[Dixielandjazz] Jazz at Lincoln Center to expand venues to Qatar and other countries.

[Stephen G Barbone]

Put your bid in now. According to the article "The first showcases  
will have educational themes, highlighting, for instance, important  
players from New Orleans or different periods in jazz history."

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


Jazz at Lincoln Center to Expand, First in Qatar

NY TIMES - By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.


Jazz at Lincoln Center has plans to expand abroad, creating a new jazz  
club in Doha, Qatar, and four other cities as part of an unusual  
partnership with the St. Regis chain of luxury hotels.

The new club opening in Doha, the capital city, next April will be the  
first time this nonprofit New York City jazz organization, known for  
presenting high-quality concerts and education programs at its  
Columbus Circle home, has established a permanent subsidiary abroad.

The 120-seat club is being built as part of a new $1 billion luxury  
hotel going up in Doha and will be modeled on Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola  
in Manhattan, with the same curved interior walls, open sightlines,  
superb acoustics and glass exterior wall with a vista, except that it  
will overlook the Persian Gulf instead of Central Park.

With a small population and immense wealth from oil and gas reserves,  
Qatar has evolved into a cultural hub in the Middle East, as the  
ruling monarchy has invested money in education and the arts in an  
effort to diversify its economy. In 2008 the government opened  
theMuseum of Islamic Art, a zigguratlike structure of white stone  
designed by I. M. Pei, and an orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic, was  
formed in Doha. Last year the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art  
opened, with 6,000 works. For the past three years the Tribeca Film  
Festival has run a festival in Doha, which has a small pop music  
scene, including some jazz.

The Doha club is only the start, said Adrian Ellis, the executive  
director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The group has reached an agreement  
with St. Regis Hotels and Resorts to open four more clubs in new  
hotels being built around the world over the next five years, though  
deals on specific sites have yet to be negotiated.

The Doha deal carries little risk for Jazz at Lincoln Center; the  
group will receive a percentage of ticket sales for booking jazz acts  
for the new space, as well as a percentage of the food and beverage  
sales.

For its part, St. Regis Hotels has persuaded a private developer in  
Qatar, Omar Alfardan, to invest $20 million to build the club, which  
will be called Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha. The hotel chain, owned by  
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, will employ the staff of the  
club and pay the fees and travel expenses for the musicians.

Mr. Ellis said the revenue from the Doha club would help support the  
organization’s educational programs, like the annual Essentially  
Ellington high school band competition and the Middle School Jazz  
Academy. The group has a $40 million operating budget, of which about  
$22 million comes from ticket sales, advertising and other earnings.  
Mr. Ellis estimated that the partnership with St. Regis Hotels would  
bring in an additional $1.5 million a year in earnings within five  
years, not counting the contributions Jazz at Lincoln Center might  
collect from Qatar’s well-heeled philanthropists if the program there  
becomes popular.

“For us it’s a contribution back to the bottom line,” he said. “We  
have a vast array of education programs and related programs that  
don’t generate a surplus, so we are always looking for new sources of  
income to support those. But it’s also about reaching new audiences.”

Wynton Marsalis, the virtuoso trumpet player who has long been the  
artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, said the financial  
windfall mattered less than the opportunity to spread American culture  
and to introduce new audiences to jazz.

He said he would initially focus on sending musicians to Doha who are  
comfortable playing the role of cultural ambassador. The first  
showcases will have educational themes, he said, highlighting, for  
instance, important players from New Orleans or different periods in  
jazz history.

“When we work with our partners, it’s not cut-throat, cold-blooded  
business deals that we are trying to strike,” he said. “We are trying  
to strike mutually beneficial deals that allow us to prosper in a  
community sense.”

Paul James, the global brand leader for St. Regis Hotels, said the  
partnership fits well with his company’s attempt to use jazz to market  
its brand, tapping into the history of the original St. Regis Hotel,  
on East 55th Street, where jazz figures like Count Basie and Duke  
Ellington played during the height of the swing era.

The luxury chain has been expanding rapidly over the past four years,  
doubling the number of its hotels to 24. There are eight properties  
scheduled to open in the next six months, Mr. James said. Turning over  
the artistic programming at clubs in some hotels to Jazz at Lincoln  
Center makes good business sense, not only giving the hotel’s clubs a  
classy imprimatur but also ensuring that the musicians are first-rate,  
he said.

“You can make a jazz club, but you can’t make a Jazz at Lincoln Center  
jazz club,” Mr. James said. “That sense of quality and professionalism  
and the talent of that musician pool is untouchable.”

Mr. James said he approached Jazz at Lincoln Center about the  
possibility of a partnership in October 2010. The timing was  
fortunate, Mr. Ellis said. He and Mr. Marsalis had been talking to  
some of the organization’s board members about establishing a more  
permanent presence in other cities, replicating the acoustic  
experience audiences have had since Jazz at Lincoln Center moved into  
the Time Warner Center in 2004 and raised $131 million to build three  
high-tech performance spaces.

“St. Regis pitched us our idea,” Mr. Ellis said.