
Musical Landmarks of the Jersey Shore
By Donald H. Sanborn III | Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com
The Jersey Shore, which has a genre of rock ’n’ roll named after it, features many landmarks that stand as a testament to its rich musical history. One example is the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, which opened in 1926 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in America. Beside Basie himself, artists who have performed there include Tony Bennett, Art Garfunkel, and Bruce Springsteen.
The Ocean City Music Pier was constructed in 1928, after a fire destroyed a large segment of the boardwalk. Built in the Spanish Revival style, the venue includes a concert hall which, the venue’s website states, is “suitable for a great variety of shows from stand-up comedy to musicals” as well as the Ocean City Pops orchestra.
Residing in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, the Midmer-Losh Pipe Organ is the largest organ in the world. Built in 1929, it boasts 33,112 pipes. After decades of nonuse, the organ was played again during the 2013 Miss America competition.
Listeners who enjoy organ music should also visit the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove. That venue’s organ was installed and dedicated in 1908. It boasts a 5-manual console and over 11,000 pipes; the website for the Garden State Theatre Organ Society describes it as “one of the largest and most famous working pipe organs in the country.” Dr. Gordon Turk, the Auditorium organist and artist in residence, will give a series of concerts starting July 6.
No tour of the Jersey Shore’s musical landmarks would be complete without a visit to Asbury Park. (Springsteen’s debut studio album, released in 1973, is titled Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.) The annual Asbury Park Music Awards (formerly the Golden T-Bird Awards) launched at the T-Bird Café in 1993, and later moved to another venue, the Saint. Recently the ceremony has taken place at multiple larger venues, especially The Stone Pony. more