Harlem Jazz Tour: NYC Speakeasies and Juke Joints - Live Jazz

Our family did the Round Midnight tour with Amanda to celebrate my dad’s 86 birthday and it surpassed our expectations. My dad ABSOLUTELY loved it! So much fun and would have never had that same experience going out on our own. Amanda was so much fun and made sure that the night was perfect for our family.

We had an incredible night on the Harlem Jazz tour with Gordon. Gordon has a special bond with the close knit jazz community in Harlem. We started the evening at Bessie’s Place to celebrate the birthday of a local jazz legend with impromptu drop-in performances by local artists..an almost spiritual experience! We finished the evening at a Jamaican restaurant and bar with great food and great music. Gordon is an encyclopedia of New York jazz history and it was a pleasure to spend the evening with him. We highly recommend this tour!

IF YOU LOVE MUSIC LOOK NO FURTHER! Quite Simply one of the BEST NIGHTS my husband and I have EVER EXPERIENCED!!! We met Gordan in Harlem. The communication was first rate from the start - accommodating, attentive and relaxed. We sampled some delicious dishes and heard some incredible live jazz/blues while Gordan spoke to us with a great knowledge and love and passion about musicians and the Harlem scene. We then went to a second bar and the place erupted!!! My god what TALENT! 2 fabulous sets played by crazily talented musicians, it was truly astonishing! We love music and go to many live shows but have never ever heard anything like this! We were on a high for days!!! A night we will treasure forever and a friend in Gordan that we shall keep forever too! We are determined to go back to New York more than ever - and we will DEFINITELY be meeting up with Gordan again to learn from his extensive experiences and knowledge and to listen to Harlem jazz…it lives on…see for yourselves

A fabulous night of entertainment in Harlem, hosted by our charming guide Gordon, a passionate fan of jazz, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the district and its musical history. We began our evening with soul food and tunes in Patrick’s on the Hill, where we met guitarist Michael Howells who played with Dizzy Gillespie before sampling the Red Rooster. Great house band, joined by guest soloists, an evening full of soul and style. We’ve rarely seen such a fashionably dressed crowd who made us very welcome. Harlem has a rich creative and cultural history, and provides another special chapter in New York’s extraordinary story. A highly recommended night out. Thanks Gordon.

This was more than I could have imagined. Gordon made sure we had the best evening ever. The blues at Silvana and the jam session at the New Amsterdam Musical Association were so much fun. One of the best things I did in New York.

Honestly, I was very dissatisfied and felt missing out. I was hoping to visit clubs and listen to several kind of music. Means... a lot of music and some talking. Actually, it was the opposite The first "groove" club was GREAT, but we left right before the real session started and most of croud shuffled in. Very sad since the misic was great and probably got even better. Then... a lot of talking and storyteller but when we got the second club we barely were able to participate the fun. The third club was under renovation, so we bailed. To make a long story short... I should have put 100$ on "real" show, rather than this tour. If you are after storyteller and history ... Gordon is your man. If you after the music .. skip.

If you don’t already know your way around the Harlem jazz scene, Gordon is the way to start. He’s been doing this for decades so knows this works intimately, as he himself owned a club uptown for many years. He took us to hear Phil Young’s House of Blues at the Silvana bar/restaurant - the music was fantastic, all top-flight musicians, led by drummer Phil himself, one of the most engaging musicians I’ve ever heard/seen. What a delight! Very happy crowd there, excellent food and drink too and nice looking place. We also walked all around parts of Harlem, such beautiful architecture! And then went to open-microphone club where we had the great fortune to hearsay player James Carter, who just happened to be there. Very fun, I recommend.

We had a really fun and memorable evening with Amanda and the rest of the group (seven in total). Our friends who live in New York had done a tour with her colleague Gordon before and recommended it to us. Amanda is so personable and gives off great energy; it was hard not to have a good time! She contacted us ahead of time to check our musical tastes, and we immediately felt a rapport and that we would have a great time on her tour. We just said we were in her hands, which we knew would be a good decision. She gave us detailed information before the tour on logistics, the venues and artists we’d see, food and drinks menus etc. Amanda is super organised and puts a lot of effort into organising everything in advance, and giving you background so you can really know who and what you’re seeing and enjoy it. The first venue was the chapel at the Interchurch Center, where the Jazzmobile Organization was hosting bassist/vocalist Mimi Jones and her quartet. Well-attended concert and the band were seriously good, wow! Amanda got us great seats close to the stage. Then we moved on to St Nick’s Jazz Club at the Comedy in Harlem club, where the drummer Craig Holiday Haynes and his trio (plus an excellent guest saxophonist) played a tribute gig to Craig’s late father and jazz icon, Roy Haynes. Again, tremendous musicianship on show, along with two great guest vocalists, including Amanda herself! The club was full of locals – always a good sign – with attentive food and drink service too. We would never have found the club on our own, nor dared to go in as we weren’t locals, but Amanda made everything easy, and we felt really welcome. And it was amazing when Amanda sang a blues number with the band, she was great, wish we could have heard more of her singing. And she added some lovely extra touches for the group like little mementos of the night. We highly recommend this tour, and look forward to visiting some more venues with Amanda or her colleague Gordon the next time we’re in NYC. Thanks Amanda!

Fantastic evening with the amazingly knowledgeable and enthusiastic Gordon - plenty of history, and two fabulous bands, with the Shrine club giving us a colourful and welcoming Saturday-night-in-Harlem experience. Highly recommended!