Paul Bass Photo
The Ninth Square’s newest spot for jazz and burlesque will have to find a new home if its landlord has its way.
Thomas MacMillan Photo
In a month when the city is experiencing highs and lows when it comes to its more established entertainment and nightlife on College Street — the rebirth of the Palace Theater and the closing of the Anchor Bar—Chris O’Dowd 9th Note jazz supper club at 56 Orange St. is facing eviction.
O’Dowd was served with an eviction notice last week. It’s the fourth time since November that his landlord has taken steps to evict him, O’Dowd said.
The stated reason? Noise mostly, but also a failure to pay the $4,100 monthly rent in a timely fashion, according to the notice to quit. O’Dowd disputed both allegations.
In the notice, the owners of his building, Ninth Square Project Limited Partnership, state that he’s being evicted because his business “does not conform with its permitted use,” “continually generates loud music,” and “allows excessive noise to emanate,” all of which violate O’Dowd’s lease. It also said that he failed to pay his rent in December.
9th Note opened last year.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
O’Dowd (pictured) insisted business is good, but admitted to having been late making the rent. He said when he tried to pay rent in November his check was returned to him and had not been cashed. After he was served an eviction notice the day before Thanksgiving, O’Dowd said, he worked with the management company to pay the rent. By this time, December’s rent was due and he made arrangement to pay both November and December’s rent around Dec. 21, he said. Despite the agreement, he was still hit with an eviction notice in December and has again been served one this month.
He said he has checked with his neighbor businesses on Orange Street, asked the concierge of the Ninth Square Residence whether they’ve had any complaints, and even gone so far as to have the health department perform a noise test, and he said he’s been told there are no problems. But he said that in November, someone called the police anonymously nearly every night the 9th Note was open to complain about noise.
O’Dowd said he’s not sure what’s going on, but he’s starting to feel like someone, whether it’s one angry tenant or a company looking to capitalize on the revitalization of downtown New Haven, is trying to push him out of business.
“I don’t know, but the timing is suspect,” he said. “There wasn’t one complaint prior to November.”
Home Away From Home
Wisdom with Mayor Toni Harp at 9th Note.
You can catch Neville Wisdom, owner of the fashion design studio that bears his name, at 9th Note most any night of the week. For him it’s not just the convenience of having the supper club across from his business, but knowing that he can drop in and hear up and coming jazz artists or renowned artists from New York.
“I’m a regular here,” he said. “I love this place … and I really don’t frequent other restaurants in the city.”
He said the 9th Note provides something else that people might not realize: safety. The 9th Note tends to attract older customers looking for a more sophisticated experience than the typical club goer, he argued. He said he remembers a time when there was a club on the street that attracted people who had no problem busting the window of his shop, breaking into cars and urinating in the doorway of his business.
“It was a desolate place,” he said.
Renowned jazz trombonist Steve Davis, plays at the 9th Note once a month, called the noise complaint “really disappointing.”
“We’re not talking about heavily amplified music,” he said. “Plus, it’s good music and its usually finished by midnight. It’s not still cranking at two and three o’clock in the morning.”
Davis, who also teaches at the University of Hartford’s The Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz, said that 9th Note isn’t just good for New Haven, but it has become a destination for jazz for the state and Southern New England.
“With music clubs there can be this sort of stigma about attracting riffraff, but that doesn’t happen there,” he said. “The clientele is very dignified and upscale.”
Rob Greenberg, a Ninth Square merchant and 9th Note regular who can be found drawing at the bar, called it more than a coincidence that now that O’Dowd has sunk his money into making the 9th Note a destination that brings people “across that great river Church Street” that he’s facing eviction. He said the 9th Note is part of vibrant arts scene in the Ninth Square, and he doesn’t understand why O’Dowd’s landlords wouldn’t work with a complaining tenant to move her or him to a quieter part of the building if noise is really the issue.
O’Dowd said he plans to move the staging area from the back center of the club’s space and move it to a wall where there are fewer vents that might carry sound in hopes that it will lessen any sound that might be disturbing anyone. He said he hopes that any problems can be worked out.
The Independent made several attempts to contact O’Dowd’s landlord, which is listed as the Ninth Square Project Limited Partnership on his eviction notice, and the attorney of record for the landlord, David Pite, but was unsuccessful as of press time.
This would be a real loss for the city; New Haven is a place where jazz and live performance in general should thrive, and the 9th Note is a wonderful place for it. I hope they can resolve their differences and that this piece will be more good publicity for 9th Note than anything else.