Saturday Night Jazz Returns to The Globe
After Being Shut Down for Months, The Globe is Back – And so is Live Music
The re-start took a little patience. On the first night they could open, The Globe saw its Saturday Night Jazz session eclipsed by torrential rains of Biblical proportions (you may remember the appearance of the Granada Golf Course – or should we say Lake Granada). On the second Saturday came the George Floyd demonstrations down the street at City Hall, and on the third Saturday a countywide curfew at 10 p.m. cut the night short.
Those birthing pains are now behind it, and The Globe is born again and in full swing. After 25 years of proffering quality jazz in a hip Euro-café setting, The Globe remains Coral Gables’ oasis of late-night live music.
“Except during the lockdown, when we couldn’t legally do it, and the odd hurricane, we have never missed a Saturday night,” says Danny Guiteras, who owns and runs The Globe with his wife Lorraine. While it is the blonde, statuesque Lorraine who runs The Globe on Saturday nights, the weekend sessions were born from Danny’s love of the genre. “I love jazz. I’ll never forget listening to Miles Davis’ ‘In a Silent Way’ and John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme,’” he says. In those days, as a student in New York, he went to jazz clubs like Nell’s and Club 55. “Since then I have adored it.”
The post-lockdown return of The Globe (also a restaurant on weekdays) is a welcome sight. With the demise of John Martin’s Irish Pub and the Open Stage Club, it is now about the only game in town for live music on the weekend, and recent Saturday nights have seen the reduced capacity of the restaurant fill up for their music sessions. The café keeps its French glass doors open onto Alhambra, so the inside feels safe, and there are tables outside if you want to feel even safer – or smoke a cigar.
For the past 15 years, the man who books the bands is Music Director Rodolfo Zuniga, a drummer who tours with Julio Iglesias and teaches jazz at MDC and FIU. “We have a fairly consistent rotation of local artists,” says Zuniga. “Danny wants small groups and traditional jazz, with some modern stuff – seasoned, experienced players. We have built a roster of people who know the gig and enjoy the gig.”
Each Saturday, the jazz trios and quartets start with an 8 to 9 p.m. set, followed by one from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m., with a final session from 11 p.m. till midnight. “The last set gets a bit more fun, a bit more exploratory,” says Guiteras, with impromptu players sometimes joining in. “A lot of younger musicians will drift in during that last set.”
On the night we went to The Globe, we listened to Zuniga play with organist Derek Fairhom and guitarist Tom Lippincott. All were wearing masks. We sat in a corner table, drinking vodka martinis. The light was low and golden, from candles on the tables to chandeliers overhead, reflected in The Globe’s dark wooden walls and back-lit bar. The music was melodious classic jazz, the sound nicely absorbed by the old European paintings that line the walls. It was the perfect place to be.
“This is a labor of love, with a capital ‘L’” says Guiteras. “We do it because jazz is the best music in the world. Because it’s jazz, man…. One word, four letters, two Zs.”
377 Alhambra Circle
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