Photo courtesy of Moore’s Lounge on Facebook.
On 189 Monticello Avenue in Jersey City, history can still be heard.
On specific nights, the sanguine melodies of beautiful jazz performed from the legendary establishment known as Moore’s Place, originally known as Bill and Ruth’s and also known as Moore’s Lounge, still hum throughout the city for those willing to hear it.
The Black-owned neighborhood fixture has been in business since 1968. It is considered by many to be the origins of Hudson County as the capital of jazz; a place where the timeless art form can be expressed, passed down and enjoyed. Its importance to the health of the local jazz community cannot be understated.
Although the club faces challenges in 2026, those affiliated with the lounge are dedicated to its future and continued prosperity.
Moore’s Jazz Club has been a social staple in Jersey City for over 50 years and that is thanks to one of the original owners, the late Ruth Moore, who passed in August of 2025. Mrs. Moore, or also known as Ms. Ruth, was a beloved activist and community organizer.
“She was great, man, tough as nails and beautiful,” Bryan Beninghove told Slice of Culture. He’s the founder and director of Riverview Jazz, which is the Jersey City Jazz Festival.
He credits Moore’s Lounge for being a safe haven for jazz music, which has allowed the festival to take off and become popular.
Local singer and friend Mary Aiken described her as “a staple in this community for a long time.”
Ms. Ruth wanted to make space that was more than a bar, but a space for her community. Bill and Ruth was one of a dozen or so taverns in the neighborhood. Now it is the last one standing.
It originally was not a jazz bar. Aiken recounts the metamorphosis of the club over time.
“In 1977, it was a totally different kind of club. They didn’t have jazz here. But when they started with the jazz I started coming all the time.”
Ms. Ruth came to fall in love with the art form in the 1980s due to its calm and relaxing nature. She started having jazz played every first Sunday of the month. It would attract not just fans like Aiken but young musicians, ones such as Winard Harper.
Harper, an award-winning jazz drummer from Baltimore, recounts his initiation into Moore’s Jazz Club and the apprehension people had around trying to raise its jazz profile.
“I sat around and I was looking around. You know what this has possibilities… Maybe I can help them develop…. We knew we would have to build and grow… A Jersey singer and painter used to tell me, ‘Man you trying to do jazz in Jersey City? You’re trying to raise the dead.’”
Harper would take on the challenge along with Ms. Ruth, but there would be some bumps in the road.
Despite best efforts by both of them, Ms. Ruth was getting older and running a club at this stage in her life became difficult.
“Her family wanted her to give it up and I understand where they were coming from, because it’s not really safe for an older person to run a business by themselves.”
James Pansulla, assistant manager at the lounge, talked to Slice of Culture about Ms.Ruth’s persistence and dedication.
“She wouldn’t move to the senior citizen home, she wouldn’t retire, She wouldn’t move with her family, she wouldn’t go on vacation she knew that even with gentrification, this was good for the neighborhood, and so she kept it going long after she was physically able to do all that stuff.”
The business struggled to stay afloat then the pandemic occurred in 2020. The lockdown period hurt the business even more.
Ms. Ruth struggled to pay the property taxes and had a hard time getting a loan from the local banks. With the threat of foreclosure, assistant manager Christopher Perez and lead bartender Stephanie Jeter started a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $16,000 to keep Moore’s afloat for the time being.
The current reprieve has allowed Harper and many others connected to Moore’s to continue her legacy, pass it down and expand jazz music in the area.
“It was difficult, but we stayed at it and we kept doing it. And it started to grow and now we are getting all of these young musicians who want to come through and play”
Harper, who has now been at Moore’s for 15 years, realizes the importance of not only continuing Ms. Ruth legacy and work, but also continuing the future of jazz.
“It’s not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a culture. It’s the bloodline of our culture, it’s our ancestral legacy. So it’s important to be able to pass it on.”
– Winard Harper
Thanks to volunteers and stewards like Winard Harper, Mary Aiken, James Pansulla, Bryan Beninghove and many more, Moore’s Jazz continues to be an important contributor to the ethereal genre of jazz.
Moore’s Place is located at 189 Monticello Avenue in Jersey City. Performances are at 8 p.m. on Sundays. Their instagram is mooresplacejc.
