The music and camaraderie of Hubie’s Bar return tonight, seven years after the jazz haven’s owners faced the tough decision to close its doors.

“It was hard for me,” said Molly Brown, who operated the Angle Street establishment for decades with her late husband Hubert Brown. That emotional last night at Hubie’s, filmed by former MP Dale Butler, shows at the Leopards Club this evening with Mrs Brown attending.

“Everybody loved it. The music was good, and we used to have a lot of foreigners who would come in,” she told The Royal Gazette.

“I still hear from people that used to come there and play. They call and want to know where they can come and jam. But there’s no place left where they can come and play.”

Bermudian jazz, which thrived in tourism’s prime, lived on at Hubie’s, where musicians gathered for the now-legendary Friday nights.

A lover of jazz, Mrs Brown knew them all.

Now 87, she remembers Erskine Phillips by his nickname “Fat Man”, for instance: the founder of the group Jaz, which started at Hubie’s, Mr Phillips provides a commentary in Mr Butler’s film.

“There was Jade Minors playing saxophone,” she recalled. “That man could play for me any day. We had a lot of different drummers, like Clarence ‘Tootsie’ Bean. A young boy, I don’t remember his name, used to come in — I called him the fiddler. He could play some violin.”

Her home is a trove of photographs and newspaper clippings from that era.

Mrs Brown devoted her life to hospitality, starting out at the Tea Cozy restaurant in the days of segregation when she was its first black waitress, and “coloured” patrons were unwelcome.

But Hubie’s, which occupied a former billiards bar, along with the nearby Fish Hut restaurant, became the couple’s claim to fame — with Mr Brown telling the Mid-Ocean News in 1992: “I never dreamt it would kick off like this.”

The bar prompted a jazz revival, bringing integrated crowds to a neighbourhood that was still stigmatised as “back of town”, and providing a quiet haven for guests, including weary journalists, to relax.

“She should get a Queen’s award for her work,” Mr Butler said.

“Molly and her husband carried that place for years. And Hubie had a magical way with people who got upset. There was never any trouble.”

Like many, Mr Butler was “absolutely shocked” when Hubie’s closed, and resolved to document that last night.

“As a minister, I tried to get a grant for Hubie’s. The current Government, to their credit, has been sponsoring some bands. But in terms of those types of venues, we’re on life support. We lost Hubie’s, and Shine’s House of Music.”

Finding a dedicated venue these days “remains a huge problem” for today’s musicians, he said.

Entry to tonight’s showing at the Leopards Club is $10, with Manders Ingham following with a talk on the bar’s impact on the island’s cultural development.