The Sound That Moved Uptown

Jazz didn’t begin in Harlem — but Harlem shaped what it became.

Born in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, jazz traveled north during the Great Migration, as Black communities moved in search of opportunity, safety, and space to create. By the 1920s, Harlem had become more than a neighborhood — it was a cultural engine.

Here, jazz found its edge. Its audience. Its spotlight.

Clubs like the Cotton Club, the Savoy Ballroom, and Minton’s Playhouse weren’t just venues — they were laboratories. Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, and so many others took what was born in the South and made it sharper, more daring, more electric.

This brand lives in that lineage.