New York Jazz Museum

The New York Jazz Museum was, from 1972–1977 one of the most important centers for the study of jazz. At its height it held 25,000 items. It was founded by Howard Fischer, among others, but closed after five years amid a power struggle between Howard and other curators.

Until the opening of a new museum of jazz, the Jazz Museum in Harlem the only other important collections of Jazz was The New Orleans Jazz Club Collections at the Louisiana State Museum and the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City.

It was situated in its own two-story building in mid-town Manhattan and had a small staff, an archive that eventually numbered about 25,000 items and extensive programs in New York City and beyond. Some of the programs won awards and most of them were received with widespread acclaim in the media and from jazz fans. There were the Calvert Extra Sunday Concerts – 40 per year, the Jazz Puppet Show, the Jazz Film Festivals, the Jazz Panorama – an audio visual history of jazz, The Jazz Store, Information Center, the exhibits – Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Bird & Diz: The Bebop Era, The Sax Section, Count Basie and His Bands, Billie Holiday Remembered, About John Coltrane and the Jazz Trumpet. Posters and booklets were produced in conjunction with the exhibits and there was so much more. An extended power struggle ensued that eventually caused the Museum's demise. Entangled in the fatal conflagration was the "Jazz Fraternity," which included the most prominent names in jazz – musicians, producers, writers, artists, et al.

References

• Fischer, Howard E. Jazz exposé: the New York Jazz Museum and the power struggle that destroyed it‎ Sundog Ltd, Nashville, TN (2004) 134pp. ISBN 9781932203875 This book tells the whole story for the first time. It was written by Howard E. Fischer, founder of the Museum and its Executive Director.

External links

• Official website of the The American Jazz Museum