The newly opened Jazz Urbane Cafe brings rhythm to musicians and food lovers alike.
Located on the first floor of the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Roxbury, a 17 min walk from the Roxbury Crossing station, the urban arts venue features live music six days a week and an “eclectic menu,” as described by Kelley Chunn, Jazz Urbane Cafe’s communications consultant.
A top priority of the restaurant’s staff is the guest experience, according to Charles Hunter, the cafe’s general manager. While the menu isn’t finalized yet, diners can expect a fusion of American, Caribbean and Southern cuisines, with seasonal dishes rotating throughout the year.
“Our idea, essentially, is to unify live music, culinary arts, education and community engagement,” said Sara Desroches, a media and marketing intern at Jazz Urbane Cafe. “We want to focus on how art and culture can inspire and uplift people. And there is a real commitment to being community-based.”
Hunter said the idea of the restaurant has been in the works since before COVID-19. The first floor of the building has not been in use since it was renovated in 2015.
Bill Banfield, the founder of the cafe, is also the owner of Jazz Urbane Recording, the cafe’s sister company, whose bands will regularly play in the space. Outside of his recording company, Banfield is the director of Africana Studies and a professor of liberal arts at the Berklee College of Music.
“We’re trying to make sure that we have a good representation of local acts, as well as national acts, and show that a number of national acts are actually local to the Roxbury area,” Hunter said. “There are people who travel and do tours overseas and across the country who actually are based here.”
The cafe’s mission is to tap into Boston’s rich music and arts scene to support up-and-coming artists, while still bringing in talent from across the nation, according to its website.
“I think the cafe is part of a larger ongoing effort to change the narrative of Roxbury in general and Nubian Square in particular, focusing on the assets of the community,” Chunn said. She hopes the cafe will attract tourists and Bostonians from around the city by raising awareness of what Roxbury has to offer.
Even with the promise of great music, Jazz Urbane Cafe is not all about jazz. In addition to musical performances, they plan to host other forms of art in their space, ranging from dance to theatre to spoken word. (The cafe, Hunter said, is semicircular, allowing guests more visibility of performances).
“I’m really excited about the impending opening. This has been a dream for the better part of a decade,” Chunn told The Huntington News in early May. “There’s a lot of anticipation in the community about the opening, so I can hardly wait.”
