Things are coming full circle for Chico Rouse. The famed jazz drummer recently opened a premier jazz and blues club called “Chico’s House of Jazz & Blues” in Asbury Park - the town which launched his own career. His travels have taken him around the world performing with such legendary jazz artists as Chico Mendoza, Frank Foster, Natalie Cole, and George Benson. He’s also done tours with reggae stars like Peter Tosh and Ziggy Marley. And it all started by his decision to skip the prom.
Chico Rouse’s first big break came on the night of his high school prom. He had decided not to go and was practicing his drums in a rehearsal hall in Asbury Park when fate stepped in. The famous Latin performer, Chico Mendoza, was scheduled to play at the prom in nearby Belmar, but his drummer got lost. Rouse’s music teacher told Mendoza that there was a guy who could cover the gig in Asbury Park. So, Mendoza went to Asbury and found Rouse in the rehearsal hall. He said, “Chico, can you do a gig at your prom” recalled Rouse.
Mendoza told him that he didn’t have time to get changed, they had to get over there right away. Rouse, at the time, was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. When he arrived he noticed that everybody in Chico Mendoza’s orchestra was dressed in all-white three-piece suits and he stuck out like a sore thumb. At the time he didn’t even know who he was working with.
“I didn’t know any of the performers,” said Rouse. “I didn’t know I was working with Chico Mendoza. Everything was moving real fast. I walked in and put my drums on the stage. Some of the guys that went to school with me are yelling and laughing at me as I’m setting up the drums. I hear one of the saxophone players say, ‘man, I hope this cat can play.”
He made it through the gig and afterwards, Mendoza came up and introduced himself to Rouse. “I got a little nervous because I know his credits and I realized the element I was in,” admitted Rouse. That element was something Chico was very familiar with having grown up as the son of a famous jazz musician. Chico’s father, Charlie Rouse, was a great tenor saxophonist who played with artists like Clifford Brown, Tadd Dameron, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie but he’s best known for his work as a member of Thelonious Monk’s quartet.
At one time, Thelonious Monk’s band was one of the top bebop jazz bands in the world. During the 70s, people followed them all across the world said Rouse. “We couldn’t walk anywhere without people following us with cameras.”
Seeing the way jazz once was respected (and still is in Europe) and the way it has fallen is one of the rea- sons Rouse decided to open up his own club. He says he’s just trying to do his part to bring jazz back.
“Offsprings like me and Thelonious Monk’s son and King Curtis’ son - all of us feel that we were put here
to pass it on,” explained Rouse. “We were here to be the second generation of pioneers to make sure that this stuff does not fade by the wayside. There’s a lot of us that grew up in that era of music and in some kind of funny way we ended up staying in music. We don’t know if it was just something that God wanted us to do, but we were there to be able to experience and know why our parents fought as hard as they did for the music.”
When Rouse was growing up, Asbury Park was a great home to jazz music. Clubs like the Orchid Lounge had shows by artists like Grant Green and Stanley Turrentine on the same night as Sarah Vaughn might be playing the Church Melody Lounge. Those clubs were long gone when Rouse returned to the area in 1988. He took a job as the entertainment director for the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank and later began working for Asbury Park’s Convention Hall and Paramount Theatre.
The intimacy of a small club is something that Rouse hopes will inspire a new generation of kids to become musicians. Instead of having to watch through a window as he did, the kids will be able to actually see the shows since the club is set up as a restaurant. It holds about 125 people per show, which provides for the intimacy that Chico was looking for.
“Jazz was always created in an intimate setting,” said Rouse. “It wasn’t created in a mass arena where the people are so far from the performer. The performer fed off the audience and the audience fed off the entertainer. You had to be intimate in order for those vibrations to be moving like that. So that was why I didn’t want to get a 500-seater or 700-seater because I wasn’t being honest with myself. I think about it as a business, but the art is the forefront of why I do it.”
Chico’s House of Jazz & Blues is similar to clubs like the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note in New York City or Trumpets in Montclair. The level of entertainment is unmatched in our area. For years, people have been taking the train to the city to see artists of this caliber but now they can see them in their own backyard.
“It’s patterned on the intimacy of the audience meeting the artist in the raw form,” explained Rouse. “To check his mistakes out and to check him throwing down and gassing at the same time. Because artists are constantly practicing whether it’s in the basement, on stage, or in a rehearsal hall - an artist is always practicing. Once you get to the point where you think you’re there you don’t grow anymore. And, to an artist, that’s the most fearful thing that you can get involved into. You can’t foresee that you can get to another place. That’s really why I did this. I wanted it small. I wanted it where you can just walk right up to the cat and all premier artists they love that. They’ll play a small room before they play a large room because if you’re sitting on a stage and the music goes out to a point and then goes away you lose it.
“Jazz is probably the ultimate in expressing yourself. It’s like the ultimate music of your inner being becoming connected with this instrument to express yourself.”
In addition to providing stellar entertainers on a weekly basis, Chico’s House of Blues has recently added Pro Jam Session nights and Open Mic Nites. BET and Comedy Central host live comedy nights several times a month. You can check the club’s website at www.chicoshouseofjazzandblues.com for the full schedule of events.
Chico’s House of Jazz & Blues is located at 660 Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park, directly next door to Harry’s Roadhouse. Shows are by advance reservation only. Tickets generally range from $20 to $45 depend- ing on the artist. The club offers an extensive menu of appetizers, entrees and desserts to go along with a full bar.
Before Bruce Springsteen, Asbury Park was known as the place that all of the jazz people used to come to. Thanks to places like Chico’s House of Jazz & Blues, we may be able to see another golden age of jazz return to the Shore.
