When I was in high school (mid 50's) there was a very strange little club in East L.A. I don't remember the name of it, but it was in a neighborhood where you wanted to be real careful after dark. It was connected to a Chinese take out kitchen which did the cooking for the club as well as for Chinese take out.

The club specialized in New Orleans jazz (I mean the real thing: Kid Ory, George Lewis, etc.) I was always amazed at the musicians that they lined up in this place. Even though it was in a strange location for a jazz club, it was rather expensive for those days, charging a cover and a minimum. But what my brother and I learned was that you could go into the Chinese takeout and order french fries or something and sit there at one of the two tables as long as you liked and watch the music through the open door that connected it to the club. We saw George Lewis play there on three separate occasions (perhaps THE greatest New Orleans clarinetist). It was a bit surreal: sitting in a brightly-lit hole in the wall hearing Chinese cooks speaking rapidly in Chinese, hearing the hissing of stir-frying food, and yet watching and listening to some of the best New Orleans jazz you'll ever want to hear. (I think George Lewis was already close to 80 at that time). It was a bizarre but great experience.

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