Big Apple Jazz Tours

A smooth metro/taxi ride through Harlem. Great food and nice music in Creole Restaurant. Nice beers, great music and atmosphere in St. Nick's on Sugar Hill. In the meantime our guide Gordon provided us with lots of background info on the rich jazz history in Harlem. He knows what he's talking about. For us a short, but very relaxed and adventurous way to discover a side of Harlem we otherwise would have never discovered ourselves.

Gordon is a very nice and interesting person. He made us discover clubs off the "famous jazz sites" circuit. All of three were very good - a special mention for the second and the third one, for different reasons. Thanks a lot, Gordon, from Cuba and France.

Great Jazz and lots of fun with the larger group... Would recommend to anyone..... single or group.... A great value......

I've seen a lot of great jazz but never before have I felt like I'm part of its history. On this tour you will be taken to places you would never find under your own steam. Do yourself a favor, book in, and get on the A Train.

We went to 3 diffrent locations. Each of them had a difefrent style of Jazz Music and atmosphere. We enjoyed this evening-thanks again to Gordon and his friendly and positive style, not to forget his detailed information about Harlem, the Jazz Music Scene and the locations. Gordon is an interesting guide we really recommend to join the tour. The tour showed more than Jazz Music but also the modern Harlem.

Even though I was staying in Harlem I probably never would have come across the clubs Gordon introduced our group to. The musicianship at each of the three "juke joints" on the tour that night was outstanding, while the ambiance and the welcome from musicians and servers alike was as warm as you could possibly imagine. The fact that we seemed to be on the same route as musicians moving from place to place to jam is undoubtedly due to Gordon's thorough knowledge of the city's jazz scene. On our walks from club to club we learned things about the neighborhood's jazz history that aren't written down anywhere. It was the best night of my month-long stay in NY. I'm just glad I don't live next door to any of these places because I'd be there every night.

Gordon's reviews speak for themselves. He's everything the other reviewers say - friendly, knowledgeable, passionate about jazz . . but not in an annoying or pretentious way. He is clearly dedicated to making sure his clients have a brilliant time and is full of interesting insights, anecdotes and opinions. What's also great though is that once you're in a club he'll let you have the experience you want; be that sitting at a bar, dancing, mingling, sitting in a corner - it's not like being on some dreadful tour where you are herded around like sheep. Furthermore he's obviously very popular with the locals in Harlem's jazz clubs and wherever we went he was warmly welcomed. We went on a Friday night and stopped at three venues, eating brilliant tasty soul food at the second. We saw a great range of bands and each club was very different. All were fantastic. New York's an expensive city so $99 might seem like a lot of money but I think Gordon's tour is worth every single penny. Highly recommended. You'll never see these places, let alone understand what's going on, without his expert guidance and humorous commentary.

we really enjoyed our tour! Gordon was so nice,so eager to please us! A very professional and highly involved person!!! the clubs and bands were so typical , yet different. The atmosphere in the second and third ones was so original, authentic, so were the artists! an essential tour for those who seek true jazz, not commercial jazz

We, an elderly couple of jazz afinados, truly enjoyed the evening in Harlem with Gordon Polatnik in a small group. We had opted for that version instead of the larger guided jazz tour, because we prefer to be unobtrusive as tourists. The small group was a great advantage because it allowed us to visit small, hidden jazz joints which we would not even have found on our own or not dared to go into, because they seemed almost private. But we listened to some great live music, and the evening went by much too fast. We also appreciated Gordon's very personal and friendly approach to his guests and to the musicians, and the stories he had to tell about jazz history. The evening was very insightful and yet relaxed. One slight criticism: Being in Harlem for the first time and not being able to go back soon, we would have loved to stroll around a bit more and see some more of the historic jazz scenes, which may rather be the topic of the guided Harlem jazz tour. We realize though that perhaps one cannot pack everything into one evening, and we are very thankful to Gordon for his good guidance.

We visited 3 clubs with very high caliber jazz entertainers and different styles. Gordon was an excellent host giving us the musical history of Harlem and each club we visited and made us feel as a part of the scene. He also made sure that our visiting group felt comfortable with each other. Food and refreshments were of high quality as well as the friendliness of the people in the clubs. We had a memorable evening and we won´t hesitate to recommend this tour to others.

Gordon, was not only very knowledgeable about Harlem Jazz history but also very passionate about the subject. This together with that fact that he was extremely easy to get on with made you feel like you were out with a small group of friends rather than on an organized tour. Although we met up at 19:30 we were delayed in heading to Harlem due to waiting for another member of the party to arrive. This time, however, was not wasted and Gordon took us across the road to the Lincoln Jazz Centre to look at a small exhibition, which was a bonus to the tour. The trip to Harlem on the subway was shorter than we expected and Gordon provided some interesting history regarding the 'A' train on route. We were extremely lucky with the weather during our tour and enjoyed walking through the streets of Harlem to the first venue. Gordon imparted lots of information regarding the history of the area on route as well as how he came to first visit there many years ago. The first venue was Londel's which was very friendly and relaxed and the band were excellent. It seemed a great venue for either just a drink or a meal out. We then headed off to the Paris Blues bar, looking at the walk of fame on the way. Again Gordon provided us with plenty of interesting history and information. The atmosphere and the band in the Paris Blues bar was also very good and made even more enjoyable by a couple of local tap dancers who were also there doing their thing. Walking back to the subway, gave us chance to see such landmarks as The Apollo theatre and listen to Gordon tell the history behind it, whilst also giving us a further chance to view some of the local area. If we had to provide one negative about the evening it would be that we would have preferred an additional venue to enable us to see a wider selection of bands, but would we have given up the enjoyable walks through the streets of Harlem, seeing the landmarks, listening to the history and also miss out on the Lincoln Centre visit to achieve this, definitely not

This tour was really amazing ! We were four and our guide, Gordon, a great guy, who knows a lot on Harlem and jazz. It was really interesting and music was great, fantastic, wonderful etc... I'd like to write more to explain better this tour, but my english is too bad... So, Gordon, thank you very much for this unforgettable night ! Julie & Aurélien

This tour has changed the way I look at jazz and what I thought was a dying culture but I'm delighted to know that it still lives in Harlem. Gordon has incredible knowledge of the jazz scene in Harlem and is extremely informative and patient. I look forward to visiting again as I continue to research for the website I'm developing called jazzgroupiez!

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our evening of walking through Harlem with Gordon. He has a very clear love and appreciation of the role the Harlem bars/juke joints played in the history and growth of jazz. He is very knowledgeable about the history of the area and provides lots of context and interesting historical notes. The bars were fun and the music great. An excellent way to spend an evening in NYC!

We had a very entertaining and pleasant Jazz night in Harlem. Gordon our guide was excellent, new what he was talking about, kept the fairly large group of 11 well together and mixed fun with facts and anecdotes. Even the late October snow storm that kept going all night could not stop us to follow Gordon from one Jazz place to the other. The music was good too, quite diverse and we probably would never have found these bars ourselves. For people who enjoy music and want something different, we could well recommend the Harlem Juke Tour.