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By Timothy Herrick, Editorial Director

Jersey City, N.J.—“It’s great to be in Jersey City,” proclaimed legendary bluesman John Hammond when he strolled onto the stage. Hammond may have been expressing an artist’s gratitude for an enthusiastic audience, but his words also highlighted the fact that this evening of classic Blues means the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is almost ready to qualify for the Northeast League of Major Entertainment & Event Venues.

Since 2007, the Loew’s has been booking concerts and other events, mostly with limited or local appeal, with notable exceptions—a concert by Beck, for example. Repairs are required for the Leow’s to be a year-round, fully-equipped player in the highly competitive live entertainment market of this tri-state area. But those repairs are scheduled, the venue has strong support by city government and the local business community and the evening with John Hammond was the first in the Loew’s-Down Blues Concert Series, which augments an already eclectic roster of Winter/Spring 2010 event programming.

“I wouldn’t say it put us on the map, we are already on the map,” said Colin Eagen, Director, Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre. “We are able to accommodate a lot of different types of events, and there is growing interest in us. A legend like John Hammond as the first in a concert series makes us a bigger spot on the map.”

Eagen added that booking inquiries had fallen off in 2008, “but the decline can be attributed to the recession. The Blues Series, as well as some of the other events we have this season, marks the end of that slow period.”

Market Potential

Jersey City, New Jersey's second-largest city after Newark, has a population, according to the Census Bureau's 2007 estimate, of 242,389 and is part of the New York metropolitan area, the most populous region in the United States. More than 20 Million people are within an hour’s travel of Journal Square, the Jersey City neighborhood where the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre is located.

The theater is a remnant of the glory days of Journal Square, which was Jersey City’s version of New York’s Times Square, an entertainment and dining destination during the mid-20th century. Jersey City is an ethnically and economically diverse city, with gentrified neighborhoods of middle and upper middle class residents adjacent to sections still blighted by crime and poverty. Journal Square may not have fully recovered from late 20th century urban decay, but there are now more than 50 restaurants in the district and several residential and mixed-use developments are either planned or currently under construction. Revitalization may not be complete, but progress towards that completion is apparent and undeniable.

As an entertainment destination, Journal Square is easily accessible to major Highways, and boasts ample parking—including multi-level parking lots less than a block or two from the Loew’s. The theater is directly across the street from the Journal Square Transportation Center, a complex that includes a bus station and the PATH railway system, a subway that connects to New York City as well as Hoboken and Newark. More than 40,000 commuters work in, and or pass through Journal Square every weekday.

City Support

What the theater does have more of this year is support. The Journal Square Business Improvement District, a public/private coalition whose mission is the revitalization of the neighborhood, earmarked $250,000 to encourage more event bookings at the Loew’s. The funds support artist fees, event advertising, publicity and promotion, and salaries of supplemental cleaning and security personnel as well technical staff.

“The health of a central business district requires a period of activity that embraces commuter and employer times, but also serves a community on weekends,” said Donald Smartt, Administrator for the Journal Square Business Improvement District. “Bringing entertainment back to Journal Square, and bringing people from outside the neighborhood to the neighborhood, is a strategy to make the district come alive for longer periods of time each day, and for more days each week. The city needs a cultural and arts focal point, like the Loew’s, for that to succeed.”

Small Venues, Growing Audiences

There may be no shortage of entertainment venues in the New York/New Jersey Market, but intimate theaters like the Loew’s are relatively uncommon. The few actively hosting concerts and other events are thriving, current economic downturn not withstanding. These venues—approximately 3,000 seats each—have become more in demand, filling a need for acts that are too big for clubs and too small for arenas.  It is also increasingly trendy for big acts to supplement large halls on a tour route with several of these special—not to mention, fan and critic pleasing—shows at more intimate venues. Many artists have expanded their touring to compensate for the revenue lost from the collapse of the retail record store business and theaters can be attractive, profitable gigs.  

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark opened in 1997 and features the Prudential Hall, a 2,750-seat facility and the 514-seat Victoria Hall. The Beacon Theatre in New York City, was closed for a seven month renovation, reopening last year with a high-profile concert by Paul Simon, is an internationally famous music stage. The United Palace Theater, located “way” uptown in the Washington Heights Neighborhood of Manhattan, is an up-and-coming entertainment venue, recently hosting a multi-night, sold-out stand of Bob Dylan & His Band and 50s rock Legend, Dion.

The United Palace Theater is in an inner-city neighborhood once considered “dicey” but now is recognized as a safe and enjoyable destination for entertainment, shopping and dining, a scenario similar to The Leow’s in Journal Square. Because of a scheduling conflict, the Allman Brothers moved their famed annual run, “Peakin at the Beacon,” uptown to the United Palace Theater, further evidence that the N.Y./N.J. market can support an additional theater.

Movie Palace Splendor

Like the Loew’s, both the Beacon and the United Palace are former movie palaces built during the same era. Typically seating about 3,000, movie palaces were designed for cinema as well as live entertainment, especially the vaudeville acts fashionable at the time. Musicians and other entertainers favor former movie palaces for their generally excellent sight-lines and acoustics, their spacious proscenium stage and the intimacy the space encourages with audiences.

The Landmark Loew’s Jersey City Theater was designed in a Baroque/Rococo style. The exterior of the theatre features authentic terra cotta tiles and a vast marquee with a blinking neon sign. Although the interior grandeur may have lost some splendor, the lobby of the theatre with its grand chandelier and promenade, is still impressive, as are the ornate filigrees, blue tiling and lion-headed stanchion posts. Other intact touches, such as the mid-20th century candy machine, add a funky retro feel to the venue. In spite of its scruffy veneer—there are noticeable spots of chipped paint for example—the Leow’s possesses a fun and cozy atmosphere and with just enough opulence to enhance the audience experience.

The jazz-era movie palaces that have survived often went through a boom-bust-resurgence cycle during the 20th century. For the Loew’s, ownership changed several times and in the 1970s, it was actually “multi-plexed” into three theaters. In 1986, the Loew’s went dark and remained fallow until the 1990s, when it was sold to the city. A volunteer organization, “Friends of Loew’s Jersey City,” began an extensive and eventually successful restoration of the facility. The partitions that divided the auditorium were removed, and the dedicated volunteers restored mechanical systems, rehabilitated and installed projection equipment—the theater hosts a monthly classic, “big screen” film series—and repaired stage systems, lighting, fly system and rehabilitated the venue’s five dressing rooms and large rehearsal room. “We have extensive backstage areas which are still being rehabilitated,” said Eagen. “We will have two more dressing rooms in a few months.”

Nonetheless, the building lacks air conditioning, so events can only be presented from September to May. The balcony also requires repair. “There are plans in place to address the air conditioning and fix the balcony,” said Eagen. “When the balcony is repaired, it will double our seating, giving us comparable seating to the Beacon, about 3,000, which is standard for the old Movie Palaces. We should have those problems solved by 2011.”

Niche Audiences, Grassroots Marketing

These lingering repair issues certainly hamper the potential of the Loew’s and the role its success could play in quickening the rebirth of the Journal Square district. But the way the theater handled the Hammond appearance augurs well for the venue’s marketing skills and booking expertise.

The Hammond performance, which featured opening act the Duke Robillard Band, was the initial show of the Leow’s – Down Blues Concert Series. While the theater may still not blip as brightly on the booker & promoter radar screen as The Beacon, it launched an effective, grass-roots effort to maximize the niche potential of the Blues.

The Jersey United Blues Network, a coalition of musicians, clubs and blues fans, was listed as “Musical Partner” on the brochure, and this organization publicized and marketed the concert to an enthusiastic, albeit niche fan-base that exists for Blues. The United Jersey Blues Network also managed artist merchandise sales at the show with tables of t-shirts and CDs. Post-show, both Hammond and Robillard sat at the tables, signing CDs and talking with fans for more than an hour. Judging by the throngs around the artists, business was brisk.

The Loew’s also gave a unique twist to value-added ticket promotion, a pre-show ‘meet & greet” with Hammond. The event, “Sound-Bites,” was held at the Culinary Conference Center at Hudson Community College, only two blocks from the theater. For a $15 fee, ticket-holders met the performers, enjoyed drinks and a “Louisiana Blues Buffet,” of Gumbo, Muffuletta Sandwiches and Beignets.

“We are part of the revitalization of Journal Square,” said Eric M. Friedman, Ph.D., Dean of Community Education at Hudson County College. “The Conference Center is part of this community, and a community needs a thriving Performing Arts Center. We are happy to be part of this event with Loew’s, which is a beautiful building.”

The local press played up the hometown angle with pre-show stories on Hammond, who has lived in Jersey City since the mid-90s. “It’s a very big deal for me to play the Loew’s,” Hammond told Facilitiesonline. “This is the first time I’ve played Jersey City.”

He added, “We love living here.” Hammond was with his wife, Marla—who wrote the liner notes and served as Executive Producer on “Push Comes to Shove,” released in 2007—at the pre-show event, attended by several dozen of the concert goers. Hammond said that a pre-show meet & greet is rare, but post-concert CD signings have become nearly standard at small venues. “I like meeting the fans and there is still a passion out there for the blues.”

A Master of Timeless Music

As he has done for decades, Hammond plays about 120 shows per year, mainly intimate venues and a smattering of festivals. The popularity of like-minded musical genres—Jam Bands and Roots Music—has increased audiences for the Blues. Hammond, whose first record was released in 1963, has long been considered a musician’s musician and retains what can be fairly described as a healthy draw. “The Blues is like Jazz, it is timeless music, real American music,” said Hammond. “The worst thing that a promoter can do is present the Blues as something arcane, as music that isn’t relevant. Audiences respond to the music. They come out for the Blues.”

The evening at the Loew’s was in part, a de-facto battle of Blues musicians. Both “Rough & Tough” by John Hammond and “Stomp! The Blues Tonight” by Duke Robillard are nominated for the 2010 Grammy Awards, in the Traditional Blues Album category.

Robillard, a renowned guitarist who has worked with the Fabulous Thunderbirds and with Bob Dylan, started the beloved “Room Full of Blues” band in the 60s. His opening set concentrated on swinging blues, in the style of T-Bone Walker, although songs featuring harder-edge, Hendrix-styled guitar jams were sprinkled throughout.

Hammond performed solo, accompanying himself on acoustic and steel guitar and played harmonica, which he had around his neck in a harmonica holder just like folk and blues artists from days of yore. A youthful 67, Hammond was on top of his game, exhibiting a poignant dexterity when he played slide guitar. His voice, a deep tenor with a gravely edge that suited the material, had a colorful, emotional phrasing, enriching a selection of songs that included some self-penned numbers as well as songs, both famous and obscure, by blues-masters such as Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon and Blind Willie McTell. 

The Duke Robillard Band joined Hammond for the encore, which included “So Many Roads,” the title track of a mid-60s blues album by Hammond that is considered by fans, aficionados and musicologists to be a masterpiece of the genre, followed by a rousing, gut-bucket version of Chuck Berry’s blues rocker, “Nadine.”

 Blues connoisseurs as well as casual fans were enthralled by Hammond’s spell-binding performance. Hammond, a contemporary of such 60s luminaries as Eric Clapton, Michael Bloomfield and Jimi Hendrix, not only worked with those and other musicians of his generation, but worked with and was mentored by the older generation of bluesmen, including Muddy and The Wolf.

A career devoted to authentic Delta Blues makes Hammond a living link with our musical past. A remarkable concert of timeless music at the Landmark Leow’s Jersey Theatre now makes him a living link with that venue’s future.