NYC Alive With the Sound of Music

One of the most popular jazz institutions in New York is also one of the most unusual.

It has no cover charge, no drink minimum—and no stage, at least in the conventional sense of the word. It would be easy to walk by its headquarters, on the second floor of an unassuming building on West 127th Street, without noticing a thing.

The Jazzmobile Organization has been putting on free outdoor concerts in the summer since the 1960s, using a van as its stage, and attracting large audiences to see some of the most prominent jazz musicians in the city. These concerts, which take place in July and August, range across all five boroughs and include weekly concerts at two Harlem venues—Grant’s Tomb on Wednesdays and Marcus Garvey Park on Fridays.

“These are places where this music isn’t often played,” said Chris Washburne, an assistant professor of music and jazz instructor at Columbia.

Jazzmobile was founded in 1964. According Washburne, it arose from the perception that jazz had become separated from the public, especially in the communities that originally gave rise to it.

Today Jazzmobile operates under the direction of Production Coordinator Johnny Garry, who began his New York jazz career in 1942 and has remained deeply dedicated to the music.

According to Garry, Jazzmobile’s mission hasn’t changed since its founding. “It’s stayed the same,” he said, “dedicated to jazz. The good times and the hard times and all, you know.”

As Garry tells it, the good times for jazz in New York were decades ago, when “you could get in [to a jazz club] for two dollars and stay the night.” Garry said that musicians in the 1940s didn’t demand the compensation that has driven the price of live jazz to its present levels. “Money was secondary—the music was first,” he said.

Now, however, he sees a jazz scene that is too expensive for most ordinary New Yorkers. According to Washburne, a mainstream jazz club can cost $35 to $50, which is “prohibitive for many people in society.”

“That’s why Jazzmobile is so important,” said Garry.

Garry acknowledges that providing an alternative in an environment of rising costs is only part of his mission. Turning children and young adults into jazz fans is one of Jazzmobile’s admittedly more difficult goals. Garry cited the influence of newer, more popular forms of music such as hip-hop as one of the reasons it is so difficult to create a younger fan base. Washburne also noted cuts in school music programs.

“The music is not taught in band programs,” he said.

He praised Jazzmobile’s outreach to children but stressed the importance of teaching jazz in the classroom. “You have to get the music in schools,” he said.

Despite the challenges facing jazz today, Garry has kept his faith. Asked why jazz is important, he said, “Because that’s the real music. Jazz has been here since the beginning. It’s our music.”

In addition to concerts, Jazzmobile conducts a series of jazz workshops each year, held on Saturdays for several weeks at John B. Russwurm School, a public school in Harlem. These workshops are open to members the general public, who must register at the beginning of the program each spring. Students may take classes in instrumental performance, singing, and theory. Some of the program’s graduates have gone on to successful jazz careers. Current students of the program can attest to its professionalism.

“I’m impressed,” said Rose Seabrook, a Harlem resident taking theory and voice classes. She heard about Jazzmobile, like many of its students, by word of mouth. “I grew up listening [to jazz],” she said. “My brother is an aficionado... I had been waiting to get in.”

Not all students come to the program familiar with jazz. Lois Jordan, another Jazzmobile student taking voice and theory classes, said that she has been “developing more of an appreciation” of jazz through her classes. She described her teachers as “very knowledgeable.”

“They make it make sense,” she said.

For Charles Davis, who teaches saxophone at Jazzmobile’s workshops, tradition is the key to the continuing relevance of jazz. When asked why people still play jazz, his response was straightforward: “It’s carrying on the tradition. Why do people play music?”

The students, too, speak of the cultural importance of jazz.

“It’s influenced all forms of music,” Seabrook said.

Jordan stressed its place as an important African American contribution to American music. “It’s our art form,” she said.

It is also music that people, given the opportunity, still want to hear. According to Garry, Jazzmobile concerts can still attract thousands of listeners. But he admits that the place of jazz in popular culture is not as secure as it once was.

“All we can do is keep fighting,” he said. “We have struggled through all of life just to keep what we do and what we believe.”