Venue: Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts
Town: Pennsylvania, US

The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts (PCC) is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational and cultural organization. The Clef Club offers jazz and musical performances, musical education, and outreach programs to the city of Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts was founded in 1966 by members of the Musicians' Protective Union Local 274, American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Local 274 was chartered in 1935 as a separate black local, due to black musicians being denied membership from the racially segregated Local 77. Local 274 enjoyed its autonomy for more than 36 years. It was the longest surviving independent Black Musicians' Union in the United States, of the more than fifty chartered in major cities. After the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the NAACP and AFM started to pressure locals to de-segregate. Witnessing the merger of Chicago's predominantly-black Local 208 into Local 10 and the loss of its assets, Local 274 President Jimmy Adams established the Philadelphia Clef Club in 1966 as the social wing of Local 247. The social wing was created to preserve community. Adams transferred all of Local 274's assets to the Clef Club for $1, and in 1971 the AFM voided Local 274's charter because of its unwillingness to integrate back into Local 77. Local 274 had refused to become what was described as “submerged”. Local 274 and the Philadelphia Clef Club's social unit are integral parts of the history of jazz in Philadelphia. They evolved out of black musicians' fight for political, economic, and cultural recognition during a long period of segregation and discrimination. Local 274's membership rolls included jazz greats, such as John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Shirley Scott, Lee Morgan, "Philly" Joe Jones, Grover Washington Jr., the Heath Brothers, and Nina Simone. The word "Jazz" was added to the name of the Philadelphia Clef Club in 1994. The Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz & Performing Arts, Inc. opened its new fa