In the mid-1940s, if you were looking to enjoy Sacramento’s nightlife, you might have found your way to the Zanzibar Cafe. The venue was a big hit, hosting local artists and renowned jazz musicians in Sacramento’s West End. But after less than a decade in business, the Zanzibar Cafe shut down, never to open again.

Now, a new concert is looking to build that sense of community once more while celebrating the business lost to time. It’s fittingly called Zanzibar and the show starts at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday at the Rink Studios in Old North Sacramento. Tauz Hall-Shandil is co-founder of the event organizer Cherub and the mind behind The Zanzibar. He spoke with CapRadio’s Chris Nichols about the inspiration behind the upcoming event.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

For people that don’t know this history, tell us a little more about the Zanzibar Cafe and the community that it created.

In the 1940s, it was a black-owned business, but it was actually a space for everybody. In the pictures and things that you see, it’s everybody. And it’s not like everybody is in the room on a certain side of the room. Everybody’s in the room together.

For me, it really shed light on our culture here in Sacramento [which] has always been bigger than the culture that’s outside of here—kind of tapping into our diversity and all that, but also paying homage to the business. 

It seems like it has a really rich history, but it wasn’t around too long. Tell us how long and what led to it closing. 

So, it unfortunately was shut down due to false allegations. They accused them of running prostitutes out of there. And really, when you look at the time of when all of this is happening, they’re also on the verge of bulldozing all that area for Capitol Mall.

They seemed like they conspired against The Zanzibar to have it shut down. There was no evidence submitted of any of the allegations that they had said. And on top of that, their punishment was, ‘well, we can’t prove anything so we’ll just take your liquor license.’ So they crippled the business and ultimately had it shut down.

It’s something that at least temporarily was lost to time, but now you’ve got this community concert. How did you get the idea to start up that concert and to pay tribute to this cafe? 

I felt like when I found the history that I was like, “Me as a Black man, I belong here. This is actually a place for Black people.” So, for me, it meant a lot personally. 

Also a lot of the artists that were listed in The Zanzibar were the same artists that my grandfather had introduced me to. So, it just connected with me, but then I really just wanted to do something different where I realized that people back then were really just having fun. There wasn’t a phone. There wasn’t so many things around that we are so preoccupied with now.

And people were present and like they’re dancing, having fun, good music. And that’s really what we’re trying to do and bring the whole city out together. 

Tell us a little bit about the concert. Who are going to be some of the performers this weekend? I’m assuming it’s not just all 1940s jazz. 

No, we didn’t want to bring back Zanzibar as what it was. It’s about bringing it forward to about what it would be. And it would be a venue.

It would be a place, like in LA when they have these old venues that have been there for 80 years. They have all that stuff there because they wanted to keep that culture there. And so we’re trying to bring that back. 

The official poster for the Zanzibar show at The Rink Studios on Del Paso Blvd.Courtesy of Tauz Hall-Shandil

Tell me a little more about the performers and atmosphere you’re trying to create.

It’s really about having fun. It’s about dancing. We try to get like a plethora of sounds, so it’s not really like just one type of DJ. Our headliner is Full Crate, who is an international DJ. He has some amazing sets, but he’s also very different because he’s an actual producer himself. So, he plays instruments and does all this other stuff. He won’t be doing that here, but he has a lot of original music that he plays himself, which is great.

Starrza just did Coachella last year. Amazing DJ, does Afro Beats and rap and she’s kind of all over. We have Miss Organic who is one of our local DJs. She’s really just a raw talent, like a ball of energy. You dance the whole time she’s playing. 

And we have Soosh! who is from here, lives in LA currently. He’s actually on the radio in LA. And then Will Evans is our resident DJ. Will’s actually been spinning locally, vinyl only and he plays jazz.

I understand you’re collaborating with several black-owned businesses in the Sacramento region as part of this concert. How’d that get started and why was that important to build into these partnerships?

Oak Park Brewing is honoring the Zanzibar show with some special beer labels. You can find them at Pacific Market, J Street Market, Pocha House, Legend Has It, and Kru.Courtesy of Tauz Hall-Shandil

I wanted to focus on not so much of the optics of black culture and more focus on the economics of it. At least that’s what the attempt was to collaborate and work in that way.

The venue that we’re at is a black-owned venue and we’re doing a collaboration with Oak Park Brewing. Their Peoples Beer is a reference to, I believe, the first black brewery. There’s a lot of history there.

I understand they’ve got some personalized beers just for this concert. Is that right? 

We’ve actually been selling them all over town. They are selling at Pacific Market, at J Street Market, Pocha House, Legend Has It, and Kru. And proceeds for those beers go back to the artist. So we’re trying to figure out ways to support local artists here in more creative ways and try to support our talent here.

And is there a connection at all with the beers between Oak Park Brewing and Zanzibar? 

There was a part of me that because of how they essentially took down the Zanzibar, I wanted to make a point intentionally to work with a black-owned alcohol maker and Oak Park Brewing was a perfect fit.

Zanzibar starts at 8 p.m. Saturday, August 18 at The Rink Studios, 1031 Del Paso Blvd., Sacramento. The show will feature live sets from Will Evans, Soosh!, Miss Organic, Starrza and Full Crate. Tickets are $25. The event is 21 and over.