It did not take long for a booking at Little Tokyo’s Blue Whale to become a stamp of approval among music fans with an ear for improvisatory sounds. If you could get your name on the chalkboard marquee, it was a validation from the owner and booker Joon Lee that you were doing something interesting. Probably not commercial. Maybe a little hip. But definitely new and worth pursuing.
That approval was enough to keep the club as the centerpiece of L.A.’s imaginative and expanding jazz scene for more than a decade. But amid an evaporated source of revenue and unforgiving lease obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Whale has permanently closed.
“We used to have an annual fundraiser,” says Lee, 46, calling from Seoul where he has spent most of the pandemic caring for family. “Every year we had a target, whether it was to upgrade the sound system or fix the women’s toilet. When musicians offered to help me fundraise last year, it was hard to find the target. How much would we really need? And it felt like I would be getting money from people with uncertain futures. I wasn’t comfortable with that.”
Lee watched as clubs tried their hand at streaming events to raise funds, but he calculated that even the biggest blowout concert was not going to be enough to pay a month’s rent. His kitchen was small and not a viable option for keeping the lights on either. Lee’s lease ended in November, and he decided not to renew. “We had our last gig on March 18. I kept trying to come up with solutions, but things kept getting worse and worse,” said Lee with resignation. “And it’s still getting worse.”
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