FOR decades, jazz-club owners looked at their more well-heeled cousins in other genres with envy. Unlike metropolitan orchestras or opera houses, jazz groups usually lacked a steady home or grand performance space and a foundation of patrons to help them thrive. The art form that was rooted in the blues and folk music of African slaves in America was often performed in smoky basement joints. Fans paid a modest cover charge or nothing at all to hear music, and the musicians often took home a pittance as their reward for a hard night’s work.Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC), launched in 1987 as a concert series in New York, shattered that stereotype. In 1998 it was allocated 100,000 square feet (9,209 square metres) of space in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan’s pricey Columbus Circle area. The organisation raised $131m to build three state-of-the-art venues with virtually perfect acoustics that could accommodate a trio, a big band or a large ensemble.When it opened in 2004, the centre’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and what is now called the Appel Room won praise for the romantic, postcard-like views of Central Park and New York’s skyline. The “House of Swing”, as...
from The Economist: Books and arts http://ift.tt/1jV6bNT
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