Bradley's
The Bradley’s was a New York jazz club that, according to the New York Times, was "an institution" of modern jazz in the 1970s and 1980s .
Bradley's was a New York jazz club located at 70 University Place (on 11th Street) in Manhattan , which, according to Ashley Kahn, had its most successful period between 1977 and 1988. Jazz fan Bradley Cunningham had come to New York from California and in 1969 (contrary to the fusion- dominated zeitgeist ) opened a piano bar north of New York University , in which jazz musicians such as Hank Jones , Al Cohn , Zoot Sims , Tommy Flanagan , Joanne Brackeen or Teddy Wilson performed. At the end of the 1970s, Bradley’s was considered a “wood-paneled post-bop paradise” (Ashley Kahn); the saxophonist Paul Desmond donated a grand piano, and a piano-bass duo performed almost every night.
The musicians performing there included Roland Hanna , Kenny Barron , Jimmy Rowles , George Cables , John Hicks and Kirk Lightsey . This was often followed by jam sessions with musicians who came from concerts at Sweet Basil , Fat Tuesday’s or the Village Vanguard . Cunningham later also had brass bands such as the George Coleman or Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers perform. From the mid-1970s there were records of concert recordings, such as those by Jimmy Raney (1974), Kirk Lightsey, Kenny Barron, Donald Harrison , Charles Fambrough and Kevin Eubanks .
After Cunningham's death in 1988, his widow, Wendy, ran the club for another eight years, until rising rents and ancillary costs led to Bradley's closure in the mid-1990s . In recent years Roy Hargrove , Jacky Terrasson , Cyrus Chestnut , Leon Parker and Bruce Barth have played there ; the last concert was given by pianist Stephen Scott , accompanied by Joe Locke , Ed Howard and Victor Lewis on October 17, 1996.