Concert Series was an other-wordly throwback, a place you’ve never been before, but feel like you have.
The Red Bank Woman’s Club and the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation (JSJBF) have partnered to create the Reckless Steamy Nights Concert Series, a monthly evening of music that brings talented jazz and blues players to Red Bank and benefits the two organizations scholarship programs, the Young Woman’s College Scholarship and the JSJBF College Scholarship.
The Woman's Club of Red Bank is located at the historic site of the Anthony Reckless Estate, which was built in 1874. The Club purchased the house in 1921. Then, the upper floors of the estate were home to single women.
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The organization’s mission is to support literacy. It hosts programs and fundraising events to support that cause. The site is being partly preserved through a series of grants from the State of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs via the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund. The organization also raises funds to restore the house. The concert series was begun in 2005.
JSJBF is a non-profit corporation with a rapidly growing membership base with more than 300 members which includes performers, supporters and sponsors.
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On Friday, April 29th Mike Barris and Friends, featuring Jennifer Jordan on vocals, Doug Clarke on guitar and Tom Bender on trumpet, played the event. The Barris band performed the music of the giants of pre-World War II jazz and blues, including Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Django Reinhardt.
According to Barris, the performance "is not about nostalgia; it is about great, exciting music.” Barris, a guitarist and the show host plans each concert and researches the background he passes along to the audience. Barris and friends have been playing the Reckless events since their inception.
"It is about great songs, great musicians, and great history. Informing my audiences about the importance of this music and the artists behind it is a big part of what we try to do.”
The Reckless Steamy Nights Concert series is held on the last Friday of each month from 8:30pm to 11pm. Up next in the series, Blues/Rock band, Goldenseal, plays on May 27.
For more information about the series or the Red Bank Woman's Club visit: www.womansclubofredbank.org.
For more information about the bands and musicians or the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation visit: or www.jsjbf.org.
