Jazz Museum to honor Donna's Bar and Grill with 'Brass Band Headquarters'
The Oct. 29 exhibit remembers the Rampart Street club that ran from 1993 to 2010.
NEW ORLEANS: On October 29, the New Orleans Jazz Museum opens “Brass Band Headquarters: Donna's Bar and Grill,” an exhibit paying tribute to the neighborhood bar that presented true New Orleans music and culture for nearly two decades.
Donna's Bar and Grill, at 800 North Rampart Street, operated from 1993 to 2010 and became a microcosm of New Orleans music and culture. It was a gathering place where musicians came to play, collaborate, learn, celebrate, and sometimes simply see what the night might bring.
The exhibit's title is the club's old nickname: "Brass Band Headquarters." Donna's earned it. Night after night, the room on North Rampart presented brass bands alongside traditional jazz branching into modern jazz and bebop, and the newer sounds of brass hop and rap, the full span of the city's music under one roof.
The Sims family understood they were hosting history. Donna Poniatowski Sims and her husband Charlie documented the people and moments that filled the club, preserving a visual record of an important period in New Orleans music. That archive is the backbone of the museum's exhibit.
The club's namesake and owner, Donna Poniatowski Sims, and her husband, Charlie Sims, created a welcoming room for musicians, artists, neighborhood residents, visitors, and music lovers from around the world. They also had the foresight to document the people and moments that filled the club, preserving a remarkable visual record of an important period in New Orleans music.
Donna knew the musicians before she knew the room. She had co-owned Janek's, at 711 Bourbon, from 1976 to 1980, and the relationships she built there followed her to North Rampart when Donna's opened in 1993. The club ran until 2010, seventeen years as a gathering place where musicians came to play, collaborate, learn, and celebrate.
“Donna's was one of those places that could only happen in New Orleans. It was an important part of the story of New Orleans music and the musicians who have carried our traditions around the world,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. “This exhibit gives us a chance to remember Donna and Charlie and the incredible community they built.”
Donna already knew the musicians from her previous club, Janek's at 711 Bourbon, which she co-owned from 1976 to 1980. At Donna's, the room became known for brass bands, traditional jazz branching into modern jazz and bebop, and the newer sounds of brass hop and rap, a full span of the city's music under one roof.
The exhibit draws on the visual record the Sims family preserved. For those who never walked through the door on North Rampart, it is a chance to see what the room held. For those who did, it is a homecoming.
The Jazz Museum sits in the Old U.S. Mint, a fitting home for an exhibit about a room that kept the tradition. For those who never walked through the door on North Rampart, October 29 is a chance to see what the room held. For those who did, it is a homecoming.
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