Raleigh Randolph grew up in the heyday of jazz in Columbus.
As a child of the 1950s and early 1960s, Randolph would bop in and out of the clubs dotting Mt. Vernon Avenue, which continued down the block in every direction of the King-Lincoln Bronzeville community — a hotbed of Black culture and a historically African-American neighborhood once teeming with jazz legends.
“It was not unusual to go into a club in Columbus and see Dionne Warwick or Miles Davis,” he said. “We were on the circuit.”
Musical acts traveling across the Midwest from Pittsburgh to Chicago would make a pitstop in Columbus in between gigs in Cleveland and Cincinnati, Randolph explained.
The 77-year-old’s father, Harlan T. “Raleigh” Randolph, was the leader of one those bands, an 18-piece jazz ensemble called the Sultans of Swing that once counted Chillicothe-native Nancy Wilson among its ranks.
The elder Randolph — known as “Ol’ Boss” by his fellow musicians — was a vocalist, bass player and 1983 Alabama Jazz Music Hall of Fame inductee. He turned his son onto the genre at an early age, bringing him along to Sultans gigs and buying him a set of drums at age 12.
“Jazz was in my blood,” the younger Randolph said. “It was so popular back then you couldn’t go out without hearing it.”
While many historic venues in Greater Columbus have since shuttered — “Club El Cairo where Ella Fitzgerald performed and the Empress Theater come to mind,” Randolph said with a sigh — there’s still jazz to be found in Ohio’s capitol city.
Beyond the upcoming Jazz & Rib Fest, which you can catch Friday through Sunday at Bicentennial Park, 233 S. Civic Center Drive, the following venues host local acts and live jazz all year long.
Hitting all the right (Blu) notes
Just east of Downtown along Main Street, the Blu Note Jazz Cafe beckons those with a curious ear to take a seat at the bar or a booth and sit back.
If you’re lucky you might get to a chance to hear Greater Columbus native Bobby Floyd play the keys, that is when he’s on a break from his main gig as a pianist and organist for the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.
The Blu Note serves as a full-service cafe throughout the day and an “upscale jazz club” at night.
