Marsalis' NYC Jazz Mecca Ready for Debut

10/17/2004 3:36 PM, Reuters
Dan Ouellette

Wynton Marsalis is a man with a mission.

As artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Marsalis has been a driving force behind the construction of JALC's new $128 million performing arts center, Frederick P. Rose Hall.

Opening Oct. 18, Rose Hall -- named for the builder and philanthropist -- can boast of being the first large-scale facility built specifically for jazz.

"I want people to be aware of jazz, to make the music available through recordings and broadcasts and to produce more jazz musicians," Marsalis says. "Rose Hall will be a place to address all aspects of our music."

Many close to the project agree that Rose Hall -- which Marsalis calls "The House of Swing" -- has the potential to be a mecca for the worldwide jazz community as well as the nexus of the New York jazz scene in the near future.

The 100,000-square-foot, acoustically pristine complex has been constructed as a box within a box on the fifth floor of the new Time Warner twin-tower high-rise on Columbus Circle.

It features three main performance areas: the 1,200-seat Rose Theater; the 420- to 500-seat Allen Room, named for investment firm Allen & Co.; and the intimate 140-seat Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.

There is also an education center, rehearsal/studio space and the Ertegun Hall of Fame multimedia jazz history room.

Rose Theater is a multitiered space that resembles a horseshoe-shaped Italian opera hall. The Allen Room has multilevel amphitheater seating, and can be transformed into a supper club. It features a spectacular floor-to-ceiling double-paned glass wall that looks out on Central Park. Dizzy's Club boasts a view of the park and Columbus Circle, as well as curved bamboo walls, tables and barstool seating.

VENUE WITH A VISION

Beyond the facility's impressive appearance, though, is its mission to promote jazz.

Pianist Bill Charlap, who opens Dizzy's Club with his trio, shares the enthusiasm over the new venue.

"Rose Hall will be an incredibly vital and vibrant place," he says. "It will make an important contribution to our culture -- more so than we realize now."

JALC executive director Derek Gordon, who came aboard in July after 12 years as senior VP of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., says that Rose Hall is unique. "I've seen the growth of cultural institutions with jazz being part of the vision," he says. "But having jazz at the center develops a new paradigm."

After being promised city funds by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to move JALC onto a new Lincoln Center campus, the project launched in 1998 when Marsalis drafted a document called "Ten Fundamentals of the House of Swing" to help architect Rafael Vinoly design a new jazz habitat.

"Wynton helped define the space," Vinoly says. "It was important to get out of the pattern set by classical music where there's a notion of the artist being unapproachable and separated from the audience. Jazz requires an intimacy.

"Jazz is also an impromptu music that is played as almost a social event," he continues. "It can be played anywhere, so I designed the building so that nearly every space can be used for performance. In addition to the three venues, music can be played in the atrium, educational areas and rehearsal studios. The important concept is that music can transform the space, not vice versa."

OPENING FESTIVAL

To open JALC's 2004-2005 season, Rose Hall will host a high-profile, invitation-only first night on Monday (Oct. 18) featuring performances by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra. The PBS TV program "Live From Lincoln Center" will broadcast the affair.

The Grand Opening Festival runs Oct. 18-Nov. 6 with a series of shows by such noteworthies as vocalists Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves and Freddy Cole. Also on tap: Taj Mahal and Randy Weston, among others, in the "3 Shades of Blues" evening; and comedian Bill Cosby in his "Stand Up for Jazz" performance with the LCJO.

Dizzy's Club, which plans to feature music 365 nights a year, opens Oct. 21 with the three-week Dizzy Gillespie Festival, a celebration of the legendary trumpeter's music starring Paquito D'Rivera, Nicholas Payton, Antonio Sanchez, Monty Alexander and other musicians.

Shows at Dizzy's Club from Tuesday through Sunday will have a $30 cover (plus minimum); Monday night will feature "Upstarts" gigs by young musicians that will have a $15 cover. There will also be a $10 cover for the late-night jam "hang sets" to begin after the final sets each evening.

Veteran jazz nightspot booker Todd Barkan serves as artistic manager of Dizzy's Club. He says the programing will be a "microcosm of what JALC" has been presenting in its 14 seasons.

"There will be a high premium on swing," he says. "The music will be broad-based and swinging and will reflect Wynton's overall view of jazz."

Barkan sees the club as being "an eternal light" that will contribute to the overall New York jazz scene. He feels strongly that Dizzy's won't compete with other clubs in town, but will encourage an atmosphere that has been sorely missing on the scene.

"We want to make Dizzy's Club a clubhouse for the jazz community, a place where people can go and hang and feel comfortable," Barkan says. "Wynton and I both feel an affinity for the late, lamented Bradley's in the Village, where people would congregate and jam until early in the morning."

Arturo O'Farrill, leader of JALC's Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, agrees. "It's inevitable that when you put a bunch of different activities under one roof there will be a multiplying factor. Musicians will intermix and interact."

Marsalis is also excited about the possibilities of the mixing and matching of musicians. "We want the best here," he says. "And we always want to make the space accessible to the different communities of jazz. We want it to be flexible to accommodate everything, from film to community activities to music with theater. We want this space to be used as a resource for all arts with the spirit of jazz."

Reuters/Billboard