Alan Roland: Smalls opens on April 22. And features watercolor paintings that capture the excitement at “Smalls”, a jazz club in Greenwich Village, New York, which was opened by Mitchell Borden in 1994. Over its ten year life span “it became celebrated as one of the most important jazz venues worldwide,” the artist states. Roland was a weekly attendee at Smalls, there to draw and paint the musicians while they were playing.   His works from the time are those in this exhibit.

Roland tells the Smalls story so colorfully that I am reluctant to paraphrase: 

            Smalls never obtained a liquor license. This was a blessing in disguise as it allowed the club to remain open until 7 AM nightly. After paying just a $10 cover charge, listeners could bring their own drinks and stay as long as they wanted to. There were lines around the corner every night to get in, and the audience was made up of people of all ages. 

            Owner Mitchell Borden was wholly unconcerned with making more than a very, very modest living from the club. All musicians were allowed in free, and he gave the key to the club to over 100 musicians to practice and rehearse at will.  Many musicians lived at the club in one period or another.

            The subjects featured in this show represent a group of musicians that was prominently featured at Smalls, dedicated to the “Bebop” style of jazz. Each one possessed a unique “voice” of their own within the style originated by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk, and included revered older musicians who were considered legendary “Jazz Underground” figures. 

   Following the family’s creative legacy of his grandfather (a star in the Yiddish theater) and father (a noted watercolorist, listed in Who's Who in America), the artist attended Art School as a child. Throughout his life he has continued artistic pursuit in printmaking, watercolor, and drawing. He studied figurative drawing and painting at the Fashion Institute of Technology, is a member of the American Society of Contemporary Artists, has maintained membership in Artists Equity and is an Associate Member of Audubon Artists. He has received awards from a variety of juried shows. A man of many talents, Roland is a playwright, and professionally practices psychoanalysis in Greenwich Village where a number of my patients are professionally involved in the arts. His family has been in Monterey since 1963.