L.A.'s Crenshaw District R&B Venues of the ’50s and ’60s

One of the historic centres of black music on the West Coast was centred around Crenshaw Avenue in LA. There is a terrific article on Crenshaw Avenue featured on Dumb Angel blog.

The above photo is featured on the blog. The photo features the "In crowd ’63 at the Californian club included Bob Relf of Bob & Earl (“Harlem Shuffle,” second left), Sam Cooke (“You Send Me,” “A Change is Gonna Come,” fourth left), Bobby Day (“Rockin’ Robin,” fifth left) and Johnny Taylor ("Somewhere To Lay My Head," "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day," far right). All artists had been based in Los Angeles since the 1950s. Courtesy of Tom Reed."

I was fascinated by the above photograph because it brought to life the conversations I had with Jimmy Robins aka Bobby Day aka Rockin Robin who told me about the time he spent hanging out with Sam Cooke and others in LA.

Thanks to Mike over on Soul Source for putting me onto the Crenshaw Avenue post.