Sunset Lounge Highlighted at Culture & Cocktails

By GERRY BARKER
North Palm Beach Life
Photos by Gerry Barker

The 19th season of Culture and Cocktails concluded with a bang Monday evening at The Ben in downtown West Palm Beach.  The program was "Stages: A Conversation with Music on the Jazzy Past & Future of the Legendary Sunset Lounge," featuring celebrated performers Avery Sommers and Copeland Davis, who were later joined by talented, 16-year-old trumpet player  Matthew Harper.

Moderating the program was Barbara Cheives,  President and CEO of Converge & Associates Consulting,
who was joined on stage by Alisha Winn, an applied cultural anthropologist and historian, and a consultant on the rebirth of the historic Sunset Lounge, located in the Black Northwest Historic District in West Palm Beach.

With roots that trace back to the 1920s, the Sunset Lounge hosted some of the greatest names in jazz over the decades since, including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong, as well as legends like James Brown and Sam Cooke.  Winn spoke about the redevelopment effort, which includes the nearby Heart & Soul Park, with the reopening of the classic venue on what was called the Chitlin' Circuit planned in the near future.

At the conclusion of the event, co-founder Gary Schweikhart announced the upcoming 20th season of Culture & Cocktails would be the last one. No doubt fans of the popular series can expect it to be one to remember.