Within a year after his parents opened a small restaurant at 20510 Livernois Ave. in Detroit in 1934, Clarence Baker, then in his mid-20s, installed a $35 upright piano and hired a local pianist to help boost business. When the young jazz enthusiast took over running the business in 1939 following his father’s stroke, he began transforming the small eatery just south of Eight Mile into what became a world-renowned music venue. By the late ’40s, it had been renamed Baker’s Keyboard Lounge, and to this day, it’s billed as “the world’s oldest jazz club.”
Nearly every jazz icon performed at Baker’s, including Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, Cab Calloway, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Krupa, and Oscar Peterson, to name just a few. Famous Detroit-based musicians who took the stage at Baker’s include, among others, Yusef Lateef, Kenny Burrell, Donald Byrd, Ron Carter, Milt Jackson, Elvin Jones, and Earl Klugh.
The 99-seat venue is well known for its cool vibe, superior acoustics, and intimate setting that in the 1950s was remodeled into a moderne style by architect Philip Funke. Interior decorations by Blaine Ford included the club’s trademark piano-shaped bar. Art Tatum, who regularly played at Baker’s before his death in 1956, picked out the 7-foot Steinway piano that remains today.
Clarence “Moon” Baker, pictured here in August 1980 in front of his famous club the week of the first Detroit Jazz Festival, created a favorable and flexible environment for the musicians and made sure that customers remained silent during the performances.
Baker sold the business in 1996 to Juanita Jackson and John Colbert, who in 2011 sold it to present owners Hugh W. Smith and Eric J. Whitaker. Baker passed away in 2003 at age 93.
In recognition of the venue’s important legacy, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge was designated a Michigan Historic Site in 1986, and in 2016, the city of Detroit named it a protected historic landmark.
This story originally appeared in the October 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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