Molly Flannery: A Local Staple at the Café

It takes a village to raise a music club in the suburbs.

Sitting at my desk in the back office on this quiet Monday night, I think of all the people who have poured their hearts, time and perspective into this now 14 year long project. I’d like to invite you, one by one, into my café family.

Molly Flannery is my not-so-silent and charmingly outgoing partner in music and strategy at The Acton Jazz Café.

Originally from Libertyville, Illinois, Molly received her formal musical education at Yale, lived for periods of time in Africa and in Japan, and then settled in the Boston area.

Now a longtime resident of Littleton, Molly originally moved out here with her husband and son in part because she had fallen in love with the café, as a frequently performing pianist, a bandleader, and a friend. After several years, Molly now books the jazz talent for our Friday evening jazz dinner shows, runs our Sunday Sunset Jazz Jam every second Sunday, and joins me every Thursday at dinner as the pianist in our own band, Starchild.

Outside of our walls, Molly teaches piano and music-making to a private roster of students and small ensembles. Her specialty of the decades is Brazilian jazz, with its especially grooving samba and bossa nova feels. She currently performs with The Fernando Holz Band, with vocalists Evelyn Rosenthal and Linda Roberts in The Sergio Mendes Project, and in other solo and small group performances in other Boston-area music rooms.

Molly has recorded two original CD’s: “Dancing At The Asylum”(1999) and “Riding The Bull”(2004). Both have been enthusiastically received!

She lights up a room. Arriving to set up for a show or a jam, Molly will quickly greet familiars with a warm hug and a melodic “Hi, Darling, it’s been too long!” and then she’s down to business: setting up mic stands, running wires, copying lead sheets, running back and forth to the sound board to set perfect levels in the monitors and main speakers, and greeting newly arriving musicians and guests.

An anecdotal story with a joyful ending: in January of 2008, the café ran into some serious tax arrears, and we had to close our doors. For me, it was a moment of truth. I had proven to myself (and others) that I couldn’t maintain this complicated business on my own. The corners that I’d cut over the years had caught up with me.

Molly Flannery got right on the phone. With the help of pianist Phill Argyris, she formed a core team of supporters, and organized an emergency week-long fundraiser that involved scores of area musicians performing to keep the dream alive. We were able to raise more than $30,000 in a single week, resolve or refinance our immediate debts, and reopen with the strength of hundreds of committed supporters, music-lovers all.