Cave 54
The Cave 54 ( Cave for short , pronounced [ka: f] in the customary French) is considered the oldest student jazz club in Germany. It is located in a cellar in the Krämergasse in Heidelberg's old town.
history
Cave 54 was founded as a jazz cellar in February 1954 by Heidelberg students who had come together in an "Association for the Promotion and Maintenance of Student Sociability". It thus represented an alternative to the existing student events and associations. From then on, people met in the cave who liked to discuss with friends and appreciate jazz . The resident pianist here was initially Wolfgang Lauth , later Karl Berger and Jutta Hipp . Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong , Ella Fitzgerald , Dizzy Gillespie , Oscar Peterson or Lionel Hampton , who were guests in Heidelberg barracks as part of the troop support, came to the jam sessions in the basement after their gigs there . Fritz Rau made his first steps in the event industry as a concert organizer in Cave 54 as a treasurer and organizer. According to Joachim Ernst Berendt , the cave was an integral part of German jazz history of those years .
In addition, the Cave 54 was a forum for dealing with the German past before 1945. American writers such as James Baldwin and Thornton Wilder gave critical lectures and discussions in the jazz cellar.
In the 1970s the cave became a nightclub . Today, jazz concerts are offered again in Cave 54 , as well as blues . The jazz jam sessions every Tuesday are a tradition and are praised for their high quality.
literature
- Rau, Fritz : 50 years backstage. Memories of a concert promoter. Palmyra, Heidelberg 2005, pp. 15, 21, 22, 29-31, 76; with black and white photos, ISBN 978-3-930378-65-4 .
- Marcks, Marie : Great moments of mankind. Caricatures from the last 50 years. Edited by Thomas Werner. On the occasion of an exhibition in the Kurpfälzisches Museum in Heidelberg . Edition Braus published by Wachter Verlag, Heidelberg 2000, ISBN 3-926318-73-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Berendt , Ein Fenster aus Jazz , Fischer TB 1980, ISBN 3-596-23002-0 , p. 205.
Coordinates: 49 ° 24 ′ 42 " N , 8 ° 42 ′ 34.3" E