Black and white images capture the rise and fall of great American jazz bar The Crawford Grill (2024)

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 22:58 EDT, 29 April 2012 | Updated: 00:23 EDT, 30 April 2012

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From its stage played the rhythms and melodies of jazz greats including Art Blakey, Mary Lou Williams and John Coltrane.

The Crawford Grill was the centre of jazz in Pittsburgh's Hill District from the 1930s to the 50s.

Captured on camera by photographer Charles 'Teenie' Harris, a series of black and white images documents how, at a time when the nation was divided by segregation, the music that rang through its walls broke down racial barriers.

The late photographer's archive of nearly 80,000 images is said to be the most expansive record of African American urban culture known today.

Now, fourteen years after his death, Mr Harris' work is being lauded in a retrospective exhibit, featuring rarely-seen images of Louis Armstrong and other enduring names.

Curators at the Carnegie Museum of Art narrowed his collection to 987 of the 'most beautiful, appealing, and historically significant images' taken at the height of Mr Harris' career.

After ten years of research into the archive, Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story, was put on display. A reduced-scale version is currently on national tour.

Among the exhibits is 'The Rise and Fall of The Crawford Grill' - a collection of 83 images which tell the story of the famed music hall founded by William 'Gus' Greenlee in 1931.

There, music lovers gathered to hear the vocal ease of Sarah Vaughn and Dizzy Gillespie's clangour.

Musicians of all races flocked to 'The Grill' on Wylie Avenue, as jazz music evolved into a great American art form.

In the main room on the second floor, the audience surrounded a revolving stage. The third floor was meanwhile home to 'Club Crawford', described as a meeting place for 'insider's only'.

In 1943, Mr Greenlee expanded, and with his partner Joseph Robinson, opened Crawford Grill No 2 just a few blocks up the street. Five years later, it became a franchise with the Manchester opening of Crawford Grill No 3 - but the newest venue shut just seven years later.

Mr Greenlee died in 1952; as the story goes, the original Crawford Grill was demolished by a wrecker's ball in 1956 during the Civic Arena construction.

After Mr Robinson's death in 1982, the clubs were passed on to his son, William 'Buzzy' Robinson.

The Crawford Grill was honoured by the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission in 2001 and received a historical marker, but closed two years later - never matching the success of its heyday, captured on camera for all to remember by 'Teenie' Harris.

Gathering: A Labor Day celebration honoring A Philip Randolph (waving from balcony of Civic Arena), surrounded by clergy, Lower Hill District, September 4, 1967

Born in 1908 in Pittsburgh, Mr Harris began his career as a semi-professional athlete, but after buying his first camera found his niche, and he turned to photography in the 1930s.

Initially, he specialised in glamour portraits, and eventually opened his own photography studio.

He turned to news years later, and began freelancing in 1941 for the Pittsburgh Courier - the leading African American newspaper at the time.

He became a widely-respected photojournalist before he retired in 1975, capturing on camera a colourful chronicle of the black urban community during the Jim Crow and civil rights eras.

All images copyright 2004 Carnegie Museum of Art.