Blue Note: 20 Years of Being Blue

Betty Carter and Sarah Vaughan laugh it up on stage

Cab Calloway stands outside the club (photo: Mitchell Seidel)

Stanley Turrentine, Jon Faddis, Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie hang backstage

The Modern Jazz Quartet accepts their Blue Note star plaques from club general manager Sal Haries

Tony Bennett and George Benson together at the Blue Note

Danny Bensusan was born in the house of white but he now lives in the house of blue. Blue notes, that is. The owner of New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club was born in Casablanca, Morocco, grew up in Israel and immigrated to the United States in 1969. He opened his first restaurant in 1973, but it wasn’t until 1981 that he struck jazz gold of a distinctly azure hue with the opening on the Blue Note.

Now 20 years old, and with other locations in Las Vegas and Japan, the Blue Note is celebrating its anniversary this November.

Here are some snapshots from the Blue Note’s history—and jazz history.

For more information on the club and its celebration, log on to www.bluenote.net.