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Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS/APJazz impresario George Wein was one of the most visionary figures in American music. As founder of the Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, Wein changed how jazz was presented. -
Peter Kemp/AP/APJazz impresario Norman Granz had a strong passion for justice that influenced both the music and the culture surrounding it. In 1944, he started Jazz at the Philharmonic, which brought jazz out of smoky clubs and into major concert halls, lifting the art form to a new level of respect.
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While jazz is an art form, it’s also a living science of sound. Every note we play, and every chord we shape, is based on the physics of vibration. -
Few places in American music history carry the weight and legacy of Minton’s Playhouse. Tucked inside Harlem’s Hotel Cecil, Minton’s became the beating heart of innovation in the 1940s, a sanctuary where musicians pushed boundaries and reshaped the future of jazz. -
Yoshi’s began in 1972 as a small Japanese restaurant near the University of California, Berkeley, but it quickly became a gathering spot for musicians, students, and artists eager for live improvisation. -
Chicago’s Jazz Showcase is one of the great guardians of the music. Founded in 1947 by Joe Segal, the venue became a home for the biggest names in jazz. -
Chicago’s Green Mill Cocktail Lounge is among the oldest continuously operating jazz clubs in the country, with a history that reflects a slice of American nightlife. -
Few jazz venues have shaped the music quite like The Blue Note in New York City. Since opening in 1981, it has become one of the world’s premier jazz rooms. -
The Cotton Club stands as one of the most legendary and complex venues in jazz history. Opening in Harlem in 1923, it became the epicenter of the Harlem Renaissance, showcasing the era’s most brilliant Black musicians while primarily entertaining white audiences. -
Birdland Jazz Club in New York City stands as one of jazz’s true epicenters. It opened in 1949 and was named for the legendary alto saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker. -
The Village Vanguard in New York City is a living legend. It opened in 1935 in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, and this intimate basement venue has been home to countless live recordings. -
Preservation Hall in New Orleans is a legendary beacon for jazz lovers worldwide. Since 1961, it has celebrated, protected, and kept the city’s iconic jazz tradition alive, especially when that heritage was at risk of fading away.
