Historic Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club — where young musicians earn their chops

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If you are looking for authentic jazz music in the city, look no further than the historic Wally’s Cafe Jazz Club.

It is a premier training ground for upcoming musicians who have gone on to successful careers and is coupled with rich family history.

Some of the famous musicians who have graced the Wally’s stage include Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Grammy-winning vocalist Esperanza Spalding, Mark Kelley — bassist for the Roots — Donald Harrison and Sarah Vaughan, according to Boston Magazine and Eater Boston.

Eater Boston also reports that the original owner, Joseph “Wally” Walcott used to eat breakfast with Martin Luther King Jr., when the civil rights activist lived in Boston.

Immigrating from his homeland of Barbados to the United States in the 1900s, through Ellis Island, Walcott stayed in Boston when his siblings decided to return to their homeland.

Walcott worked many different jobs and was very active in civil rights, becoming friends with Marcus Garvey and organizing with A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. As a member of the Pullman Porters Union, Walcott was essential in the Civil Rights Movement.

Then, he decided to start a cab company. While driving cabs he met many different people, including Boston Mayor James Michael Curley and his partner/lawyer Gabriel Pimonte, the longest serving City Council president in the city’s history.

With their help, Walcott was able to make his dream come true and open his jazz cafe in 1947 with his wife.

The Walcotts opened the club so that Black people could have a place of their own, as segregation prohibited them from patronizing Boston’s nightclubs during this time.

In opening the club, Walcott integrated the jazz clubs in Boston, bringing all the different groups from the so-called Chitlin’ Circuit to perform there.

Many of the world’s jazz greats have played Wally’s. PHOTO: COURTESY WALLY’S CAFE

He also opened a jazz school after big band music faded in the 1950s — encouraging students to train and perform in quartets and trios.

Fast forward to the present, and the student program at Wally’s still has young musicians coming to be trained and featured on stage, with many from Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the New England Conservatory of Music and becoming “the [most] avant-garde jazz performers on the planet,” according to Frank Poindexter Jr., the current manager and grandson of Walcott. 

After losing the original location of the club in the 1970s due to eminent domain, Poindexter’s daughter, Elynor Walcott Poindexter, persuaded him to buy the building across the street — which is where they are located today — at 427 Massachusetts Avenue.

Poindexter shared how it feels for him to be a part of the family business and continue the family legacy of Wally’s.

“I am glad that I’m a student of my grandfather. I am blessed. It’s not easy all the time, because you’re arguing with your family, y’all get into it but still love each other. The big picture is these lessons that … we learned from the founder, our grandfather. I’m just pleased. I’m glad that I got this responsibility,” he said.

He also said that what makes Wally’s stand out to him in comparison to other clubs in the city.

“History, persistence, family, consistency. Family, okay? We’re in Boston, so this is [the] number six market in the country, and people are coming here for history. Now, a lot of times they come in, they don’t know there’s a whole lot of Black history here — I’m saying from the beginning of the nation,” he said.

They want the club to be a destination for anyone visiting from out of town.

“[We get] people coming from out of the country. We get so many tourists … 80% of our clientele [are] tourists. … We’re in a good ecosystem and it’s an interesting ecosystem. You can meet some really interesting people if you spread your wings and you’re interested,” he added.

Poindexter also recommended some of Wally’s upcoming events they host for community members to attend.

“Saturday, we got Noah Preminger, he’s a [New England]Conservatory graduate … he’s an excellent saxophonist. …Other than NwaSoul and The Timba Messengers, we have Kentaro Mashimo — his quintet plays every other Sunday. He’s Japanese and he’s going to be one of the ones on the bass, representing the whole Asia region. We got music from all around the world and here, and then they end up leaving here and becoming major figures, music figures in their own communities,” he said.

One of those upcoming figures is Ezekiel G. Freeman-Fanfan, a Boston Arts Academy and Berklee graduate, who is currently in the master’s program at Berklee. He’s been playing at Wally’s since he was young.   

Playing a gig at Wally’s allows young musicians to sharpen their skills, gain experience and boost their confidence. PHOTO: COURTESY WALLY’S CAFE

Freeman-Fanfan said that Wally’s has helped mold him — as a musician and as a person.

“Wally’s has helped shape my identity and my reality. It’s a place that stores so much history and to contribute to it is a blessing I never take for granted. Wally’s is my sonic playground,” he said.

Poindexter said that this ground training is pivotal for young musicians like Freeman-FanFan as they transition into the music industry as professionals.

“Us giving these young people these gigs, let me tell you what it does — they get skills from that. You have to learn certain skills to be a professional musician, and not just playing the music. You got to learn how to interact with the groups,” he said.

He added that the young musicians training at Wally’s will be able to use skills like transposing music in other spaces and professions.

“So if you can read notes, yeah, you’re gonna be able to code [and] create a sustained mindset,” he said.

“A person studies music … what’s the one thing they have to do? They gotta sit down and be able to practice first by [themselves]. So, a person [who] can sit down for two hours, practice, and be able to learn how to do that consistently…you’re gonna be able to sit down for two hours and do math problems, English, [etc.] —  it helps [them] to focus,” he added.

Poindexter gives his advice to Black and other entrepreneurs of color who may want to open a business or family business of their own.

“Be interested. Be interested, because everything starts from your interest. If you’re interested in something, you’re going to want to do it. So be interested. Get you some like-minded people around you — try your best to incorporate your family into your business and also do your best to be consistent,” he said.

“I’m saying [this] because a lot of people — they get discouraged if things don’t happen within the first two, three, four months. If you build it, they will come.”