Editor's note: Isaac and Kevin went to Friday night's performance at "The Pec." Click here to see photos and read more about the special performance.
Our original story follows below.
Crumbling drywall expose old red bricks inside the now-defunct El Chapultepec jazz club. The building sits quietly as an unused music temple that once hosted Denver's thriving jazz and arts and culture community.
But this Friday, a musical gathering rooted in the history of American jazz will look to fill in the cracks of a building in decay -- and to serve as a reminder of culture that can be lost when it's not supported.
Billboard charting jazz guitarist Gregory Goodloe will perform an intimate set starting at 8 p.m. Visitors will get to enjoy the music and dance the night away at the historic venue.
Accompanying performers include Dunk Maxwell and the DFUNK, a new act making music in the traditions of funk, soul, blues and jazz, as well as Cat Ackermann, a rising jazz and alternative pianist and singer.
The location at 1962 Market St. hosted countless icons like Count Basie, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, and Frank Sinatra over its 87-year run.
Although the El Chapultepec brand has now moved to Dazzle Denver's newest location at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, the old venue will serve as a symbolic backdrop for what was once a flourishing jazz cultural touchpoint, before it was forced to close its doors during the pandemic.
Stephen Brackett, founding member of the band Flobots, founder of Youth on Record, Colorado's Music Ambassador and now executive director of the 87 Foundation, has been sharing his vision for the revitalization of Denver's art scene and its fragmented nightlife and Friday's performance is a part of that.
"We are trying to honor the space by bringing jazz back into the building while we have it," Brackett said. "And at the same time call attention to what is at stake."
For Brackett, the litmus test of a city's true health can come down to how many cultural touch points there are and what a city does to support them. In the case of El Chapultepec, the construction of Coors Field and the influx of small businesses changed the atmosphere around it before the jazz club had to close.
"How far down the line do we have to get before we realize that one of the very things that is sustaining us is also disappearing?" Brackett said. "The arts are what made Denver palatable. The arts are our public connective tissue."
Intermixed with arts and culture is also the issue of Denver's nightlife. Like straight out of a Batman movie, Brackett and his 87 Foundation team have been pushing for the concept of a "night mayor," a position tasked with being a connector between public and private sector stakeholders of the night time economy. Think anyone from local residents to artists, venue owners, business associations and even night shift workers.
"At night you have one fifth of the municipal services available," Brackett said. "When you are moving anything at night it requires a partnership between citizenry, government and businesses to make up for the lack of services."
More than 50 cities around the world have adopted the night mayor concept, notably cities like New Orleans, New York, Paris, London and Berlin.
"This is the role we can play in making sure that it's here for us and for generations to come."
