November 10, 2025

At 86, gospel-soul legend Mavis Staples kicked off a tour at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Portsmouth, N.H., a day after releasing her new album “Sad and Beautiful World.” Backed by longtime guitarist Rick Holmstrom, she performed a 70-minute set mixing Staple Singers classics like “Freedom Highway” and “Respect Yourself” with new songs, delivering stories, humor, and powerful vocals throughout.

March 2, 2024

Eliza and John were married on August 26, 2023 in the ultimate downtown Portsmouth wedding. I am obsessed with their very special day, and I still swoon over all the incredible locations and details. Working with Lauren Wilson Events was a dream. She ensured a completely flawless day for Eliza and John.

April 4, 2022

If you were to ask most people what they’d want to be doing in the middle of a global pandemic, opening a jazz club in New Hampshire probably wouldn’t be all that high up the choice list. Then again, most people aren’t Michael and Peter Labrie. The longtime local restaurateurs are now co-owners of Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club, which opened on Congress Street in the quaintly arty seaside town of Portsmouth last September after five years of planning and construction.

February 29, 2024

Since it was music that brought Andrea and Ethan together, it seemed only fitting that the couple would have a musically themed wedding at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club. They originally met when he was singing with an all-male a-cappella group from Connecticut College that performed at the University of Vermont, where she attended and was performing with the school’s all-female a-cappella group. “We met at the after party but didn’t actually date until seven years later,” says Ethan.

February 4, 2023

This place will knock your socks off.

Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club opened under two years ago in Portsmouth, and made a name for itself as a venue with both excellent cuisine and a year-round lineup of jazz and blues performers from across the country.

One of the first YMCA buildings, completed in 1905, this building began its life as a community center in the heart of downtown Portsmouth, NH. When the Y moved on, the building became a solely commercial space, changing with ownership in accord with the aesthetic and economic shifts of the next hundred years. When the building was purchased six years ago, the goal of the current owners was to reimagine a community center which would be economically and culturally stimulating for the region.