THE LOST MUSEUM
JAZZ EXPOSÉ: THE NEW YORK JAZZ MUSEUM AND THE POWER STRUGGLE THAT DESTROYED IT by Howard E. Fischer
53 Reasons to Read This Book (see - www.NYJazzMuseum.com)
Have you ever heard of the New York Jazz Museum? Most people have not.
Yet between 1972 and 1977 it was the most significant institution for jazz in the world! With the opening of the Lincoln Center jazz facility
and the large federal grant for the National Jazz Museum in
Harlem this book looks back to present the story of a Lost Museum.
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, 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.
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.
Contact: (212) 579-0689.
