Turner 1
A NURTURED SOUL: FINDING JAZZ MUSIC IN THE HEART OF TALLAHASSEE Tucked away in downtown Tallahassee is a house, an unassuming vestige of the past. And if a house can resemble a mother, then its exterior—a softened, eggshell white—betrays her age. Her face is etched with laugh lines from the constant tickling of vines that line the railing of the second-floor balcony. Open the front door and her mouth will sing— a muffled mix of melody and laughter. Peek through her necklace of leaves and read a faintly lit, hand-painted sign: Hi Fi Jazz Café. The pulse is electric and humming with color, music, and speech— in and out, in fluid breaths. Since its opening in 2010, Hi Fi invites everyone, musicians and listeners alike, to step inside. With its low ceiling and room capacity that peaks around sixty people, it radiates warmth and comfort. Small, circular lights dot the ceiling, casting a peachy, blue-tinged glow across walls the color of cabernet. Its charm is based in kitsch: the appeal of mismatched trinkets and patterns that accent an equally eclectic attitude. Within a sea of mirrors and abstract paintings screaming with color, only the tablecloths and chairs are consistent in design, lending a lone pattern to overwhelmed eyes. Fluorescent strings of lights frame the windows, with one strand snaking its way along the floor and up the mic stand. Wedged in the left corner behind the microphone is an upright piano with a lava lamp and thin vase of flowers resting on its slender, black top. For those that find solace in the strange and avant-garde, this place is home. Tables seating two to four are placed next to the performance space, encouraging conversation as well as listening. Diagonal to the performance space is a bar that serves a limited selection of beers, wines, and food. The diatribes that bind audiences to silence in an orchestra hall don’t exist here. Instead, listeners mimic the musician’s phrases, reacting spontaneously, freely. Although the close proximity of the musicians to the listeners may initially seem intimidating, after a song or two it becomes comfortable for the performance to flow as easily as any conversation should flow. Piano notes effortlessly lace through the air, guitar chords churn and weave around an improvised duet with a saxophone. Live music negates perfection and guarantees a level of raw vulnerably that not even the artists’ records sold afterward can replicate. Mistakes made here are easily forgiven and forgotten. Scuffed floors marred with black tracks recall the countless feet that have shuffled and spun around this space. This musical art form is inherently transitive, defined by perpetual motion. Jazz jolts and bumps, glides and spirals, all to define every line with a finer degree of thought. No note is short of spinning energy, no phrase without contour. And the artists are just as mobile as their trade, constantly gigging, looking for the next city, the next record, the next move.
Turner 2 But then you look up. The ceiling is covered in writing: a scrawled name, instrument, and a date. And if this house really is a mother, then its interior personifies the constant, cyclical process of maturity: trial and error, improvisation and memorization, struggle and triumph. Although the words may seem vague, each scribble captures a snapshot in time, when musical infancy transitions to maturity. Hi Fi stands as a unique symbol of Tallahassee’s persistent and growing effort to support music both within and outside the local community. It supports new, unexposed talent and has the unique pleasure of inviting that talent back once time has been spent away, traveling, teaching, and sharing music. Each signature on the ceiling paints a picture, a memory etched in the collective mind of Hi Fi Jazz Café. Each inscription whittles out a notch of time spent here, documenting comings and goings, beginnings and conclusions. Each message immortalizes what cannot be captured on any other medium but the memory, an elusive pause to the ceaseless motion of music and time. Hi Fi Jazz Café is located at 1617 South Adams Street; Monday-Thursday 11:30 am - 3 pm, Friday 11:30 am - 12 am