At its finest, live music is a joy to behold — and the setting where it's produced can enhance a listener's experience immeasurably. The right artists making the right sounds in the right place are capable of creating memories that last a lifetime.

Lucky thing, because many of Denver's most incredible live-music venues have shuffled off this mortal coil. But the beautiful noise made within their walls continues to linger, and bars with live music as well as jazz and blues spots still continue to thrive here.

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, scads of joints specializing in jazz came and went. Take Sonny's Lounge, which once could be found at 23rd and Curtis; a Denver Public Library post shows an ad for a 1957 "Summer Jazz Festival" whose bill included Art Blakey a

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