Country music capital Nashville was also once a hotbed of blues, rock and jazz thanks to a historically black neighborhood that brought then-up-and-coming greats like Jimi Hendrix to the city.
But the vibrant Jefferson Street community and its robust club scene faced destruction in the mid-20th century after construction of an interstate cut it in two, a classic story of destructive urban planning that nearly destroyed the area’s rich musical heritage.
Lorenzo Washington, a lifelong Nashville resident who grew up in the area, is racing to keep that history alive, running a small museum in his home that’s filled with ephemeral music as well as records and maps showing the area’s long-lost history vitality.
“We had everything. We had banks, we had grocery stores, clothing stores, flower shops, ice cream parlors — everything you needed to survive as a community was right here on Jefferson Street, the 81-year-old told AFP.
He remembers a strip filled with revelers spilling out from supper clubs, piques, dance halls, dives and pool rooms, a series of places where on any given night you could catch stars from Hendrix to Etta James, Ray Charles to the BBC King.
“Everybody had a good time on Jefferson Street,” Washington said with a big smile, wearing a sharp blue jacket and felt hat.
“It’s just the atmosphere we’ve built.”
For decades, Jefferson Street was a hot spot on the Chitlin’ Circuit, a network of venues where black performers were welcome to perform in the segregated era of the United States.
Hendrix arrived in the early 1960s, renting a residence at Club Del Morocco and living on Jefferson Street.
But the 1968 construction of Interstate 40, a major east-west thoroughfare, cut directly through the neighborhood, displacing more than a thousand black residents and destroying the cultural and business district, triggering a severe economic downturn.
The clubs were closed and all but one, Club Baron, were demolished.
Artists gravitated elsewhere — Memphis or Chicago, for example — and “the blues left Nashville,” Washington said.
“It was tragic for the city when we lost black music,” he continued, saying the city was focused on its country scene and didn’t pay much attention to Jefferson Street.
“It was tragic to see our music culture divided the way it was, the different artists and musicians just scattered,” Washington said. “They went wherever they could find a job or a record company to record them.”
“So everything left Nashville and it was heartbreaking.”
– “My part of town” –
Washington was not a musician himself, but he did own a record store in the 1970s and grew up surrounded by artists, among whom were his friends, including Jefferson Street stars such as Herbert Hunter and Marion James.
He moved back to the neighborhood in 2010, inspired by a newspaper article he saw in which a city councilman friend of his said the only way to revitalize Jefferson Street was for black people to come back and reopen businesses.
“I got to go back to Jefferson Street—my part of town,” Washington recalled.
“So that’s what I did.”
His friends, including the late James — Nashville’s “Queen of the Blues” — encouraged him to open the museum in an effort to “do more to preserve our heritage.”
“They said you could be a curator. And I said, “The curator? Now what does a curator do?” he recalls with an infectious laugh.
More than a decade later, he says, “I’m still here on Jefferson Street representing the artists and the musicians.”
Along with the museum, which officially opened in 2011, Washington operates a recording studio from his home, along with a small performance space.
Washington was instrumental in ensuring Club Baron — where the then-upstart Hendrix lost a famous guitar duel to Nashville bluesman Johnny Jones — would receive protection through designation as a local historic landmark.
The building is now owned by the local Elks Club, a fraternal order, and efforts are being made to start holding shows there again.
Today’s Nashville is an “aggressive city” compared to the city Washington knew growing up, he said, where high-ranking players made the decisions.
“It’s kind of sad to see it all gone now,” Washington says as he points out all the old haunts on a map hanging in his museum.
“My intention was … to encourage other businesses to come back to Jefferson Street so we can pick up where we left off.”
“This little place got attention,” Washington said. “There’s not a lot going on publicly in this city that represents the black community, and that’s what we represent.”
“It’s not huge, but I can see growth.”
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