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 Michelle McKinnon is an ex-model from Canada who, along with her partner Cesare
Mazzoli, created South Beach's venerable and beloved live music venue, Jazid,
which recently celebrated its sixth anniversary, earning its stripes as the longest-running club on
the Beach.
The tiny lounge-bar, revered for its intimacy and cheap drinks, is also the antithesis of the big South Beach dance clubs and has survived more "hot trends" than McKinnon can recall.
Born in Toronto,
Michelle started modeling at 14 (she was already 5'10") and moved to Europe after she graduated from high school. Settling in Spain and traveling the world, she did TV commercials and print campaigns for major clients including Budweiser and Diesel. "I was the Bud Light girl before Pamela Anderson," she
says with a smirk.
While in New York for a photo shoot more than a decade ago, she got a fateful assignment in South Beach. "I came here to work and never left," she says. "I didn't want to be in a big city anymore."
After making a career transition from model to fashion stylist, using her unique collection of vintage clothing as a calling card, McKinnon, who is as smart and tough as she is beautiful, opened a styling company. Then, in 1996, she debuted Jazid.
 You just celebrated your sixth anniversary and Jazid is now the longest-running club on South Beach? What is Jazid and why has it been successful?
I think that we're different, and we're small and intimate. We're definitely, definitely not like the big clubs. I think people come for the fact that we're different.
What was your concept for the place?
I decided to do one thing and one thing well, and that was music. It wasn't about doing what everybody else was doing on Miami Beach. It wasn't about the trends at the time, like gay night or theme parties. And everything kept changing. I didn't want to do that.
I knew that if I did one thing well, and kept it simple, that I could find a place in the market that would last.
Where did the name Jazid come from?
It's from an old jazz record label. But we didn't take it from them. We derived it from what they had.
And your market niche or model is the traditional funky, neighborhood bar that you can go to any city in the world and find?
Yes. Our slogan is 'every damn night.' We have live music seven nights a week. People from all over the world come here and feel at home, because that's exactly what we are. People also say we're very 'New York.' Even people from Miami say that.
You're planning to open a Jazid in New York, so that should bode well for you, right?
Yes, absolutely. We're talking to people in New York and looking at locations. It will be a small place, like Jazid in Miami. The idea is now that we've made it in Miami Beach, where nobody lasts very long and even Michael Caine couldn't even make it with a restaurant, we feel we have a good product that we can take elsewhere and be successful, too. We are also looking at Chicago. I also went up to Palm Beach to check it out. But New York will happen for sure.
What do you think has been the secret of your success?
We're here and we're consistent. And I think we've been around long enough to have a really good reputation.
Do you think the live music is the big draw?
No, I think it's our smallness. And we have two floors. But it's intimate and comfortable.
We have these great old vintage couches that we just keep re-upholstering, so Jazid is very loungy. Now, everybody is doing lounges. I think we were the first one here.
But as far as the music is concerned, you decided to focus on jazz and R&B?
No, that just happened.
When you opened in 1996, there was still live music on the beach, at places like Rose's Tattoo Lounge, Stella Blue and others, but you're the only survivor. How do you explain that?
I think we were consistent. I think that if you give somebody something that they like, they're going to come back for that. And if you change it all the time, you're going to lose your following that came in and liked what they saw - before you changed it. The clubs here change all the time, but they really do it to try to be like everybody else. We didn't do that.
When you say you were consistent, what exactly were you consistent at doing?
Just the fact that we had live music, seven nights a week. She smiles. Every damn night.
Was there anything else that made Jazid unique on the beach at that time?
We didn't have a cover. For a long time, we didn't. We only charge a cover now on the weekends.
So your innovation at the time, so to speak, was live music and no cover?
That was part of it, but I really think it is the people we have had working for us. I mean, I have a bartender who has been with me from the beginning. And she knows her customers - she knows their names, what they drink, what they do. We have people that come in from Chicago or wherever once a year, and the people here still remember the name. So, I think that's really it, the friendliness of the place. It's like being at someone's house. So for us, it wasn't just the live music that made us successful. It was being in a comfortable environment with nice people.
How would you characterize the crowd that comes into the club?
Well now, that's the other thing about the club scene here. You have gay night, models night, whatever - so you never really find a broad audience. Jazid does one thing that a broad audience likes, so we get gay, straight, black, white, young old, Anglo, Hispanic.
You can literally be sitting at a table with someone who's older - a lot older - or you can be sitting with someone who just turned 21, at the same table. And everybody is comfortable with everybody else. There are all these different kinds of people, but there's nobody who feels like they don't belong.
Do you attract more locals or tourists?
Both. But we definitely have our local following. Some people come every night. Some come once a week. Overall, I'd say sixty-five per cent of our business is local. And we get a lot of people from as far away as Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.
How do tourists or visitors find out about Jazid?
We get a lot of tourists from the hotels, which have really been wonderful to us.
What is the current musical lineup?
On Monday nights, Felix Pastorius, the son of the late jazz legend Jaco Pastorius, plays here. He's been doing it off and on since he was like sixteen or seventeen. Now he has a band and they play jazz fusion. He's amazing. The kid is a monster. He's as good as his dad. He's just phenomenal. So people are coming in for him. On Tuesday nights we do jazz, with a woman named Charmaine Ford. She left and went to Atlanta for a year, then she came back. People love her. She has her own local following, too.
On Wednesday nights, we have another great and very popular local act, DJ Le Spam and the Spam All-Stars. You can't even describe what they do because they're so unique. It's a DJ that plays with five musicians and they play their own music. They're going to become huge one day. We're really lucky, because they don't play that many places, but they've made Jazid their home on Wednesdays. Other than the last Wednesday of each month, when we do a big Brazilian night.
On Thursday nights, we have a rotation of either Bobby Stringer, who does a Motown night, or the band from K.C. and the Sunshine Band, under the name Charlotte's Web, named for the female backup singer who sits in with them. She's great. Her name is Charlotte McKinnon - same name as mine. She's like my sister!
What about the weekend?
Nicole McCloud, an R&B singer who reminds you of Tina Turner, is our star. She plays on Friday nights. She's been here for five and a half years and has a huge, loyal following. She's just phenomenal. People flip over her. She's amazing on stage. She has a great band and she's on the Billboard charts now. She's doing very well.
On Saturday, we do a rotation of the best R&B bands we can find. On the weekends, it's all about R&B.
Who are the house DJ's who spin upstairs?
We have two Italian DJ's who have been here since we opened - Corrado Bay, who has two songs on the ninth volume of Cafe del Mar. And we also have a DJ named Paolo Albertoni. They have their own record label, Community Records. They make and record their own music.
 How does your customer base divide over the split-level, two-floor, different music media approach?
You're either an upstairs person or a downstairs person. I like both. A lot of people do, actually. If you don't want to listen to live music any more for the evening, pr if it's too loud, you can come upstairs and relax and be comfortable.
What is your reaction when you hear people say now that there's no live music left on the beach because there's no market for it?
Well, it not true, because we're here.
Why do you think the much-hyped Billboard Live has failed to attract either acts or a customer base for big-ticket live music on the beach and has closed down as a club?
Well, I was never actually in there, but I just think it was too big. That was the only comment I heard. That's the big thing about Jazid - people call up for a particular act and say they want a good seat. I tell them there are only nine tables in the whole place, so every seat is a good one.
You also do art events or exhibits from time to time?
Yes. For our sixth anniversary, I wanted to do something really special and give something back to the community, so we got the artist David Lebo to donate a painting and we auctioned it off at our party for Anthony Kennedy Shriver and his charity, Best Buddies, which provides companions for mentally challenged children. The event was fantastic, and we got good money for the painting. It was for a great cause.
Are the drinks here still as cheap as they've always been compared to the other clubs?
(smiles proudly)... Absolutely! Our drinks are $7, compared to $10-12 for the rest of the clubs. We only recently raised them from $6.
Do you think it's fair to say that after six years, your business is much more stable than the other clubs, which seem to be much more volatile - and short-lived?
Yes - but I'm not going to lie to you either and tell you that the last
year, since September 11, hasn't been hard, because it was, especially
for anyone who depends, like we do, on business from the hotels. I mean,
it was gone. There goes half your business. And a lot of local people
left the beach in the last year or so. Are we still open and doing okay?
Yes. Was it difficult? Yes. It was scary, because you don't want to stop doing what you love doing and hiring bands and entertainers every night. And the other thing, too, is that there are more clubs and bars than there were when we opened. A lot more. And most of them are new.
Are you here every night?
No. I used to be. I'm too old now to be here until five o'clock in the morning.
You basically worked seven days a week for a while?
Yes, for a long time - four years.
How many nights a week do you come in now?
Three, sometimes four, but I don't stay all night long anymore. I just can't be here all day long and then be here all night, too. I did that for a long time, but not anymore. It's hard.
Is your partner Cesare Mazzoli here every night?
Yes, more or less.
So he's the nighttime partner and you're the daytime partner?
We're a team. We're like a family here. A lot of the girls who work for us have been working for us literally since we opened, so we love them.
As a small club in an American city, you've been caught up in an Internet controversy over use of the domain name jazid.com. What's going on with that?
I think you call it cyber-squatting, but it's when somebody else has your name and they've already registered it as a domain name. So, somebody else had the name for two years and wasn't doing anything with it. You're not allowed to do that. Then a place called Jazid opened in Switzerland the same year we opened, and they weren't interested in jazid.com, but I was. So, this guy who had it registered tried to sell it to them, but they didn't want it. So, we took the guy to court. We lost.
So you ended up as jazid.net?
Yes.
Do you think that has made any appreciable difference in your business?
No. When we first started, nobody knew about dot-net. It was all about dot-com.
Now there's a familiarity, so it's fine.
How often do you personally go out to the other clubs?
About once a week, but I always seem to end up back at Jazid, because the people I'm with usually end
up saying they like it better here. (...laughs...)
Where do you go that you like at the moment?
I go to Mynt on the weekends. Tonight, I'm going to the opening of Pure, a new lounge upstairs at Joia.
How do you think South Beach compares now, as a place, to the South Beach that you discovered a decade ago?
It's a lot different. Everything about Miami has changed.
What's different now?
I was out the other night, and I looked around and said, 'wow, everybody is really
young.' And everybody else just said, 'no, you're just really old.'
(...laughs...) But I was there twelve years ago, I was like that twelve years ago. So, I think the younger crowd
really is coming back. And that's important, because that young energy was missing for a while. Now, I think it's back. And people aren't just doing the same old things any more. Their lives are a little more interesting.
Why do you like living in Miami Beach so much? What is it about the place that so captivated you that you moved here and made a life here?
Well, the main thing is that when we're talking about South Beach, we're talking about 18 blocks. So, you can get from one end to the other end in five minutes on your bike. I think that's a wonderful thing to be able to say about where you live, but yet there's so much to do and so many different kinds of people. I had also been traveling as a model for a long time, so when I came here, I really needed the intimacy of Miami Beach. And that led to Jazid, in a way.
What do you think is the most obvious change from 'the good old days' of the early '90's in terms of the culture of the beach?
Money. All these shitty old apartment buildings have disappeared and become condos.
Isn't there a certain irony in that, since you opened Jazid six years ago with no investors and no bank loans - unlike the people who come
heer every season and go broke trying to get rich in the club or restaurant business?
Yes, definitely. We did it all by ourselves, starting with some vintage $5 couches and some vintage jazz records. And they're still here and we're still here.
Since you came here as a model at a time when South Beach was known as a haven for models, how much of an impact do you think there has been from our loss of the fashion modeling print industry?
Oh, I think there's been a big impact since the modeling industry went down. But the city made it difficult and expensive, and I think South Beach became over-saturated because people all over the world started looking at ads all the time and seeing the same location.
But actually, I think it's coming back now. You're seeing more new models on the street and the movie business is coming back again. It's also huge that Jennifer Lopez has moved here. So, you've got the big clubs, money and models. It's all coming back now.
What do you think about the well-known locals, like Louis Canales, who helped pioneer the early scene and have since moved off the beach or out of Miami altogether?
They all come back. (...laughs...)
But you still think the net effect of everything is that there's more money and less culture now?
Yes. It seems like it's all million dollar condos now. Money has changed the beach a lot, and I think it's actually for the better. I mean, it's cleaner, at least somewhat. I still don't want my girls working home alone late at night, but it's better than it was. It got pretty scary for a while.
Are you talking about the Memorial Day weekend-type problems that we had for a couple of years?
Yes. People who live on the beach don't go out on Memorial Day weekend.
Are you surprised that the few people who have spoken out recently to encourage other kinds of events on holiday weekends, especially Memorial Day, have been branded as racists?
I'm very surprised, because we're a very diverse community. And it's not about black and white. My own customer base is both black and white, like we talked about earlier.
The 'business justification' I hear now on the beach from club owners and promoters is that the hottest white and Hispanic women like hip-hop so they go
to the clubs that play hip-hop, which accounts for some of the hot clubs of the moment. Do you agree or disagree?
(...laughs...) That's ridiculous, hot chicks like hip-hop? I don't see that at all. I do think that hip-hop is a young music and so it's about youth, not gender.
Do you think the behavior of the hip-hop crowd will continue to be a problem on the beach through next Memorial Day and beyond, or do you think the problems are behind us?
I think the problems will continue. I don't think it's over.
So, you are one of the people who, putting race aside, share the belief that the wave of hip-hop business that caused most of the trouble is bad for the beach?
Yes, I think it's really bad - and I'm not a racist. I also agree with those who say we need to work to get other kinds of events here, too, to expand our market and bring in other new kinds of customers. The Art Basel festival was just here and it drew new people from all over the world. The hotels were booked
solid.
In general, putting Jazid aside, what do you think of the landscape of South Beach clubs at this point?
I think it's exciting right now. I think it was really boring for a while.
What's so exciting now?
That they're not all just doing the same things any more, that they're not trying to do the same things any more, like just bring in the same DJ's but on different nights. I think they're all becoming individualized, which for me is more interesting. Before, it didn't matter where you were, it was the same people. Everybody just had a different night to go somewhere. Now the scene is really getting to be fun. You can go to Monty's at Miami Beach Marina to have a beer and watch the sunset, or you can go to downtown Miami and eat sushi and go bowling. Have you heard about that?
No!. A sushi bar-bowling alley. You're serious?
(...laughs...) Yes, I'm serious. I read about it. It sounds like fun. It's something new and different. I'm going to be there
every
night.
photographs: Joseph Brown
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