The Last Saturday Night at Cecil's

Closing time for Cecil's Jazz Club

Of course, unlike most Saturday nights, the place was packed. Some people were there for the first time, to see what they had been missing. Most were regulars, there to pay their respects, to enjoy the music, to soak it in for the last time. The ambience of a real jazz club, one that had literally and lovingly been put together by the owner — a real jazz musician — the drummer and producer Cecil Brooks III. Brooks bought the building on Valley Street in West Orange 11 years ago. He spent nearly two years fulfilling a musicians' dream:  fashioning his very own jazz club, the kind of place he'd want to play in, the kind of place other musicians would want to come to play, the kind of place he'd want to hear the music he loved played live the…

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