[Dixielandjazz] Lincoln Center Jazz Venues, Praised and Panned.

[Steve barbone]

Ha, Ha, Everybody's a critic. Reminds one of the question what is jazz? And
the myriad of answers one gets. Ain't no way to please everyone, especially
those who who have made an art form out of being critical, while doing
nothing positive themselves to move the music forward.

Having been to Lincoln Center, I can only pass on my impression that the
venues and the music are superb. And what they have done for the genre in
the USA is superb. And what they have done for the many smaller venues
throughout NYC that present everything from OKOM to avant garde is superb.
And what they have done with their secondary school education program is
superb. Etc., etc., etc.

Man oh man, what can we complain about next?

Cheers,
Steve


New Home for Jazz Gets Mixed Reviews

NY TIMES  By  ROBIN POGREBIN - January 24, 2006

A year or so after Jazz at Lincoln Center opened on the fifth floor of the
Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, the place is visibly hopping. After a
performance in the 1,200-seat Rose Theater or in the smaller Allen Room,
with its floor-to-ceiling views, audiences often wander into Dizzy's Club
Coca-Cola to catch a set over cocktails. Fans of the three new stages
applaud the acoustics and aesthetics and say the new building - with its
can't-miss-it marquee and snazzy marketing - has raised the profile of jazz
as an art form nationwide.

But the very qualities that make some people consider the new Jazz at
Lincoln Center a raging success are those that others say amount to a
disappointment. Critics have long charged the institution with hewing to a
classical jazz canon they deem middle-of-the-road. Now, they say, its
high-profile new home has become emblematic of that establishment
sensibility. Rather than use its influence and visibility to expose
audiences to alternative musical styles and artists, the argument goes, Jazz
at Lincoln Center has largely served up conservative fare, catering to an
upscale clientele that favors the familiar and can afford ticket prices as
high as $130.

Jazz at Lincoln Center officials say they are proud of what they have
accomplished in moving from rented spaces at Lincoln Center to their own
$131 million home a few blocks away, nearly tripling the operating budget to
$35 million from $12 million and presenting shows that average 70 percent
capacity. In addition to 10 shows a week by headline groups, Jazz at Lincoln
Center presents two to three performances a night in Dizzy's Club 365 days a
year, runs the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame and offers extensive educational
programming, including WeBop! classes for preschoolers and Jazz for Young
People concerts.

"It's our house," said Wynton Marsalis, the organization's artistic
director. "It's allowed us to integrate everything we're trying to do. And
it's allowed us to present a face to the world."

Performances over the last year have ranged from a Women in Jazz Festival in
Dizzy's Club to Bobby Watson's Boogie-Woogie Jump Band and the Juilliard
Jazz Orchestra to a holiday concert in Rose Theater. In addition to the
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, led by Mr. Marsalis, the organization in 2002
established the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, led by Arturo O'Farrill, which is
nominated for a Grammy Award this year.

"I'm impressed that they're drawing consistent audiences and not necessarily
hard-core jazz fans," said Lewis Porter, the director of the jazz history
master's program at Rutgers University in Newark, who has taught in Jazz at
Lincoln Center's adult education program. "People will say, 'Let's just go
to Dizzy's Club and see what's playing,' " he said, adding, "That's
different from other jazz venues," where people go to hear someone in
particular.

The new building has focused the continuing debate about what Jazz at
Lincoln Center presents, and how often. Critics say it should be presenting
a greater range of artists, more performances and more diverse programming -
avant-garde jazz, electric and world-music hybrids - although avant-gardists
like Dewey Redman and Sam Rivers have performed there recently. Jazz at
Lincoln Center rents out its spaces 40 percent of the time.

"They have the opportunity to make a very significant impact, and they're
failing," said Scott Southard, president of the International Music Network
booking agency, which specializes in jazz and world music. "In the selection
of repertory and in the marketing of their events, they continue to
reinforce their defined canon of what constitutes jazz repertory -
Ellington, Monk, Armstrong. There aren't any cutting-edge performances at
Jazz at Lincoln Center.

"The cost structure of producing events in their facilities is such that
they have to stay fairly mainstream in their programming and to keep a
fairly stiff ticket price," Mr. Southard added. "The greatest long-term
difficulty is in the business model itself."

Steve Bensusan, an owner of the 200-seat Blue Note jazz club on West Third
Street, said: "They don't really have regular programming. They don't really
explore the smooth jazz world, the avant-garde, and I don't expect them to,
given their location and their audience."

Ticket prices run from $30 to $130. The nightclub has a $30 cover and a
minimum of $10 at tables, $5 at the bar. "It's expensive to go to Jazz at
Lincoln Center," said Fran Kaufman, a photographer and longtime New York
jazz fan. For next month's Allen Room concert "Music of the Masters: Stanley
Turrentine," for example, she paid $110.50.

Mr. Southard, a former booking agent for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra,
said: "What it's doing is speaking to the upper demo that are comprised of
bankers and insurance companies that underwrite their program. The $100
ticket price is hardly an inclusive mechanism for building audiences."

Lisa Schiff, Jazz at Lincoln Center's chairwoman, said the organization was
reconsidering its pricing.

Some musicians say the cost of renting Jazz at Lincoln Center's spaces makes
it hard for many acts to play there. Rates for the Rose Theater or the Allen
Room are $4,800 to $12,000 a day, depending on the type of event and whether
the organization is nonprofit. Production, labor and catering charges are
additional. Dizzy's Club is available for rental only during the day, for
$2,000 to $5,000, except in rare circumstances.

Jazz at Lincoln Center charges itself the nonprofit rate, plus expenses.
That has the effect sometimes of making it more profitable for the
organization to rent out its spaces than to present concerts there itself.
"We were working more often before the hall opened," said Ted Nash, a tenor
saxophonist with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

The clubs that offer more experimental fare say that Jazz at Lincoln Center
has not made a dent in their business. Given the center's expenses, "it
would be difficult to take chances," Queva Lutz, owner of the 50-seat 55 Bar
in Greenwich Village, said, adding, "That's probably why they have had very
little impact on us." At 55 Bar, early shows are free and late shows range
from $5 to $10. For two of its regular performers, the guitarists Wayne
Krantz and Mike Stern, the club charges $15, which includes the price of two
drinks. 

Ms. Kaufman said she did not expect to get all the jazz she wants to hear
from Jazz at Lincoln Center because Manhattan offers so many other choices.
"This is New York City," she said. "They are entitled to have their point of
view, because I have the opportunity to go to other institutions that have
more cutting-edge jazz."

"The programming is first rate," she added of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
"They've managed to get really wonderful people - both people who have
really big reputations and youngsters who are just starting out."

Mr. Marsalis makes no apologies for his programming, arguing that Jazz at
Lincoln Center has presented a variety of styles and that so-called
bread-and-butter fare is just as valid as more experimental music. "You
don't like bread and butter, you don't like to eat," he said. "My philosophy
is, all of it is valuable."

The challenge facing Jazz at Lincoln Center - taking chances while paying
the bills - is the common conundrum facing arts organizations as they
expand. Indeed, with their new overhead, its trustees must work harder than
ever to keep donations coming. Having only just completed a huge
fund-raising effort for the new building, they plan to start a new capital
campaign within the year, its goal still undetermined. And Ms. Schiff said
she never stopped shaking the trees for things like the building's remaining
naming opportunities, including the lobby atrium, a rehearsal studio and a
patron lounge. "That's all I do," she said. "People see me and they run."

"Our needs have changed," Ms. Schiff added. "We're a different organization
than we were in the garage." Over all, Jazz at Lincoln Center is adjusting
to its new life as a round-the-clock operation. In the past, as renters, "if
there was a night of inactivity, we weren't spending any money," said Derek
E. Gordon, the organization's president and chief executive.

To create more of a financial cushion, Jazz at Lincoln Center has turned its
attention to expanding its board and building its $10 million endowment.
"You have an enormous amount of space that needs to be maintained," said
Diane M. Coffey, a trustee. "You can't just take that money out of your
operating budget. You have to do additional fund-raising."

The organization has been making a few physical adjustments - removing some
padding from the Allen Room to make it more resonant, replacing the concrete
floor in Dizzy's Club with wood to make it warmer - and hopes to enliven the
theater lobby with artwork. "It's still a work in progress," said Gordon J.
Davis, the founding chairman. "And it's getting better every day."

The acoustics get rave reviews. "The sound is great," said the jazz
impresario George Wein, who sits on the organization's board. "If you live
in it a while, it gains an intimate feeling."

Lincoln Center is proud of how much its youngest constituent, which turns 10
next year, has accomplished as the first to expand the campus. "This is the
little engine that could," said Reynold Levy, Lincoln Center's president.
"If you trace where they started to where they are now, it's a Harvard
Business case study in managed growth - nothing short of miraculous."

Sustaining that growth would seem to put particular pressure on Mr. Marsalis
as the face of the organization. But the world-famous trumpet player says he
does not feel it. "I'm the son of a jazz musician," he said. "So I never get
nervous about paying bills."