Christine McVie - Northern Star

The Graystone Ballroom, meanwhile, was the city’s cradle of jazz. Opened in 1922, it was once Detroit’s largest and grandest ballroom. In a 1974 interview with The Detroit News, clarinetist Benny Goodman said he drove all night to catch Bix Beiderbecke play at the Graystone, calling it a great mecca in those days. During the height of big band jazz, the Graystone often hosted a battle of the bands, with one in particular... that drew a record breaking crowd of around 7,000.

Detroit’s jazz scene, by this point, reached across the city. The now vacant Blue Bird Inn on the city’s west side eventually pulled the bebop crowd from the El Sino as blacks migrated west in the 1950s. The Blue Bird was where jazz musician and trumpeter Miles Davis cultivated his career. In his autobiography, Davis writes about moving to Detroit after quitting heroin, where he befriended the club’s owner Clarence Eddins. Eddins gave him a job with The Blue Bird house band, and as Davis’ solo career blossomed, he frequently returned to play at the venue alongside several groups.

Across the street from the Band Box was the Russell House Hotel, where a side basement entrance led to a blind pig after hours called the Night Club. Jess Faithful’s exclusive Rhythm Club, on the other hand, was a second floor booking agency that required a membership card past curfew, and it was common for late night parties to continue until noon the following day... We’d sit around and play cards and bootleg liquor was served. The police didn’t stop us. They’d walk the beat, you give them $2 and they’d walk out.

Source: Before Motown: A History of Jazz and Blues in Detroit by Ashley Zlatopolsky

Christine McVie - Northern Star

• Produced by: Christine McVie, Dan Perfect and Ken Caillat
• Recorded at: Sphere Studios
• Released on: July 27, 2004

"Christine shot to prominence as a blues singer in the 70s and was voted best British female vocalist in the Melody Maker polls. She joined Fleetwood Mac where her keyboard work and emotive singing did much to propel the band."

See previous Song of the Day