The Broadways, with Clarence Clemons on saxophone, in a photo included in an exhibit on Asbury Park’s African-American musical legacy.
In conjunction with the Light of Day festival, an exhibit has opened at the Heaven Art Gallery at 721 Cookman Ave. in Asbury Park, celebrating Asbury Park’s African-American musical legacy — particularly the jazz, gospel and R&B that could be heard on the city’s West Side from the 1910s through the 1970s (and that had a big effect on the “Asbury Park Sound” that Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and others developed in the 1970s).
One of the groups in the exhibit is The Broadways, a popular ’60s R&B ensemble that featured Billy Brown, who later became even more famous as a member of Ray, Goodman and Brown. Check out their powerful breakup song, “Going, Going, Gone,” below.
The exhibit includes photographs, records, posters, sheet music and other memorabilia. It will be at the Heaven Art Gallery only through Monday, but will then move to the Pollak Gallery at Monmouth University in West Long Branch.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday from Sept. 2014 to Sept. 2015. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, for almost a year — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. The complete list is here.
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