Ashford & Simpson's Sugar Bar no longer so secret

Courtesy of Ashford & Simpson

The Sugar Bar has been a destination spot for in-the-know New York tourists and discerning locals since famed husband-and-wife singer-songwriters Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson opened it back in 1996. But it has managed to stay relatively under-the-radar, even though it’s Thursday Night Open Mic events consistently draw the likes of Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle, Michael McDonald, Freddie Jackson and Queen Latifah.

Indeed, legendary producer Quincy Jones, for whom Ashford & Simpson co-wrote and performed on his hit “Stuff Like That,” stayed the whole night there a few Thursdays ago—“the whole night” being from 9:30 p.m., when the music starts, until 1:30 a.m. or thereabouts, when it usually ends. Except that last Thursday night the music went on until 2—thanks to a packed party crowd that was bigger than normal, who wanted to keep the party going longer than normal.

The secret, it seems, is out.

The reason might be a pair of recent high profile press notices. David Friend’s June 12 Vanity Fair feature entitled “Sugar Bar, The Secret Shangri-La Of R&B,” called the dinner/showcase club “one of the last great escapes of Manhattan’s Upper West Side,” and imaginatively—and quite accurately--described the West 72nd Street & West End location as a magical place “where angels sing and devils scamper, where patrons float above their seats, and dreams materialize, like precious fireflies, before your ears and eyes.”

Then on June 29, Vogue columnist André Leon Talley showed his good sense in going to the Sugar Bar the night of Michael Jackson’s death—and reporting on it: “What was supposed to be a typical Open Mic Night became a worship and communion service, with artists and the house band performing nothing but Michael Jackson music,” he wrote, then quoted Simpson’s uplifting comments from the stage before the music started. “I am thinking about his mother,” she said. “No mother loves seeing a child leave. And let’s send our thoughts and prayers out to all those sisters and brothers tonight.”

No it wasn’t a typical Open Mic Night. Then again, it was.

For Simpson does in fact say something memorable every time she opens her mouth—to speak, that is, as she’s stationed at a table across from the bandstand at the end of the dining room, where she leads a group of backup singers. But now and then she’ll take over on piano, or just take the microphone from Open Mic host Andre Smith (also a backup singer for Roberta Flack) to introduce a special guest, or as she did last Thursday, celebrate the birthday of a prominent Sugar Bar Open Mic regular.

“You know, we have two families,” she said in her birthday remarks, “the one we’re born into, and the one that we make for ourselves afterwards.” It’s a good bet that most of the people at the Sugar Bar that night—and every Thursday night—have likewise adopted themselves into the Sugar Bar Family.

The homey African art décor, of course, is part of the family vibe. The pieces come from Ashford’s collection and give the space an old country village feel.

“It’s all by what you connect with—just like music,” Ashford said from his center table in the Cat Lounge upstairs. He was explaining his criteria for collecting, while at the same time watching the downstairs performances on a big TV wall monitor.

The Cat Lounge, as usual, was even more packed—and boisterous--than the dining room.

Boisterous, because the music downstairs was so hot. Vanity Fair properly credited a number of stellar weekly Sugar Bar standard bearers, including Wallace Gary, Damara Lynn Greene and Clayton Bryant (all are members of Simpson’s backup vocal team), and the incomparable Ron Grant, who hosts his own Ron Grant & Friends Open Mic Showcase Sunday nights at the Village Underground.

The music is generally classic and contemporary r&b with a prominent Motown influence, being that the owners first came to fame as songwriters of such monster Motown hits as “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and “You’re All I Need To Get By.” Now and then there's a clunker, but most Open Mic participants are professional singers or extremely good amateurs, and the versatile house band is as good as it gets.

But the real draw, obviously, is Ashford & Simpson, and the venerable couple is suddenly more visible than ever: Their 1982 pop hit “Solid” gained new life during last year’s presidential campaign when an A&S concert-goer changed the “solid as a rock” chorus to “solid as Barack.” The modification caught on such that Saturday Night Live did a skit with it, and heavy press exposure followed.

Then in January came the simultaneous CD and DVD release of The Real Thing--a live Ashford & Simpson performance filmed at premiere New York nightclub Feinstein’s, which was picked up nationally as a PBS pledge drive premium. Their concert tour schedule is busier now than ever, but if they’re at home in New York on a Thursday night, they can always be found holding court at Open Mic Night.

For as much as they love to entertain, Ashford & Simpson also love to be entertained. No one has more fun at the Sugar Bar, and no one is more supportive of other artists, both established and up-and-coming, than the venue's proprietors.

And in keeping with the positive, spiritually uplifting message of their music and the entire nature of the Sugar Bar, Thursday Night Open Mic always ends on the highest possible note: Simpson leading her backup vocal crew on stage with a joyous version of the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out." Ain't no mountain high enough that can't be climbed, just like ain't no problem that can't be solved when people of good will set aside their differences and work together for the good of all.

Courtesy of Sugar Bar