Jumped on a late afternoon train to Manhattan for a 5pm client meeting and dinner with colleagues after that. It was a fast walk from Hudson Yards to 601 West 26th Street for a fabulous, quick client meeting, followed by a fast walk (uphill) to Izakaya MEW (east of Herald Square) for a fantastic multi-Asian-fusion dinner with retail software colleagues from Denmark and Iceland.

After our fun, loud, delicious dinner, I proposed that we finish the evening with drinks at The Campbell Bar, a somewhat secret gem of a drinking and gathering place, built in jazz-age financier John William Campbell’s epic, original, private office and reception area, hidden deep inside Grand Central Terminal! I warned my colleagues that, if we found a private party occupying The Campbell, I had a very nice Plan B in mind, elsewhere in the building…

When we arrived, The Campbell was indeed occupied by a private party in progress, complete with two guest list enforcers and two coat checkers. It turned out to be a Shopify e-Commerce and retail event, associated with the NRF Big Show retail expo going on at the Javits Center, so I prepared for Plan B… But then, much to our barely-concealed surprise and delight, we discovered my two colleagues were on the guest list! So, in we went, greeted by an open bar and a live band performing jazz music from the 1930’s!

After two drinks and enjoying a magician working the crowd, I met one of the jazz singers standing in a mezzanine hallway bathed in dim red light, and had to capture it…

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Subject: A jazz singer from the band performing at a private party.
Location: The Campbell Bar in Grand Central Terminal, New York City.
Camera: iPhone 16 Pro Max
Film: N/A (digital)
Photographer: Russ Murray