| |
Saturday, December 2,
2006
Jazz man's tour of New York
Musical pilgrimage takes in 16 events
in 11 nights
Roger Levesque
Special to The Journal
It's true that New Orleans was the birthplace of the music we call jazz,
but ever since the great migration of southern blacks to America's
northern cities during the 1920s, New York has been known as the centre of
the jazz universe.
Even before the five boroughs got together to form Greater New York City
in 1898 the east coast metropolis was a cultural crossroads and jazz was
destined to be its soundtrack.
By the 1940s, when artists like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie wound
up inventing bebop in the clubs on 52nd street, jazz was enjoying a golden
age and everybody who was anybody in the music lived in or around New
York. All the most famous clubs, recording studios, record stores and
concert halls were here, and its streets pulsed to the jazz beat.
The first bonifide jazz recording was made in New York by the Original
Dixieland Jass Band in 1917 and since then the city -- and especially the
tall, skinny island that is Manhattan -- have inspired many memorable jazz
tunes... Harlem Nocturne, 52nd Street Theme, John Coltrane's sublime
Central Park West, and that bouncy Ellington/Strayhorn number that gave
suburban dwellers directions to swinging Harlem, Take The A Train. Dozens
of other songs from the great musicals that played Broadway helped form
the standard jazz repertoire.
With many dreamt-of impressions of that rich history in mind, this curious
jazz aficionado finally got there for my own whirlwind Autumn In New York.
And after a dozen all-too-short days and nights. I can testify that the
spirit of jazz remains ever present in the Big Apple.
Not just a fascinating place, New York is a true feast for the senses. The
humid air of the port city seems to amplify smells everywhere as your eyes
pass over striking examples of wonderfully eclectic architectural styles
juxtaposed side by side. It offers some of the world's greatest art and
history museums, harbour cruises to get your geographic bearings, and such
an endless supply of restaurants and delis it's simply overwhelming. If
the canyons of glass and concrete and steel start getting to you then it's
time to bask in the sanity of Central Park.
Like the song says, New York really is "the city that never sleeps."
There's an edge of activity that never dissipates, and it's a thrill to
come across brightly lit grocer's shops with stacks of fresh flowers and
fruit out on the street at 2 a.m.
Getting around Manhattan is fairly easy once you spend a few minutes with
a good map. It took me a couple of days to feel confident with the
subways, but they do run 24 hours, and above ground, you really can flag
down one of those abundant, inexpensive yellow taxis almost anywhere.
Musician-buskers are a frequent sight in New York, blowing their horns on
the crowded streets, down in the subways, or out in Central Park, and
you'll notice that they are always playing some style of jazz. It's also
the sonic backdrop in the bookstores, coffee shops and fashion dens.
Check the street signs and you will even find avenues named after the jazz
greats, like Duke Ellington Boulevard, or Thelonious Sphere Monk Circle
(not a circle at all). Most of the original nightclubs that helped give
birth to the music are gone, but there are still a few legendary haunts
where you can feel a sense of how it might have been when jazz giants
walked the earth.
Just checking out the clubs and concert halls of Manhattan, it's easy to
see something worthwhile any night of the week. My musical pilgrimage
wound up taking in 16 events over 11 nights and I was still disappointed
at missing a bunch of other shows that happened to be running at the same
time.
Before you go there, take a glance at The New Yorker magazine weekly
listings of major shows, and once you get to New York search out one of
the several free, monthly guides dedicated to local jazz listings, Hot
House, All About Jazz New York, or Jazz Improv's N.Y. Jazz Guide. Don't
forget to call the venues in advance for ticket availability, and know
that certain clubs will have lineups at least a half-hour in advance.
Typically, most rooms will offer two shows a night, maybe three on
weekends, running around 7 p.m., 9 p.m., and as late as midnight.
Depending on the club's schedule and the generosity of the artists each
show will be one set, running from 70 to 90 minutes.
It can get expensive. Depending on the notoriety of the band, be prepared
to pay anywhere from $10 to $40 US or more for your ticket for that one
set, and there will usually be an extra $10 minimum charge for drinks or
food on top of that. Some of the poshest spots ask as much as $9 for a
beer, or $11 for a cocktail.
I found the Internet was indispensable in planning much of my itinerary
before I left. Many of the major clubs and concert halls have their own
sites and calendars at least a month in advance so you can shop around for
artists you really want to see. Some of those sites also take reservations
online, while others will have a toll-free number for advance
reservations.
You might want to start at the online guide www.hothousejazz.com to peruse
their comprehensive club and concert listings with links to the venue
websites.
Some clubs go to the trouble of offering a real menu, even a jazz brunch
on weekends, and you will even find a few listed in the restaurant guides.
Other venues just don't have space to make food available.
I'll never forget the scent of dry leaves, the roasted pretzel stands, and
the profound sense of history as I walked along Central Park West, humming
the tune of the same name, just a half-block over from my nicely situated
lodging at the West Side YMCA (there are four inexpensive Y's in
Manhattan).
It made for a charmed double-life, strolling around the art museums and
shops by day, only to visit a deli or salad bar and make a pit-stop in my
tiny room around dinner, then setting out for concert halls or clubs,
often until 2 a.m.
You might start your day in the upper reaches of Manhattan, checking out
the sites of Harlem like the famous Apollo Theatre, or the new,
still-evolving Jazz Museum In Harlem.
Then, just where the diagonal of Broadway connects to the Upper West Side
you can find Tower Records' huge store and the four-storey Barnes & Nobles
bookstore on opposite corners (the Tower chain was forced into bankruptcy
this fall so it may be a thing of the past).
Follow Broadway south and it will eventually take you past several key
jazz spots. Smoke (seats 70) is an alluring room graced by old brick,
velvet backdrops, chandeliers and the air of an antique shop.
Further on you hit the original Lincoln Centre theatre complex, and
further yet, Columbus Circle.
It's a magnificent spot where a corner of Central Park faces the
Time-Warner twin towers and the temple that Wynton Marsalis built, Jazz at
Lincoln Center. Conveniently, most of the major subway routes also meet at
Columbus circle.
A few blocks down you'll hit the comfy '60s ambience of Iridium (holds
120), which dedicates two nights every week: Monday its guitar innovator
Les Paul; Tuesday the soulful Mingus Dynasty Big Band updates the music of
Charles Mingus; you might even meet up with Sue Mingus, presiding over the
repertoire of her late great husband.
The next mile of Broadway takes you to unforgettable Times Square and the
theatre district.
More jazz clubs are dotted all over Midtown including the hip basement
Jazz Standard and Birdland -- not the original club of the same name but
still popular.
Before long you want to wind up in Greenwich Village, with its core of
java shops and boutique culture, where you can almost stumble into a jazz
bar by accident.
You can't miss that legendary basement room the Village Vanguard, open
since 1935, the scene of well over 100 live recordings.
Cherished for its sound, the club seats 120 in an unassuming triangular
room with jazz memorabilia on the warm green walls and echoes of jazz
history in every corner.
The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra has been tapping the repertoire of its late
founders Thad Jones and Mel Lewis every Monday night for nearly 35 years
now.
The famous, up-scale Blue Note marks its 25th anniversary this year (seats
over 200). Set with wood, glass and chrome accents down its long, narrow
room, the club focuses on top names and can cost up to $60 a seat.
Two more tiny basement clubs in the village are recommended.
The truly antique Smalls has been there since 1928, but just a jazz room
for a decade.
Finally, the 65-seat 55 Bar was my favourite for sheer, intimate
character, with a bar that runs the length of the room, cafe tables,
strings of white LED lights hanging from the ceiling and jazz ephemera on
display.
The audience paid rapt attention to David Liebman's excellent quartet as I
watched the barkeep wait diplomatically for a quiet, riveting solo to
finish. Once the drums came back in he was back in business with his noisy
cocktail flask as fans applauded another Zen moment in the heart of this
jazz mecca.
Roger Levesque writes about jazz, roots and world music for The Journal
and hosts Time For Jazz on CKUA Radio.
NOTABLE N.Y.C. JAZZ CLUBS:
(Find listings for all of them and more at wow.hothousejazz.com)
- 55 Bar
- Barbes (in Brooklyn)
- Birdland
- Blue Note
- Dizzy's Coca Cola Club
- Iridium
- Jazz Standard
- Smalls
- Smoke
- Village Vanguard
Big venues for big-band sounds
Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center just can't be beat
Roger Levesque
Special to The Journal
If opportunity allows, jazz fans should try to take in something at the
legendary Carnegie Hall, or the new "house of swing" Jazz at Lincoln
Center.
For most artists, playing Carnegie Hall still marks a certain peak of
success as it has since the landmark opened in 1891. After periodic
renovations the building now actually houses several concert halls and a
condo tower on top, but the glorious majesty of the original design lives
on lending a tinge of history to any musical experience you take in there.
The intimate Weill Recital Hall (268 seats), and Zankel Hall (600 seats)
are lovely rooms, but the 2,800-seat Stern Auditorium is the place you've
probably seen on television or film, a gorgeous place done up in ivory
walls with gold detail and red carpet. Even sitting in row W, I found it
still sounded great.
Jazz at Lincoln Center is another experience altogether, now offering more
than 400 shows each year over several venues. With origins dating back to
the late-1980s, it now sponsors what is probably the world's best,
regularly working jazz big band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. After
years of campaigning, the whole J@LC organization moved into a brand new
$100 million-plus location in fall 2004, set at the bottom of the towering
Time-Warner Center.
The centre's Rose Hall is one of the most intimate concert halls you'll
come across with a capacity of around 1,200 and a big oval shape with
wood-paneled opera boxes all the way around on several levels, even right
behind the stage.
For chic club gigs you can take in Dizzy's Coca Cola Club, an oasis of
jazz in the sky with big curving wood panels for walls and windows that
look out on Columbus Circle and the Trump Tower Hotel. The Allen Room is
an opulent recital hall with its own multi-storey wall of glass beckoning
Columbus Circle.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006
|
|
