CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The man responsible for bringing major music talent to Charlotte for 40 years spent the COVID-19 pandemic getting creative after his new jazz club had to temporarily close.
During that time, Larry Farber wrote a book and came up with a plan to make both his new club and book a success.
Farber has worked with all the greats. He has stories about Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett. When his brand new jazz club, which he had just opened in late 2019, temporarily had to close during the pandemic, he wrote "Noted Memories." The book documents his career and all the interesting people he has met along the way.
“I’ve been in the music world since I was 12,” Farber said.
Music is all Larry Farber has ever known. So after four decades of working as a producer and talent manager, he decided to open a jazz club in the heart of uptown called Middle C Jazz.
“We opened November 2019 and we were off to a great start and then February, March... COVID hit our world and we had to shut down March until June," he said.
The future of Middle C Jazz was unsure at best.
“And then even when we opened in June 2020 we were treading water to keep music alive until things got better," Farer said.
Farber used the time away from the club to check something else off his bucket list.
“This little kid from Charlotte got to meet Tony Bennett and Aretha and Dianna Ross," he said. "I was the person who would go to parties and they would ask me to tell the story about when Darius Rucker did this, or when Jackson Browne got Maurice Williams to do this."
The book is now out and the club is now thriving.
“We knew we’d have to tread water through COVID but we gained traction," he said. "People came. We still had a place for musicians to play and now we are on the map with some of the best names in the jazz world."
Some of the proceeds from the book are going to a local nonprofit that helps kids get musical instruments.
Farber said he’s hoping to keep the music going here in Charlotte.
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