A Roxbury-based brewery and taproom is serving up live jazz alongside its fresh draughts each Thursday night. The proprietors of Long Live Brewery, which is located in the renovated Boston Piano Company building on Hampden Street, are hoping that the music will draw more people to the Newmarket area.

This is the second location for the beer company, which has been based in Providence, Rhode Island, since 2016. Both sites are owned and operated by co-founders Jessica deBry and Armando DeDona.  The Hampden Street building is owned by Michael Feldman, who operates his primary business, the engineering firm Feldman Geospatial, from the building as well.

“My grandfather started this business in 1946. Then it went to my dad and uncle and in 1998, I came in. So, it’s a third generation serving in engineering,” Feldman said in an interview with the Reporter. “We used to be in the South End and in 2015 our landlord sold the building and we found this place and I just looked at it and said this is definitely a taproom space.”

The location was previously occupied by Backlash Beer Co. and then a California-based brewery that specialized in hard kombucha. Long Live took it over in 2022 and opened for business last June.

“A big part of what interested us in this space is how well cared for the building is,” said DeBry. “You can feel the energy. Michael put so much into this building and really cares about it. That’s rare for a landlord. It makes a huge difference in the neighborhood, too. When you are operating a taproom, you have to lean into the fact that you have to build relationships and the way people feel in the space is important to us,” he added. “In Providence, we have established relationships. Starting here, it’s great to be learning about new people and see other people doing amazing things.”

Long Live hosts weekly events for its customers, among them yoga on Saturdays and food trucks and trivia on Wednesdays. Their newest event is the recurring Thursday jazz night performances from 6 to 9p.m.

 “A lot of this is Michael›s grand vision and his robust relationship with musicians from his past experiences,” DeBry said. “Our Providence location is almost the same size but a very different layout, so we don’t have the same ability to host live entertainment. Here there is such an opportunity with this space, you can move furniture around and there’s parking.” 

Feldman is a music enthusiast and percussionist who studied Latin percussion with teachers at Berklee and in Cuba. He has always dreamed of reimagining the property into a place for community, arts, music, and retail.

 “I thought it would be great to combine our community commitment with Long Live by opening up the place to free jazz music that is high quality by professionals,” he said.

With Berklee College of Music not too far away, Feldman originally imagined inviting students to participate in jazz showcases. “Then it dawned on me: Why don’t we kick it off with more professional musicians? I thought it would be a better start. It would sound great, and it would be great for the community,” he said. “We wanted to add another enhancement so that people can come in here and drink high-quality beer and there’s usually food around, too.”

The weekly jazz nights launched on Jan. 4 with performances from three Berklee faculty members: John Lockwood, Mark Walker, and Tim Ray.

“It’s exciting the people who were in here that night, I thought they had a great time,” Feldman said. “A lot of them were loyal Long Live people who haven’t been here in a little bit and the music brought them in and then a lot of people were new.”

Feldman and DeBry have booked 12 weeks of music and expect more musicians to reach out after each performance. Future shows include two female lead groups. Teresa Ines & Trio will perform on Feb. 8 followed by the Rebecca Cline Trio on the 15th. Feldman also expressed excitement for performances from Gonzalo Grau “Plural” and Mango Blue.