Jazz at Lincoln Center Moves to New Home

05/13/2004 3:09 PM, AP
Karen Matthews

Jazz at Lincoln Center's new $128 million home in the Time Warner Center is designed to be as fluid as the music itself, with stages that can be reconfigured and the city's skyline as a backdrop.

"The whole space is going to be dedicated to the feeling of swing, which is a feeling of extreme coordination," said trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who also is Jazz at Lincoln Center's artistic director.

The Frederick P. Rose Hall, on the fifth and sixth floors of the Time Warner Center, a vertical mall that opened in February, won't welcome paying crowds until October. But Lincoln Center officials held a news conference in the half-built facility on Wednesday to announce the lineup for the 2004-05 season.

"Our first season in our new home is going to include programs that cover a broad range of artists and styles and span the entire history of jazz," Marsalis said.

Highlights will include performances by Tony Bennett , Cassandra Wilson , Dianne Reeves and Freddy Cole.

"Let Freedom Swing: A Celebration of Human Rights and Social Justice" will feature historic human rights speeches by Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt and others set to music.

Bill Cosby will host "Stand up for Jazz," celebrating the interplay of jazz and comedy.

The New York City Ballet and other dance companies will collaborate with musicians performing new work in the "Jazz in Motion" series.

"We come in the spirit of the down home and the sophisticated," Marsalis said. "You don't have to choose."

The new concert hall, perched atop pricey restaurants and shops a few blocks south of Lincoln Center's main site, will be the first in the world engineered specifically for jazz.

The ceiling at the Rose Theater, the largest of the three performance spaces with a capacity of 1,231, can be dropped, and the room can be "tuned" by adjusting velour curtains and banners, said Chris Darland, an acoustical consultant.

Towers of seats can be moved to offer the choice between "concert in the round" and proscenium theater configurations.

At the two smaller spaces, the Allen Room and Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, musicians will perform in front of a glass wall providing breathtaking views of Central Park and beyond.

The complex also will include the Irene Diamond Education Center, with events and classes for all ages, and the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame, a multimedia exhibit designed by architect David Rockwell.

Uruguayan-born Rafael Vinoly was the architect for the 100,000-square-foot project as a whole.

Subscriptions for the new season go on sale Friday.

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On the Net:

Jazz at Lincoln Center: http://www.jalc.org