Can Eddie’s Attic and a resurrected Churchill Grounds center the Atlanta jazz scene?

This spring, Terreon “Tank” Gully orchestrated a shift in the fabric of Atlanta improvised music. Maybe that’s overstating things, but, from his seat on the drum throne on the Eddie’s Attic stage, he seemed to be making a promise to the jazz lovers and musicians in the crowd: Decatur is about to be the next big thing.

The “Tanktified” night felt like something special — one of those magical shows — from the minute the band, packed with Atlanta jazz luminaries like Mace Hibbard and Melvin Jones, launched into Roy Hargrove’s “Crazy Race.” Soon, guests like saxophonist Kebbi Williams rotated onto the stage, turning the packed venue into something more like a house party celebrating Atlanta improvised music than a formal concert. I left at midnight, passing trumpeters Russell Gunn and Darren English on my way out. (Additional performances from the group are still in the works.) 

I checked back in at Eddie’s in the waning days of an endless summer to see the second set from New Jazz Underground, a New York-based bass-drums-sax trio blending modern music sensibilities with a reverence for storied jazz. For Sebastian Rios, plucking a borrowed bass (he said his instrument “exploded” during the first set), this exploration even extended to the classical canon: He leapt through the entire Prelude to Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in a bit of mid-solo inspiration, springing from sonorous lows to delirious high notes. That night, the trio ran through their debut release, Hoodies, stopping time when saxophonist Abdias Armenteros sang “how do you do” in a bluesy but straightforward voice. In the crowd, Gully, who sat in on two tunes, echoed his words.  

New Jazz sold out both sets, the audience packed in for the late show despite a lengthy delay. It’s that type of creative, multifaceted and accessible evening that embodies the jazz-reaching sprint of Eddie’s jazz bookings.

“Eddie’s is ultimately a singer/songwriter venue. It will always be like that,” Eddie Attic’s Rem Hellmann told me. But he wants to build prestige in jazz circles. He’s actually working closely with Gully to create an atmosphere conducive to improvised music that goes beyond occasional shows and develops into a spot to be, one that’s been sorely missing since the departure of Churchill Grounds a decade ago.

“Once I met Terreon and told him about my vision of having Eddie’s become one of the spots in town for jazz — I don’t think there can ever be too many — his brain started to go crazy from a curation perspective,” Hellmann said. 

And what of Churchill Grounds, once the stated focal point of Atlanta’s spread-out scene? A new spot for Churchill, situated in the soon-to-open Mary Lou Williams Jazz Center, is planned across the street from Eddie’s Attic. Organizers have yet to announce an opening date, but soft-launch concerts by invitation only are happening this weekend and next.  

Atlanta improvised music is, of course, not limited to Decatur. Gully will soon join the incomparable David Sanchez on saxophone and trumpeter Russell Gunn, with Joel Powell on bass and pianist Louis Heriveaux, for a concert celebrating Miles Davis and John Coltrane. The pop-up event, put on by Tim Willard’s The Prez, happens September 18 at Elise. In the past, The Prez has hosted concerts around town featuring the Robert Boone, Jr. Quartet, the Justin Chesarek Trio and the Trent Patten Quartet paired with multicourse dinners. 

But for a scene adrift way before Churchill Grounds shuttered its midtown location, could Decatur prove to be Atlanta jazz’s new uniting force?

The next scheduled jazz night at Eddie’s features saxophonist Ryan Devlin on October 22. The new Churchill Grounds should be open soon after, offering musicians a venue tailored to jazz. (Last week, organist David Ellington oversaw the installation of his 1963 Hammond A100 at Churchill.)  

Will those two venues center Atlanta’s jazz focus, moving from the disparate array of restaurants, weekly jam sessions and alternative-venue bookings to a true lodestar under which a scene can flourish? Keep listening.

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Jon Ross writes about music and culture. His work appears in Atlanta, The Bitter Southerner, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and Downbeat, among other publications.