North Carolina’s newest jazz club opens in downtown Durham this weekend. What to know.
A new jazz club is opening Saturday night on Main Street, its velvet curtains and baby grand pianos bringing a vintage-feeling nightlife option to downtown Durham.
Missy Lane’s Assembly Room will host musical performances, open mic nights with a live band, and weekly jam sessions by N.C. Central University’s renowned jazz studies program.
“Having jazz somewhere where you can sit in a cocktail lounge and be entertained definitely fills a void,” Cicely Mitchell, who dreamt up the venture, told The News & Observer.
Missy Lane’s also aim to be an oasis during the day.
On weekdays, they’ll serve coffee from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The bar will open at 5 p.m. and stay open until 10 p.m. on weeknights and 2 a.m. on weekends.
The venue occupies the ground floor of a neoclassical style building at 310 E. Main St. It was constructed in 1924 to house the Durham Sun newspaper, according to Open Durham’s historical archives.
“We tried to match the old school, 1920s feel on the inside, so we’ve got velvet curtains and baby grand pianos,” Mitchell said.
The showroom is a monochromatic navy and contains the stage, plus chairs and tables. It can accommodate 240 standing or 170 seated.
The bar-lounge is in the front of the space and can accommodate another 45 people. It’s painted deep mauve paired with a custom sage green wallpaper featuring a woman’s silhouette.
A variety of performances are scheduled through April. Here’s what’s on tap in the first couple weeks:
- Saturday, Jan. 13: Opening night, featuring two sold-out sets by jazz vocalist and songwriter Lois Deloatch Gomes.
- The weekend of Jan. 19: Grammy-nominated composer and drummer Nate Smith is bringing a band for Friday and Saturday performances.
- Tuesdays starting Jan. 23: Open mic night for vocalists and poets, hosted by Dasan Ahanu and featuring a live band directed by Joe Holloway. Sign-ups start at 7:15 p.m.
- Thursdays starting Jan. 25: The first Thursday night jam session by NCCU’s jazz studies program, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Nish LeBlanc, who is developing two other properties downtown, owns the building. It previously housed Old Havana Sandwich Shop, which closed in 2018.
Mitchell was behind Art of Cool, a nonprofit that created a music festival last held in 2019. She said much of her work has been leading to this moment.
“When we first started Art of Cool, it was more about just carving out a space for jazz music and cultivating the audience, always with a big goal in mind,” she said. “There’s always been a goal to have a space, and it still doesn’t feel quite real.”
