It’s the kind of place you might find tucked away in an obscure corner of New Orleans, a place where you can eat, drink and listen to some of the region’s, if not the nation’s, best musicians wail out jazz and blues tunes, with fine acoustics and an audience more into listening than dancing (although the latter can happen, too).
Welcome to Chan’s Fine Oriental Dining, home of Eggroll, Jazz & Blues, where every weekend night and some weeknights, too, Leon Redbone, John Hammond, James Montgomery, Roomful of Blues, J. Geils, Scott Hamilton, Sax Gordon and Bellevue Cadillac have played or will be playing in the weeks ahead.
Chan’s was a favorite performance spot of the late Dave McKenna, legendary jazz pianist born in Woonsocket, and Dizzy Gillespie celebrated his birthday there years ago. Don’t be surprised if you spot Warwick-born actor James Woods among the crowd some weekend, and the late George Carlin stopped for dinner and music more than once. Chan’s, as the saying popularized in the 1960s would have put it, is a happening place.
“I think our reputation just grew because of the way I treat my musicians,” owner John Chan said. “I treat them with a lot of respect. I give them good food to eat and I make them feel comfortable. They like Chan’s because we have a listening audience, they can do a solo and get good feedback. We are one of [the musicians’] favorite stops.”
Chan’s is actually two businesses in one. There’s the Chinese restaurant, which offers all the usual Oriental concoctions like pu pu platters and chicken wings, and then there is Eggroll, Jazz & Blues, a live performance showcase for jazz and blues artists. The restaurant and bar occupy one half of the building, and the music room for concerts is in the other half, a former Industrial National Bank branch still equipped with its vault.
The concert room with 125-seat capacity is well-insulated, so restaurant-only patrons won’t be disturbed. It has what Chan calls a “wonderful” sound system under main engineer Bobby Sloane, with speakers attached to the ceiling.
“The acoustics are almost perfect,” Chan said. “No matter where you sit in that room, you can hear the band. There is not a bad seat in the house.”
Concertgoers sit at tables and can order off Chan’s regular menu or partake of a buffet offered on show nights, when the doors open at 6:30 p.m., an hour-and-a-half before the usual 8 p.m. performance time.
Chan, 57, first conceived of running a jazz and blues club when he was a student at Providence College. He used to go to a place in downtown Providence, Joe’s Upstairs, to listen to the live bands. He remembers seeing Hamilton Bates and the Blue Flames there, with Scott Hamilton on sax and Fred Bates on guitar. “It was really a great band, and I thought maybe something like this would work in Woonsocket,” he recalled.
In 1977, he gave it a try, using the main dining room at Chan’s for a show by Jean McKenna O’Donnell (Dave McKenna’s sister) and her quartet. “It was our very first jazz band,” Chan said. In 1986, when Industrial National vacated the space leased by Chan next door, he took over that area, creating the concert room for live shows that doubles as a banquet room.
“We have been one of the best-kept secrets in the state for many years,” he said. “People will travel for good music, and they will stay overnight, actually.”
A photographer, art collector and painter, Chan has a treasure trove of stories to tell about the musicians who have played at his place. Dave McKenna, who died Oct. 18, was “a very humble man,” Chan said. “I knew him very well. We shared a birthday in May.” In 1988, jazz great Dizzy Gillespie celebrated his 70th birthday by performing at Chan’s. “He was very gracious, he had a great time,” Chan said. About a year later, after a show for alumni at what was then Bryant College, Gillespie had his driver take him to Woonsocket where he showed up, unannounced, at Chan’s. “I came by for more chicken wings,” Chan remembers him saying.
John Hammond, whom Chan calls “a blues legend,” will be performing Friday, Feb. 27. “He’s a one-man dynamo,” Chan said. “He plays a great steel guitar and, when he’s singing, if you close your eyes, you would think you were listening to an old black man singing the blues.” The son of a record-company president, Hammond never wanted to be a musician, according to Chan, “but he fell in love with all the great blues from the Delta.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
Chan’s Fine Oriental Dining
OWNER: John Chan
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Chinese restaurant and concert room
LOCATION: 267 Main St., Woonsocket
EMPLOYEES: 25
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1905
ANNUAL SALES: WND
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