Since 1997, Ona’s Music Room has been one of the city’s classiest venues for listening to live music. In recent months, Ona Watson moved his club from its longtime 20th Street locale to the Pepper Place entertainment complex. The new location, like its predecessor, reflects the tradition of stylish lounges where live music is the main attraction—an approach that locally dates back to the 1970s when Bob Cain and his Canebreakers held court at the Cane Break Supper Club in downtown Birmingham on weekends.

“I kind of put a spin on what I saw Bob Cain do, because as a kid I used to work at a place down the street from the Cane Break called Bohemian Bakery,” Watson says on a recent afternoon inside his new club. “Each day I would leave school and go and bus dishes and pass by the Cane Break. One day Bob was rehearsing his band, and I went in and Bob asked me what I did and I told him I was a singer. So I sang with them that afternoon and it became a habit that I’d stop there while I was waiting on my bus when I got off work and I’d go sing with them. I kind of watched what he was doing; the way he had it set up, he had a ma”tre d’. Everything was very well rehearsed, it was a good atmosphere, no drama, just good fun. People used to dress up to come in there.”

	Ona Watson’s fondness for illuminating his club’s interior with red lighting was inspired by Amsterdam’s red-light district, which Watson saw firsthand while touring Europe with jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. (Photographs by Owen Stayner.) (click for larger version)

Whether with his band Champagne or sitting in with other acts, Watson can be heard singing in his own club from time to time. But he’ll never forget some advice Bob Cain passed along years ago. “One thing I learned from Bob is not to play too often at the same place. Mr. Cain told me, ‘People love you but people love to get tired of you, too.’”

Though the club favors mostly jazz and rhythm ‘n’ blues, Watson has no prejudices toward a particular style of music. “You might come in here one night and I might have a country and western band playing,” he says. “The next night I might have a jazz band playing. I hate that they typecast music because a B flat is a B flat. If it’s good, it’s good; if it’s bad, it’s bad, whether it’s country, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz.”

Ona’s Music Room has been open at the Pepper Place location since this past New Year’s Eve. “It was just time for it, I’d been at the old place for 15 years,” Ona explains. “Over here the parking should be better. We’re still doing a good late-night crowd but I’m hoping that we can get an earlier crowd, especially with the farmers market here in the springtime.”

 

Ona’s Music Room reflects the Pepper Place’s modern-industrial decor. (click for larger version)

 

 

 

Watson grew up singing in the choir at Groveland Baptist Church, where his father was the pastor. “My dad was a minister and bootlegger,” he says, laughing. “I also was a tap dancer. I hated when we had company because every time somebody came to our house my dad would always make me dance in front of them. So I always knew I was going to have to do a show when we had company.”

The youngest person to be inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, Watson played in the concert band at Parker High School under Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame founder Dr. Frank Adams. “If Dr. Adams were teaching today, he’d be doing 10 to 20 [years] for child abuse, because he used to whip my ass,” Watson says, laughing. “It was tough love but good love. I wanted to play saxophone (in high school) because all the girls like saxophone. But Dr. Adams told me I was going to play trombone because that’s what the band needed.”

 

The club’s “wall of fame” features famous entertainers who have dropped in, including B.B. King and Queen Latifah. (click for larger version)

 

 

 

Brian Less, Taylor Hicks’ music director, keyboardist, and tour manager, has played Ona’s Music Room with Hicks since 2003. The band sometimes uses Ona’s space to rehearse. “The cool thing about Ona is that when we were a nobody band, he would always let us play there and he would pay us full even if we had an empty house,” Less says. “So, in turn, after the ‘American Idol’ thing hit, we returned the favor. We’re not going to charge him what we charge everybody else.”

Trumpet player and singer Robert Moore, who currently lives in Oregon, has logged many a night onstage at Ona’s. “I always respected the way that he works a room,” says Moore. “I said to somebody years ago that Ona could walk into a Baptist missionary women’s association—old blue hairs—and have them swaying from side to side and clapping on two and four within about three or four minutes. The guy knows how to charm an audience. I’ve always respected that. He’s a showman; he’s not just a musician.”

“Me and Ona go back to the ’70s, I remember Ona playing at the Polaris Lounge, which used to be at the top of the Hyatt House, which is now the Sheraton downtown,” recalls Bruce Ayers, longtime owner of the Comedy Club. “It was the nicest restaurant in town and had this really fancy, classy bar and the entertainment was Ona.” Referring to Watson as “old school,” Ayers laughs as he remembers Ona’s fondness for dressing sharply. “Ona is a clothes hound, big time. We used to buy our shoes at Gus Mayer, and we wear the same size. So I’d go in there and he would buy all the cool shoes before I could get there. I’d go in there to buy a pair of shoes and the salesman would go, ‘Ona’s already got ‘em.’ And I’d say, ‘That son of a bitch!’ He means a lot to me. Ona is what entertainment in Birmingham is all about.” &

 

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Ona’s Music Room, 2801 Second Avenue South. Details: 320-7006, www.onasmusicroom.com.