Nocturne Jazz & Supper Club Opens Monday

Over the last six months, Scott Mattson and his wife Nicole have been transforming the building at 1330 27th Street from a warehouse-type space into Nocturne, a modern take on the 1940s jazz supper club, which opens to the public on Monday, March 9.

Mattson, who graduated from Metro State in 2002 with a degree in music and spent about six years as a working jazz drummer for about six years, says that Nocturne is a reboot of the jazz club.

The club's interior is inspired by 1920s and '30s Atlantic Coast art deco of cities like New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia along with more industrial components like mirrors, cement, brick and metal. The seated capacity of both the main floor and mezzanine is 104 and can hold about 170 standing.

Scott Mattson says Nocturne isn’t as much of a listening room as New York's Village Vanguard, where patrons are asked not to talk during performances. Mattson points out that jazz was the music of brothels and bars for its first thirty years.

"And it really flourishes in a club environment," he adds. "It really does. I want a place that's vibrant and fun and bottles of champagne and mixing good cocktails, and a place where folks can talk and have fun and a band came up and blow their ass off and have fun too."

There will be live music six nights a week, from 8 p.m. to midnight with local artists having weekly residencies. On Mondays, guitarist Sean McGowan plays the music of Wes Montgomery, alternating between and organ-drum trio and bass-drum trio; on Tuesdays Josh Quinlan and his Q’tet explore the pre-Impusle! music of John Coltrane as well as performing originals inspired by Coltrane; on Wednesdays, the Big Swing Trio dig into hard bop deep cuts and will do different sets for the eleven weeks, on Thursdays, pianist Annie Booth will perform her original compositions.

Mattson says the music on the weekends is geared toward more vibrant and driving stuff with the Funky Fresh Trio on Fridays and Manuel Lopez and Jeremy Wendelin playing modern Afro-Cuban music. Mattson also plans to bring in national talent at least once a month, and the legendary drummer Jeff Hamilton will perform next weekend.

“My next dream and phase with this thing is finding out who’s in town, as far as sidemen and major touring acts, and getting those folks to come after the shows, and getting up on stage and sit in and really get much more of the environment that jazz ought to have of sharing that musical accent from all these different towns.”

Here's a look at the new venue:

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