“Terrible loss,” wrote Carol Byrd, “glad I had the opportunity to experience it. So many amazing musicians played there.”
On KUVO JAZZ’s post, Walter Cerkez shared this memory: “Discovered The Pec on a summer night in 1990 from hearing a saxophone coming down the street. Followed it into The Pec to see Nat Yarborough. One Sunday night I saw the members of Duke Ellington's tribute orchestra come down from Boulder and sit in with the late Billy Tolles. In the early 90's there was a battle of the bands on a Sunday where I saw a lineup featuring talents like Ron Miles, Paul Romaine and Rudy Royston. Talk about some wicked drum solos that afternoon!”
Another commenter, Nancy Maitland Whittemore, said the late great Cubs announcer Harry Caray once bought her a drink at The Pec between games of a doubleheader at Coors Field. “I saw him there a few times over the years,” she wrote.
KUVO General Manager Carlos Lando wrote that one of his cherished memories at The Pec happened in the late 80s when a young rising star named Harry Connick Jr. walked through the doors. “If anyone has a photo from that night, I’d love to see it,” Lando said.
On December 8, the owners of The Pec held a press conference to address the closure and to talk about the history of the club.
El Chapultepec originally opened as a Mexican restaurant and was owned by the Romano family. Jerry Krantz married into the Romano family and transformed The Pec into a jazz club, according to his daughter Anna Diaz, who spoke at the press conference. Krantz owned and operated the club for decades before passing it down to his children.
Diaz says the Krantz family never took ownership of the building, unfortunately.
“We’ve been the breeding ground for young musicians to come and learn how to play,” she said.
Lando also spoke at the press conference. “You could be coming off the streets, you could be a stranger from out of town, you could be in town on a business meeting. You knew that when you saw the cantina sign, that’s where the action was,” he said. “That’s where jazz was. That’s where you were welcome.”
“This is definitely a huge, huge loss, and we’re all feeling it,” Lando added.
Diaz added that she did not want to be too quick to blame the COVID-19 pandemic on The Pec’s closure. “Of course the [pandemic] played a part in it,” she said, visibly emotional, “but there are so many things that led to this choice.”
“The jazz musicians, the blues musicians, they shouldn’t have to time their sets around the baseball innings,” Diaz said, gesturing to Coors Field across the street. “They should be able to play their music and the crowd just be there to enjoy them, and that’s been really difficult to manage, and we’ve been doing it a long time.”
Diaz also mentioned the safety of The Pec’s patrons, saying they don’t want to have to worry about the “tents cities or the drunken mobs that are pouring out onto Market Street at two o’clock.”
“It’s just really taking a toll on us,” Diaz said. “Denver is different than it used to be. And 20th and Market is different than it used to be.”
Diaz also clarified that The Pec is not for sale and that while the family appreciates people online saying they want to “save” the business, the decision to close is final.
“We’re just ready to close that chapter and keep it with us, ultimately,” she said.
Related story:
