Easter Weekend 4/18/76

We opened up the jazz room on Easter Weekend, 1976--literally. Jim Young and I took down the wall between the bar and what had been a beauty parlor in the space that became the space where countless jazz musicians brought the best music to Dallas County. With sledge hammers and saber saws we took out the sheetrock and put up the wrought iron rails that we lined on the upper level with small tables for two. I loved those tables--loved leaning on those rails and watching the bands. Covered in dust, Jim and I carted out the broken sheetrock to the dump. mixed the mud for patching the ceiling, put up 1x4 around the old studs to make posts for the rails, and I'm remembering that the very next weekend we booked Ed Hagen who went on to be our house band for the next five years. It was on that weekend that we began stamping our identities on an old bar that had been built in 1947 and named Tabu.