From the August 24, 2001 print edition

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Entrepreneur/singer enlivens Dowe's nightclub with business banter

It's a new kind of jazz fusion.

Jessica Lee -- attorney, financial analyst, business consultant and jazz singer -- has combined her talents to promote both Pittsburgh's business community and its jazz and blues heritage.

Dubbed Entrepreneurial Thursday, Ms. Lee and jazz musician Tony Janflone Sr. perform sets of live, acoustic jazz and blues each Thursday between 5 and 8 p.m. at Dowe's on Ninth, Downtown.

Between sets, Ms. Lee interviews local business people about their companies and their take on the community's entrepreneurial spirit.

The event began May 31 and has doubled Dowe's Thursday happy hour crowd.

"Even for the dog days of summer the response has been wonderful," Ms. Lee said. And in these dog days of the economy, everyone can use a little networking.

Ms. Lee had always kept the musical side of her life separate from the professional side.

Until now.

As an investment consultant with Manulife Financial Corp. and The Hartwood Group, she feels that Pittsburgh not only needs more venture capitalists and talented early-stage managers, but also more networking opportunities if the new economy business community is going to obtain critical mass.

Through business connections, she met another musician, Mr. Janflone, who has played with Ben Vereen, Diana Ross and the Fifth Dimension, and later connected with Al Dowe, Dowe's on Ninth's co-owner. The three decided to create the event, which has a two-fold goal: promote Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial businesses and support Dowe's by letting the business community know it's there.

"So I said `I'm going to take a risk to blend the business and the music,'" Ms Lee said.

"This is an entrepreneurial activity itself, the start-up of the jazz club. We need more things happening to attract the talent and for people to want to come to Pittsburgh instead of California."

While Mr. Janflone plays acoustic guitar, Ms. Lee sings jazz.

"We wanted music to be there, fun and entertaining but also want people to be comfortable to talk," she said. In between sets, Ms. Lee interviews that week's sponsors and their clients about their own companies, trends they see in business and about the Pittsburgh entrepreneurial spirit in general.

The sponsor also is responsible for getting the word out about the event to round up a crowd.

And since Ms. Lee performs on a pro bono basis, she said the sponsor has little financial outlay other than perhaps tipping the musician and the sound man.

Ms. Lee e-mails a weekly notice of the event to those who have attended previously or have shown an interest in receiving the notice.

With a different sponsor each week, word about the event gets out to an even wider array of professionals, drawing both new and return crowds.

One of this month's sponsors, Jodi Klebick, associate director of the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business' Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, called the event a "win win win" situation.

"It gives Jessica a chance to work with entrepreneurs," she said. "We had a chance to showcase all the opportunities available and all the training and education that an organization like us can provide, and we keep a small business like Dowe's in business."

Ms. Lee so far has lined up sponsors through mid-October. After noticing that most sponsors were male CEOs or male attorneys, she's made it a point to set aside the first Thursday of the month to focus on businesses owned and managed by women.

"But it's not a pink night where men should stay away," she said. "It's just a soft undercurrent so everyone comes."

Owned by trombonist Al Dowe and renowned jazz singer Etta Cox, Dowe's 12,000 square feet features a balcony, a curved staircase and a dance floor. It opened in January 2000.

Mr. Dowe said the club already drew patrons for weeknight happy hours and nightly music sessions that follow. "But this is something different," he said. "We get a lot of business people in here and it appeals to that crowd. It's great for our customers. They can come here after work to network."

He said the Thursday happy hour had been drawing a crowd of about 50; with Entrepreneurial Thursdays more than 100 can turn up.

And the Thursday events draw return customers. Alexandra Hendrickson, a Shadyside-based entrepreneur starting her own manufacturing quality standards consulting firm, has been to several Entrepreneurial Thursdays and has returned to Dowe's for other purposes.

"Before, going to Dowe's might be a special occasion," she said. "Now I have a reason to go every Thursday night. Plus, Dowe's is much more top of mind now. The other night I went to the movies with a friend and then said `Let's go to Dowe's' and it wasn't a Thursday."

Ms. Hendrickson said she attends Entrepreneurial Thursdays for both business content and inspiration. At one event, she met a man who sells business liability insurance, something she could use as a new business owner. And she ran into Astro Teller and was fascinated by his success in raising funds and promoting his Downtown-based firm Body Media.

"I hadn't thought about business insurance before," she said. "And meeting the people from Body Media was like meeting stars from Hollywood. I got a lot out of it."

She said the events are a valuable mix of business and pleasure.

"I'm starting up my own business so I'm looking for advice from fellow entrepreneurs," she said. "And Jessica is a very intelligent and perceptive interviewer, a great singer and a big supporter of Downtown Pittsburgh. She creates energy and dynamism."

Ms. Lee began studying classical piano as a 5-year-old played and studied voice in college. She went to Duke for her undergrad in English and economics and stayed for law school.

"I went into law school thinking I'd go into entertainment law," she said. "The more I understood the business side of entertainment, the more I didn't like it. So instead, I do them separately."

Though she didn't major in music, she sang in cabaret musical theater and gospel at churches. The head of Duke's jazz department introduced her to jazz with a tape of Sarah Vaughan.

"He told me `You know singing, but you don't know music,'" she said.

With that she was hooked. Born in Franklin, Venango County, with family in Robinson Township, she returned to Pittsburgh in the early 1990s. "It was because of family," she said. "I wanted to make this my home."

MS. GUZZO may be contacted at mguzzo@bizjournals.com.

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