buffet flat

[George Thompson]

A few nights ago I was listening to a CD of Bessie Smith's recordings when I noticed a line in "Soft Pedal Blues" referring to a "buffet flat".  This word is not in HDAS, OED or Dictionary of Americanisms.  Last night I was looking over "Jazz Reviewed", a compilation made with incredible diligence by Franz Hoffmann of references to jazz and black vaudeville from the "Negropress of New England, 1910-1949" -- the passages are copied from the NY Age, NY Amsterdam News, Baltimore Afro-American & Pittsburgh Courier.  (It has not escaped my notice that none of these are published in New England, but I was raised in Connecticut and Herr Hoffmann wasn't.)   In any event, I found the following passage:

This number [of 500 "colored cabarets"] is topped by statistics on the apartment speakeasies.  Called "buffet flats," there is an average of two such joints for every apartment building.

Hoffmann copied this from the Pittsburgh Courier of "3.8.29", or in American style, August 3, 1929.  From Jazz Reviewed: Working Book to Jazz Advertised in the Negropress of New England, 1910-1949, researched and compiled by Franz Hoffmann.  Volume 1, p. 155.  Berlin: F. Hoffmann, 1995.
The Bessie Smith song was recorded on May 14, 1925.  I heard it on Complete Recordings, Frog label, vol. 4.  I will copy the line upon request.

A companion to this book is  Jazz Advertised, 1910-1967: A Documentation, by Franz Hoffmann.  Berlin: F. Hoffmann, 1980-1989, in 7 volumes and an index volume, covering the same New England Negro press and the Chicago Defender.  Gerry Cohen mentioned Hoffmann's books in a message this past January.  They are very interesting and not widely available in the U. S. -- though at better libraries, for instance, Bobst at NYU.  They are available from Norbert Ruecker; each volume is 37 Euros, except one which is 42 Euros. http://www.jazzrecords.com/jazzbooks/history3.htm  Some of you ought to encourage your library to buy a set.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.