How Cliff Bell’s Became a Generations-long Home for Jazz

Nearly 20 years ago, Cliff Bell’s returned in style. Today, it remains a top destination for drinks and music.
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Cliff Bell’s has had the likes of Dr. Lonnie Smith and André 3000 perform on its stage. // Photograph by Rebecca Simonov

Detroit’s musical heritage is unparalleled. Motown, electronic dance music, R&B, gospel, and more: They all have a home here in Detroit. But the city’s love affair with jazz has deep roots and a long history. One of the city’s premier spots for jazz for nearly 20 years, Cliff Bell’s is a downtown beacon for music lovers of all ages.

Elegant, warm, and classy with streamlined curves, brass accents, and plenty of mahogany, the historic bar oozes cool. It hasn’t always looked like this. When co-owner Paul Howard took over the space in 2005, it was a mess. The building’s previous tenant, a dungeon-themed disco club named La Cave, simply closed the doors and walked out one night in 1985. Says Howard, “There were still ashtrays on the bars with cigarette butts in them, and then the place sat empty for 20 years. During that time, the building deteriorated; there was lots of water damage. It was dank and wet and dark and rotting, basically, and moldy.”

Before the disco era, the original Cliff Bell’s was a show bar (notably, not a jazz bar) that operated between the ’30s and the late ’60s, named for its charismatic and occasionally incarcerated owner, who owned several speakeasies during Prohibition. For the revamp, Howard took inspiration from the bar’s original streamline moderne décor. Drink offerings include a deep whiskey list, a well-considered selection of wine by the glass and bottle, and a solid representation of classic and modern cocktails.

One of the bar’s most striking design elements was added around 2015: the room-wide mural of playful cats fishing in a water garden. The subject was inspired by the revived bar’s former doorman, Roosevelt Callen, known to most as Rosie, who rescued the many cats in a nearby vacant building. Keen-eyed visitors can spot a representation of Rosie feeding his strays in the mural.

The mural was inspired by Rosie, the revived bar’s former doorman who liked to feed stray cats. // Photograph by Rebecca Simonov

Five nights a week, guests can listen in on two sessions of jazz music. The crowd is as eclectic as the musical offerings, Howard says. “Often, three generations will be here together,” he says. “It’ll be the young kids, their parents, and the grandparents that knew Cliff Bell’s from back in the day.”

Howard has a hard time picking his favorite acts from the decades of musicians who’ve appeared at the club. Legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, bassist Rodney Whitaker, The Bad Plus, and even André 3000 have all performed on the intimate stage at Cliff Bell’s. The club has never had a house band, finding plenty of talent through booking local and national acts, but it does sometimes have musical residencies, in which musicians like Detroit-born Kasan Belgrave, son of legend Marcus Belgrave, perform every Wednesday night.

“We’re just really lucky in Detroit,” he says. “You couldn’t do this in a lot of places. We have the community here, we have the fan base, we have the talent — and that doesn’t exist everywhere, particularly the talent. The ecosystem that’s here … it’s deep. It’s the schools, it’s the churches, it’s the clubs, it’s the universities, it’s the [Detroit Jazz] Festival, and it’s the audience, and without any one of those things, it would be much more difficult” to run the club.

Whether it’s an old club getting a new look or three generations of music lovers tapping their toes while musicians of all ages jam together, Cliff Bell’s has proved its ageless appeal.


This story originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Our digital edition will be available on Jan. 6.