Assistant professor of jazz piano Toby Koenigsberg was supposed to play a gig at Jo Federigo’s a year ago, but he got a call that morning that the Eugene jazz club had closed. He said he was shocked and never expected the club to close.
Koenigsberg may get to re-schedule his act when Jo Federigo’s Restaurant and Jazz Club, located at 259 E. Fifth Ave., re-opens in March under new ownership. The club closed last year when the previous owners defaulted on a loan.
Eugene businessman Joshua Keim bought the club last August and has since been remodeling. He said he hopes to keep the spirit of local jazz alive at the club, but he’s making a few changes.
“The idea is to bring back jazz and music back into the space,” Keim said, adding the club will also feature other genres such as reggae. “We’re going to try and make it a mini-entertainment venue.”
Keim said he hopes to revamp the club’s restaurant.
“The restaurant itself will be top quality and feature international cuisine,” Keim said, adding there will be a wine bar upstairs.
Keim, who also owns Lucky Noodle on Fifth Avenue, Ring of Fire Restaurant on West 11th Avenue and the SNAFU nightclub on West Broadway, bought Jo Federigo’s because he said he loves the location.
The club is housed in a former granary building built in the 1920s; grain silos greet visitors downstairs.
Former longtime owner Jerome Seljan sold it in January 2006, but the new owners defaulted on a loan, and the club suddenly closed.
Seljan bought Jo Fed’s in 1983 and owned it for 24 years, and he changed it from a general music venue into a club focused on jazz.
“I felt like jazz was compatible with a fine dining establishment, as opposed to rock ‘n’ roll,” Seljan said.
The former owner said he connected with local jazz musicians and featured acts from the University music community.
“When I ran it for many years, we were the only jazz club in town,” Seljan said. “Since then, we’ve had some imitators. I think it’s really missed right now. Jazz musicians are telling me that there isn’t a place now that features jazz.”
Since the closing, musicians say other venues failed to replace Jo Federigo’s.
“There are other places, but I wouldn’t say that anywhere else has completely filled the void,” Koenigsberg said. “It was the only jazz club that had been around for a long period of time in Eugene that consistently had real jazz and not cocktail music.”
University graduate and musician Ben Darwish, who now lives in Portland, said he was happy to hear about the scheduled re-opening because Jo Federigo’s was his favorite venue in Eugene.
“I could actually bring in a lot of people there,” Darwish said. “It would be a much more successful night there than if I played somewhere else.”
Darwish said he’d like to schedule a gig there as soon as possible.
“I’m going to be playing there as soon as I can get in touch,” Darwish said.
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