{"id":130,"date":"2024-01-15T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T20:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2024\/2024\/01\/15\/watch-charley-os-host-marty-grosz-john-bucher-and-john-beal\/"},"modified":"2024-01-15T20:33:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T20:33:00","slug":"watch-charley-os-host-marty-grosz-john-bucher-and-john-beal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2024\/2024\/01\/15\/watch-charley-os-host-marty-grosz-john-bucher-and-john-beal\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Charley O’s Host Marty Grosz, John Bucher and John Beal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The team at Jazz Lives<\/a> recently shared a throwback that caught our eye – Jazz at Charley O’s? The legendary Penn Station libation station for in between trains or before games at The Garden? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, close – this is the Charley O’s that was once located at 713 8th Avenue, and was not only a sports bar and grill but also a Jazz Bar and Comedy Club in the evening, as well as a popular spot to go before a night out on the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"charley<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jazz Lives shares the following recollection of one night at Charley O’s.
Once upon a time, I lived in Great Neck,<\/a> New York, a suburb forty minutes from midtown Manhattan.\u2002When in 2005 I found out that my hero Marty Grosz was appearing in the city, probably for a Saturday afternoon session, I checked the Long Island Railroad schedule, packed my cassette recorder, and went there.\u2002\u201dThere\u201d was not a jazz club but a hamburger \/ steak restaurant catering to tourists, where, wonderfully and atypically, hot jazz was on the menu.\u2002That place was Charley O’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"charley<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MARTY GROSZ, guitar, vocal; JOHN BUCHER, cornet; JOHN BEAL, double bass, were the band, for the cavernous room.\u2002I had met Marty in September 2004 Jazz at Chautauqua, so I may have said a brief hello.\u2002I would come to know John Bucher from his appearances at the Cajun.\u2002I knew Beal only from recordings, but he was gracious.\u2002I asked for a table near the music but none were offered for a single mortal, so I went to the balcony, where I could see the band as well as hear them, admittedly from above and from a distance.\u2002(Now, I would know better and would have told the waiter that my three friends were arriving soon, thus earning a table closer to the music.\u2002I hope to be forgiven my falsehoods.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ordered food \u2014 something banal \u2014 then set up my recorder to capture the sounds, which were wonderful.\u2002I saved the cassette.\u2002(A year later, I would have purchased a video camera and a digital recorder, but in 2005 I was still living in a technological past.\u2002However,, it DID work.)\u2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll hear I DON\u2019T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE \/ WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS \/ THREE LITTLE WORDS \/ A HUNDRED YEARS FROM TODAY \/ Marty half-heartedly hawking CDs \/ SUNDAY (incomplete) \/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve left in the long intervals between songs because you can hear Marty providing the chordal roadmap for his two colleagues. Impatient listeners can scroll forward; imaginative listeners imagine themselves on the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The room got much more noisy; perhaps my waiter, seeing my empty plate, hovered and said, \u201cWill there be anything else?\u201d and I took the check.\u2002On the way out, I thanked the trio and lamented the noise level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There ends my saga of Charley O\u2019s, sometime in 2005.\u2002But the music!\u2002Better than the hamburger deluxe and much fresher, even eighteen or so years later.\u2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Marty
Photograph by Lynn Redmile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charley O\u2019s closed some time ago.\u2002John Bucher, that gentle man, has left us. Messrs. Beal and Grosz are still laying it down, although slightly less frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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