If musicians wanted to listen to other musicians in the 1950s, they went to Club Tiajuana located at 1209 Saratoga St. in New Orleans.
Owned by Oscar Bolden Jr., Club Tiajuana provided a hotel and restaurant to Black artists during segregation. According to Mind Smoke Records, musician Al Reed said the club’s customers did not have much money.
“The Tiajuana Club was the type of place where the down & outers could go,” Reed said. “You might call it a cheap joint…This caused the place to be crowded most of the time…the best crowd you could ever play for. This crowd loved their music. But it was the poor type of people that really made Club Tiajuana what it was.”
Customers were treated to a show seven days of the week. There often was an emcee, a comedian and shake dancers. According to Bolden’s daughter Gloria, a group of female impersonators stayed at the hotel and performed.
R&B artists, such as Guitar Slim, Ernie K-Doe, Huey “Piano” Smith and Robert Parker Jr., were regular performers at Club Tiajuana. Parker played his saxophone on top of the bar.
“To set up Slim at the Tiajuana, Bolden bought him a guitar and an extra long cable so he could hop offstage and play in the crowd,” WWOZ’s A Closer Walk states. “Slim and Smith started out playing intermissions here, but took over as the house band… Smith dropped out of high school to keep the gig.”
In addition, Club Tiajuana was a spot where scouts and record label execs found new talent. “Among others, Little Richard held a regular gig here in 1953, two years before his big break,” A Closer Walk states.
Open until the 1980s, Club Tiajuana was demolished in 1988 and replaced with an approach to the Pontchartrain Expressway.
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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