Explore the campus of Columbia University, climb up into the eves of the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, discover the history of Bebop and eat Sunday jazz brunch in the place it all started. Learn about the Beat movement and walk the neighborhood, make your way down to the Hudson River to try swinging on the traveling rings.
Time: Minimum of 2 hours
Distance: Short
Subway Stop: Local no.1 train to 116th Street & Broadway. Walk through the gates of Columbia University
Suitable: All age groups
Eateries: If you haven't booked brunch at
Minton's Playhouse - Jazz Brunch - 206 West 118th Street Btw St. Nicholas Avenue & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. Book ahead for brunch https://mintonsharlem.com/
V&T Pizza -Amsterdam btw 112th & 113th Streets. Since1949 -revered by the Columbia community
Toms - 112th & Broadway - diner made famous in Seinfeld as Monk's Cafe
Hungarian Pastry Shop at 111th & Amsterdam another local favorite for desserts.
Absolute Bagels a bakery and cafe on Broadway at 108th Street
Massawa -Ethiopian restaurant-121st Street & Amsterdam. Spicy delicious food & my young nephews loved the fact that had to eat with their hands. https://www.massawanyc.com/
Insomnia Cookies on Amsterdam - between 110th & 111th Streets
Levain Bakery (best cookies) - Frederick Douglas Boulevard between 116th & 117th Streets
Miss Mamie's Spoonbread Too - 366 110th Street (at Columbus Avenue). Good soul food
In the summer time try the Ellington in the Park, in Riverside Park around 105th Street - lots to do for kids and adults. Relaxed outside seatings with front row view of the traveling rings - also fun to try https://www.theellingtonny.com/location/the-ellington/
Events & Advance Planning:
Book & reserve in advance where possible.
Minton's Playhouse is now back to hosting Jazz Brunch on Sundays (Noon & 2pm) or else is good for adults, an evening of jazz and dinner see link.
Check out the Cathedral's events calendar - there's always something going on-
For the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the church opens its doors (sometime around the beginning of October) to welcome a procession of as many as 3,500 pet lovers and their animals to be blessed. The processions have included, cows, elephants, camels, horses, boa constrictors, cockroaches, camels and bulls. Guided tours - pre book the tours that include the Vertical tour (climb up 124ft into the eves of the Cathedral), a Halloween Crypt tour, Highlights and a tour of the grounds. Concerts celebrate the holidays and musicians from around the world come to play here - concert calendar.
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| The Blessing of the Animals |
At Halloween there's a showing of the silent movie Nosferatu accompanied by the booming Cathedral organ. " Seats closes to the action are for the bravest at heart, who may find themselves directly confronted with the hooked nose of a demon, a mossy nails witch, or the bulging, flushed cheeks of a ghostly manchild."
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| Halloween at the cathedral |
Books, articles & videos:
The carvings on the entrance way to the Cathedral are fascinating - click and scroll down to the bottom for a virtual tour .
A short video explaining Jazz and different styles
The Beat Museum based in San Fransisco is a museum in development lists movies, books & interviews. https://www.kerouac.com/category/interviews/
Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City by Bill Morgan
START:
1. 116th & Broadway. Columbia University was as granted a charter under British rule in 1754, was founded as "King's College" and originally located at Trinity Church downtown. In 1775 Myles Cooper who was a royalist and president of the college at the time was chased by patriots out of the city and boarded a ship bound for England. During the American Revolution the college was seized and occupied by the British in 1776 and used as a hospital and classes were suspended. Many students were supportive of the occupation but some includingAlexander Hamilton, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris and Robert Livingston became part of the founding of America. John Jay and Hamilton re-opened the college in 1784. The campus opened in 1897 as Columbia College at its current location.
Famous graduates include Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein, Ira Gershwin, Alexander Hamilton, Alicia Keys, Joseph Campbell, Art Garfunkel, J.D. Salinger, Alan Ginsburg and Stanley Kubrik. Four US presidents graduated from here - Barack Obama, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
2. Walk through the campus and exit at Amsterdam Avenue - the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is located at around 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. According to the website (https://www.stjohndivine.org/ it is the largest cathedral in the world and seats 5,000 and is not complete. Construction started in 1892 and stopped with the outbreak of World War II when church leaders decided the community needed more support. Work was resumed in 1982 though spending policy continues to place an emphasis on supporting the local community. The central portal carvings around the entrance were completed by British master carver, Simon Verity who visited between 1988 and 1997. The figures are based on local people and friends of Mr. Verity. South of the Cathedral is the Children's Sculpture Garden.
The Cathedral offers artist residencies and has attracted people like Judy Collins and Paul Winter as well as the high wire artist Philippe Petit, who in 1974, took an unauthorized tight rope walk in the early hours of the morning between the two towers of the World Trade Centers. The walk took 50 minutes, 1,,350ft above the ground and he was arrested immediately after. Petit during his work at the Cathedral in 1982, walked rope 150 ft above the ground crossing Amsterdam Avenue to the Cathedral.
3. This area is also in the neighborhood of where Bebop, a movement that revolutionized jazz, was developed - at Minton's Playhouse at 206 West 118th Street https://mintonsharlem.com/about-mintons/ - the style evolved in the 1940s as a reaction to commercially driven escapist music of the Big Bands of the World War 2 era. Amongst its originators were - Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk and Max Roach. Charlie Parker said he was "bored with the stereotyped chord changes that were being used". The musicians started to jam at Minton's Playhouse. The sound they created was free form and spontaneous. In these sessions Parker and Gillespie combined their technical ability with their deep knowledge of musical theory. Bebop is about individuality and is characterized by improvisation and harmonic complexity. At Minton's people came to listen rather than dance - jazz switched from being escapist and care-free entertainment to something much more visceral and deep. The new style required artistry and virtuosity. Minton's was also frequented by Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan.
The ethos of Bebop spread to literary creatives and inspired the Beat movement which was incubated in New York City at Columbia University when Allen Ginsburg, Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, John Clellon Holms and Herbert Hunke met as students in the early 1940s. The movie below explains the link with Bebop.
Context of Bebop and Beat
4. Walk back to 110th Street & Broadway
5. If you walk south, down town on Broadway - make a right at 110th on and walk until you reach Riverside Drive at 105th Street. 330 Riverside Drive is a mansion that was purchased in 1905 by Robert Benson Davis the founder of Davis Baking Soda (still around today). Not long after, Davis in his who was in his early 70s, sued his much younger wife for imprisoning him and attempting to access his fortune. She had him locked in a room and controlled his mail and food. He eventually devised an escape by addressing a letter to a friend and throwing it out the window. It was found and delivered and not long after, Davis filed for divorce having escaped to California. The case became sensational news and strangely the couple returned to living together at 330 Riverside. Jennie Weed in fact died before her husband and the house was eventually passed on to their daughter and her husband.
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| Finishing off the day: Make your way down to Riverside Park off 105th Street at Riverside Drive. The set of Traveling Rings here over look the Hudson River and there is great people watching on a warm evening if you don't feel up to trying them. The Ellington Cafe is open during the summer months and if its a nice evening you can't ask for more. At the same location there is soccer, soft-ball and table tennis nearby as well a dog run with lots of benches around 106th Street at the upper level of the park (ask anyone for directions). |
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| The traveling rings at Riverside Park & 105th. |
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| Ellington Cafe |
Further watching and listening:
Jack Kerouac reading from "On The Road"
Jack Kerouac reading "San Fransisco Scene"
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