Jazz fans are pretty passionate, and when they find themselves in New York City their passion runs red hot. Luckily there are literally hundreds of places to satisfy every type of jazz urge.  Singers like Billie Holiday, Betty Carter, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald have left an indelible mark on the scene; as have the master instrumentalists and composers like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk.  From piano trios in the basement clubs of Greenwich Village to the all-night jam sessions of Harlem; from the new breed in Brooklyn to old school Latin in the Bronx, a music lover can easily become a cavity-ridden-kid-in-a-candy-store when they chomp down on the Big Apple Jazz Scene.  

My passions have run deep into this scene, first by enjoying the sounds as a spectator since bursting out of college in 1983.  Then by 1997 I discovered the internet and with old school DIY NYC chutzpah I managed to launch a website and tour company, Big Apple Jazz, to help myself and others to keep track of the ebb and flow of great live jazz clubs' opening and closing.  The people who join me from around the world on my nightly jazz jaunts are invariably delighted to find out that the music, the clubs, the other patrons and even the food that they encounter all exceed their expectations.   

Even non jazz-loving spouses and children, who join my tours to be supportive of the jazz fanatic in their family end up re-evaluating their innate bias against live jazz.  Most come to realize that the music they hear and the love and passion that fuels it, is some of the most authentic expressions of joy and creativity that has come along in a while and they can't help but value the experience as supremely positive and swinging - sometimes even spiritual. 

One of my personal goals since I started this project has been to help elevate the status of "hearing a live jazz performance" while visiting (or living in) New York City to that of "taking in a Broadway show," "going to the Statue of Liberty," "getting to the top of the Empire State Building," "checking out a museum or gallery," or "eating great food."   My other goal is to prove night after night that the experience deserves to be at the top of that list because jazz is something that New York does better than every other place on Earth.

See for yourself: More information and ticket availability

Peace,

Gordon Polatnick, CEO
Big Apple Jazz Tours