Harwich Oracle

Paul Nossiter was the co-owner of Storyville Cape Cod.

By Jamie Balliett

June 2011

Fifty-four years ago, Harwich was a regional hot spot for the jazz scene, home to a legendary club called of Storyville Cape Cod near Long Pond. Now a revival concert called Storyville Déjà Vu is set for June 30 at the renovated Wychmere Beach Club.

The musical event, to benefit the Harwich Cultural Council, will feature jazz, Dixieland, and rhythm and blues music, as well as readings and a silent auction.  Performers will include Lou Columbo on trumpet, Bart Weisman on drums, Fred Boyle on piano, Bruce Abbott on sax, Steve Ahern on trumpet, Paul Nossiter on clarinet, and others.

“A couple of years ago, I heard about a nightclub that was here in Harwich,” said Cultural Council chair and event organizer Patricia Stackhouse.  “All the jazz greats came here and it was just the place to be – we wanted to recreate that here for a magical evening.”

Stackhouse started to research the club and enlisted the help from her fellow members on the council.  Researching articles or talking to friends, they began to piece together its history.

Storyville Cape Cod opened in 1957 as a seasonal club in the old Robin Hood Inn.  Co-owned by New York City jazz producer George Wein and local musician Paul Nossiter, the club drew in many of the top performers of the day, including Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Pee Wee Russell, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, and Errol Garner. 

The club was located off Route 124, about 3/4 of a mile north of the Pleasant Lake General Store above Long Pond on Turkey Hill, near what is now Prince Charles Drive. Brewster residents would travel to the club across Long Pond via motorboat.

Despite hosting a stream of top-billed jazz performers and large crowds, the club wasn’t profitable and closed it doors in 1960,  three years after it opened. It later burned down.

The name Storyville has its own history.  It comes from a red light district that used to exist in New Orleans at the turn of the twentieth century.  Created from legislation sponsored by a city alderman named Sidney Story, this district was popular for jazz and dance clubs.

“We could fit up to six hundred people inside the club,” said Nossiter, who recalled that the Storyville Cape Cod’s opening night in on July 4, 1957 featured Louis Armstrong, who did two marathon sets that each lasted up to seventy minutes. “Louis was more than fantastic – he was one of the hardest working musicians I had ever seen.  He loved playing and smiled through it all,” Nossiter recalled.

To plan the revival concert, Stackhouse tapped into the experiences of both Nossiter and Weisman. “We all wanted to bring back many of the elements of Storyville Cape Cod, such as the comfortable club setting and diversity of music,” noted Stackhouse, who added that the recently renovated Wychmere Beach Club is an ideal waterfront location because they can easily seat two hundred attendees.

“The Beach Club has both a link to the past, previously hosting Thompson’s Clam Bar, with a commitment to the future, hosting events like this,” she added.

Weisman, who moved to the Cape 8 years ago after playing for the U.S. Air Force Band in Washington, D.C., was happy to help. He runs the annual Provincetown Jazz Festival and can even be seen in town at a weekly gig on Sunday nights at the Bishop’s Terrace on Route 28.

Weisman recalled the first time Stackhouse contacted him with the Storyville Déjà Vu concept. “My wife and I had been in New York meeting with George Wein and he talked about Storyville Cape Cod.  Just a few weeks later, Pat contacted me about the idea for the Déjà Vu event and I about fell off my chair. What a coincidence.  My hat is off to Pat for pulling this event together.  It’s growing the jazz veins for Harwich,” he said.

To Nossiter, he’s elated that so many people remembered the club and it’s positive impact on the community. “That club is one of the highlights of my life.  The work was hard but it sure was worth it,” he said. It’s nice to see Storyville Cape Cod being revived and know that it has not been forgotten.  It’ll be a great night of music for all,” he said.