Black artists thrived in spite of colour lines that once divided Montreal's club scene
There was a time from the 1920s to the late 50s when jazz wasn't just a kind of music for some Montrealers, but a way of life.
That was especially true for the musicians themselves, including Normal Marshall Villeneuve, now a witness to the city’s bygone musical past.
“I got a call from a gentleman named Roy Francis -- he was a piano player at the Arcade Hotel on Windsor street just north of St-Antoine," explains Villeneuve, during a conversation inside Upstairs jazz bar on Mackay St. earlier this month.
"Ended up staying at that restaurant six nights a week."
The Arcade is, of course, long gone, along with other legendary nightclubs like the Alberta Lounge, which was further up the street.
Villeneuve grew up in Montreal's southwest and quickly made a name for himself on the Black jazz club scene, located in a neighbourhood that, at the time, was called Little St-Antoine, where it seemed there was a venue on every corner.
"The café St-Michel became the Harlem paradise. Then they changed and that was another venue," said Keith Palmer O’Neil, who was a regular featured drummer on the club scene.
"Then, we had the Black Bottom, which was 70 metres from Rockhead’s Paradise on St-Antoine. We had major names, Dizzy Gillespie, when they came to Montreal."
Little St-Antoine would eventually become known as Little Burgundy, home to many of Canada's Black railway porters, who earned a meagre living and faced rampant discrimination, but fought to change some of Canada's biggest-picture inequalities, including its white-centred immigration system.
“My brother, Doug, he was a porter... my foster father, he was a porter also,” recalled Villeneuve of his youth.
But despite the hardships they faced, it was still better than living south of the border, said historian Dorothy Williams.
“Canada portrayed itself as being morally superior to the United States in many different ways, so that's a lesson Blacks had taken,” said Dr. Williams, who researched extensively the history of African-Canadians.
“Canada certainly did a great selling job. People literally thought the streets were paved with gold.”
Still, even here, Black artists who could play in Montreal's white clubs were often denied entry as patrons.
“The expectation was that Blacks were behind and could not move in the same circles,” said Dr. Williams.
Despite the odds being so stacked against them, however, many Black artists flourished.
“What I found made a difference is we were in an area where we were smothered by our people,” said Villeneuve.
And colour lines that divided the rest of society certainly didn’t prevent him from taking a young white drummer, Keith Palmer O’Neil, who had showed an eagerness to discover jazz as played by the legends of the day.
“I started playing gigs here and there,” said O’Neil.
“Then [Norman and I] just connected, and that was it. And then he started working at Rockhead's, then I was getting gigs, because I'd finish at maybe 2:00, Rockhead would close at 2:00, so we'd head there and jam until 3:00.”
Those jam sessions, he said, brought talented and diverse musicians close together.
The early pioneers included Daisy Peterson, who taught her younger brother, Oscar Peterson, to play the piano. A few years later, another local boy would be awed and inspired by Peterson's brilliance.
“I remember being in the back and walked up to the front of the United church. I sat down, and he had such a command over the piano,” Jones told CTV News in 2019.
A THREE-FLOOR HOT SPOT
In 1931, a young Jamaican immigrant and railroad porter named Rufus Rockhead opened Rockhead's Paradise on St-Antoine at the corner of De La Montagne. And big international acts took to the stage every week.
“You had so many musicians playing Rockhead's,” Villeneuve said. “I was fortunate that I came up at a good time.”
The Rockhead’s Paradise had three floors and a very flamboyant owner.
“He would greet women with a flower every night. To get in you had to go by him. ‘Good evening, young man,’” said O’Neil, imitating Rockhead’s distinctive voice.
But Villeneuve said that Rufus Rockhead was also a serious and demanding boss.
“Every second Sunday at 12 o’clock you had to be upstairs at the Rockhead’s on the bandstand. ‘Don’t come late or you’d have to buy somebody something,’” he recalled him saying.
By the 1960s, jazz was no longer divided along colour lines in downtown clubs like the Esquire Showbar, the Casa Loma, or Chez Maurice, but the jazz scene was also slowly faltering.
Rock and roll was taking over. Recorded music was taking the place of live bands and the city administration put immense pressure on the many clubs owned by the underworld.
Former mayor “[Jean] Drapeau, he passed the anti-mingling law and ruined everything” recalled O’Neil, with bitterness. “There was no more making a living as a musician.”
A handful of jazz clubs remain in Montreal, including the Upstairs on MacKay Street, which carry the flame of the city's musical golden era.
Today, the legends of Little Burgundy are remembered with street names and murals honouring their impact and achievements as the music lives on.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
LeBlanc says he plans to run in next election, under Trudeau's leadership
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
Sports columnist apologizes for 'oafish' comments directed at Caitlin Clark. The controversy isn’t over
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
U.S. vetoes a widely supported UN resolution backing full membership for Palestine
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Grandparent scam suspects had ties to Italian organized crime, police allege
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.
Health Canada to change sperm donor screening rules for men who have sex with men
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
Prince Harry formally confirms he is now a U.S. resident
Prince Harry, the son of King Charles III and fifth in line to the British throne, has formally confirmed he is now a U.S. resident.
Cat found on Toronto Pearson airport runway 3 days after going missing
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
N.L. gardening store revives 19th century seed-packing machine
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.