Sweet & Solid Jazz at Fish

We’re loving Jack McCray’s review in the Post & Courier of our Wine Wednesday stars: The Charlton Singleton Trio, featuring Singleton on trumpet, David Linaburg on guitar and Ben Wells on bass. When Fish General Manager Caroline Jackson found out that Singleton was available, she made a beeline to book him for Wine Wednesdays. She knows a good thing when she hears it. Seriously, what’s better than sipping great wine from a stellar, HALF-PRICED list while you listen to an eclectic mix of jazz standards? Put it on your to-do list.

It’s especially cool that Jack McCray took notice. After all, he’s putting together a book, Charleston Jazz (Arcadia Publishing), the first comprehensive history of jazz in the Holy City. And he’s the co-founder of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival Jazz After Hours Series, founding President of the MOJA Arts Festival and co-founder of the Charleston Jazz Initiative. So he knows a little something about jazz.

McCray dates the roots of Charleston jazz back to 1891 when the Jenkins Orphanage was established by Reverend Daniel J. Jenkins, a former slave who became a minister. The first African American orphanage, now a National Historic Landmark, hired two local Charleston musicians, P.M. "Hatsie" Logan and Francis Eugene Mikell, to tutor the children. Shortly thereafter, the first and only black instrumental group in South Carolina was born. The band “premiered” on the streets of Charleston dressed in discarded Citadel uniforms. Soon, The Jenkins Orphanage Band began performing around the U.S. and England – and eventually at President Theodore Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in 1905.