[2] The club opened in January 1994 at its original location, at 63rd Street and Broadway in the basement of The Empire Hotel, with a minimal cover charge.

Ronald Sturm, the club's manager and booker, told The New York Times his goal was to "hire people like the trumpeter Marcus Printup, or Cyrus Chestnut or Carl Allen"—the goal was to give a chance to "younger, mainstream musicians while still booking the legends.

[3] Unlike many of New York City's jazz clubs, it has remained open to the present day, with the help of some major renovations to keep up with the number of attendees.

[5] Beginning in 1995[3] and continuing until his death at age 94,[6] guitar legend Les Paul performed weekly at the club.

Sure, the air’s no longer smoky, the décor’s a shadow of what it was and you’re sitting knee-to-knee with the European tourists at the next table, but true jazz aficionados overlook those minor details to hear sets played by some of the best-known names in the biz: vocalist Jimmy Scott, guitarist Mike Stern, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, and the Mingus Legacy bands, to name a few.