When you step through the doors of Hell’s Kitchen jazz club Swing 46, you’ll travel back in time—specifically, to a time when Midtown was the beating heart of the city’s jazz scene.
While few clubs on the West Side have remained open, a new short documentary has been released, Swing 46: The last swinging Supperclub is a fitting tribute to the loyal Restaurant Row artist who has carved out a place in the hearts and dance cards of New Yorkers for nearly three decades.
Filmmaker Jay Kolucki has made a documentary about Swing 46 on Restaurant Row. Photo: Phil O’Brien
The documentary — made by independent filmmaker Jay Kolucki as part of his studies in Montclair State University’s Filmmaking Program — explores the club’s rise during the swing revival of the ‘90s and its survival amid a challenging financial climate through vivid, engaging anecdotes from owner John Akhtar, longtime bandleaders, managers and artists, and historians. The documentary premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival and will screen later this summer at the Long Island International Film Expo, the Arts Alive Film Festival and at Swing 46 itself.
Jay has long been a fan of the retro swing movement and Swing 46, but his first chance to go behind the scenes of the club came during one of the darkest moments in the club’s history: its closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At the time, Swing 46 — like so many businesses — was struggling with the pandemic,” Jay said. John, as well as managers (and Swing 46 artists) Michelle Collier and Sarah Hayes “opened the doors for me,” he added, as they put together a retrospective short film in hopes of raising money for the club.
The wealth of images, stories and legends of Swing 46 caused the project to grow rapidly. “It went from a five-minute film to an eight-minute film to now, a 17-minute film. It grew from Swing 46 to a larger landscape — what I like to call a ‘sandwich documentary,’” Jay said. “It’s about Swing 46, but in the middle (there’s) a quick snapshot of what the retro swing renaissance was worldwide.”
The documentary Swing 46 also pays tribute to the history of music and its dances. Photo: Swing 46: The last swinging Supperclub
Swing 46 was a beacon of the 1990s swing revival movement, which saw groups like Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, The Atomic Fireballs and Squirrel Nut Zippers combine classic swing with the sounds of ska, punk and rockabilly to recreate the exuberant postwar musical landscape of the late 1940s. It quickly became a home base for musicians, dancers and swing-minded New Yorkers.
“In 2001, my friend Ray Gelato was playing there, and I went to see him,” Sarah said. “I just walked in and thought, ‘Oh my God, if I could ever work in this club — that would be my dream come true.’ A few years later, I moved to New York to do Broadway, act, sing, whatever. But I ended up going to Swing 46 and I ended up working there,” she laughed. “I started a band in New York, and I’ve been there on and off for about 21 years now.”
Michelle was a Hell’s Kitchen local who had lived in the neighborhood for years before discovering Swing 46. “I’d walk past it every night with my friends and there was this really friendly guy in a retro suit and suspenders who would invite us in and dance – and we’d always say ‘no, no, no!’ But eventually I met Sarah, who told me ‘I work at Swing 46,’ and I said ‘it always looks fun but I’ve never been there!’ So I came in and I think I started working behind the coat check straight away!” she said.
What Michelle and Sarah discovered was a passionate, tight-knit group of New Yorkers from all neighborhoods and walks of life — all of whom came to Swing 46 for its unique sense of community and camaraderie. “It’s the jazz version of cheers” Sarah said, referring to the many examples of marriages and lifelong friendships forged on the dance floor of the club featured in the documentary.
“Once you’re on Swing 46, you become part of the family,” she added. “I really wish this (the documentary) could be a reality show, because of the colorful characters we meet — I’ve been on stage in my evening gown and chased people down trying to walk out on their bill!” she said. “It’s a great, colorful slice of New York life, and you’d be hard-pressed to find that.”
John Akhter and Sarah Hayes raise a glass to Swing 46. Photo: Phil O’Brien
One member of the Swing 46 community was Dawn Hampton, a well-known cabaret artist from the 1930s and a regular at Swing 46 until her death. “John Akhter was so generous — every time Dawn came in, which was four nights a week, it was dinner on the house. He arranged it because he knew,” Sarah said. “She held court and people would come by and get her autograph or talk to her. She loved to dance and talk to people and tell jokes, and she always wrote poetry — every New Year’s she would give us a poem for the club and she would sign it. The last one said, ‘The light’s on.’ That was her expression, ‘The light’s on.’”
When she died, people asked about her, Michelle said, and the team decided to create a tribute. “If you go to the club, you’ll see a poster that says, ‘Dawn Hampton, the light is on,’” Sarah added. “People like her are the fabric that makes up the whole community.”
The unusually powerful alchemy of Swing 46 is one that Jay hopes to explore further in a feature-length documentary. “Swing 46 has 30 years of this amazing story — to condense it down to about 17 minutes, that was a real challenge,” he said. “But it seems like people are enjoying it, and it opens the door for a bigger story down the road … hopefully it’s a building block for Michelle, for Sarah, for John, for the team to market (Swing 46) as a place you have to come back to — not just to visit initially, but to come back and be a part of.”
“I think Jay’s documentary is going to make people so aware that we’re here,” added Sarah, who hopes the publicity will raise the club’s profile as it navigates the rough seas of a post-pandemic reopening. “It’s been held together by a lot of Gorilla Tape,” she said, but “if it wasn’t for Swing 46, I wouldn’t be in New York anymore. If you want to find me, that’s where I’m going to be.”
The documentary celebrates the history of Swing 46 on Restaurant Row. Photos: Swing 46: The last swinging Supperclub
“People from all over the world seek out Swing 46,” Michelle added, noting that patrons from the British and Japanese swing communities to curious NYU students have found their way to the dance floor. As John puts it at the end of the film, “we keep it going.”
Swing 46 is located at 349 W46th Street (bw 8/9th Ave) and will Swing 46: The last swinging Supperclub later this year.
