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How to Find Great Jazz in New York City. Great jazz is easy to find in New York City, the
jazz capital of the world. You just need to know where to look. You will need An openness
to little-known clubs and a willingness to venture outside manhattan. Step 1. Head to
Greenwich Village, the home of jazz in New York City. Wander the cobble streets and you’re
sure to find some cool spots. You can’t go wrong with the Blue Note or the Village
Vanguard, the legendary Greenwich Village club now in its seventh decade. Step 2. Check
out Birdland. Now located north of Greenwich Village on West 44 Street, Birdland originally
opened a few blocks up Broadway in 1949—with headliner Charlie Parker. Know your jazz etiquette.
Don’t talk loudly—you’re supposed to be listening!—and applaud at the end of
each solo. Step 3. Head north to Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in Columbus Circle’s Time
Warner Center. The club, which is run by Wynton Marsalis’s influential organization, Jazz
at Lincoln Center, features after-hours sets five days a week. Some jazz clubs can be expensive—find
out how much they charge before you go. Step 4. Continue up Broadway to the Upper West
Side club Smoke, famous for its Monday night jam sessions. Most clubs have multiple sets—or
at least an early and a late show. Find out when each set starts. Step 5. Swing by the
Museum of Natural History’s live jazz program, Starry Nights, held in its stunning Rose Center
for Earth and Space on the first Friday of every month. Step 6. Check out jazz clubs
in Harlem, like the storied Lenox Lounge, which has endured since 1939 and hosted such
legends as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, as well as historic Harlem
literary regulars like James Baldwin and Langston Hughes. Step 7. If you’re feeling flush,
see *** Allen and his New Orleans jazz band at Café Carlyle in the Upper East Side’s
swank Carlyle Hotel. The group plays there many Monday nights—but be sure to call ahead
and check. It’s expensive, but if they’re playing, it’ll be worth it. If you’re
visiting New York in the summer, check out the free concerts put on in Queens by Astoria
Jazz Nights at both Astoria Park and the Bohemian Beer Garden, the last beer garden in New York
City. Step 8. Ask around. Just walk into any jazz club and ask either your fellow patrons
or the bartenders for suggestions. True lovers of jazz are always happy to share what they
know. Did you know The origin of the word “jazz” is unknown, but it was first used
to describe music in Chicago in 1915.