Russell Johnson, a legend in the esoteric field of sound engineering, led the team that created the timbre of the spaces. Acoustical design is a difficult art; for each new concert hall with sound that shimmers, there's one that's dead on arrival. The glass in the cavernous Allen Room is designed to diminish harsh aural bounce, the recording studio is acoustically isolated, and the entire Rose Theater is a box suspended within the larger box of the Time Warner building. Maple floors in the recording studio are sprung, like floors in dance studios: mounted above the concrete base on the equivalent of thick rubber washers. The resulting sound is richer, fuller, more alive.
In a way, none of this matters if the art is not great, and though Marsalis and his band can cook, JALC's artistic profile has been fairly conservative. Instrumental jazz is historically a misogynistic art, and Jazz at Lincoln Center has been something of a guys' club during its 14 years. (Until recently there were no women in the jazz orchestras; now, twentysomething alto sax dynamo Erica von Kleist has joined the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.) Until a few years ago, JALC was not a place to hear the screaming innovations of Ornette Coleman or musicians of the jazz avant-garde. But as the center has grown, its outlook has matured and broadened.
Of course, all the steel and stone of JALC's grand new home could make it a kind of trap, representing a more choreographed approach to a typically improvisatory art. JALC executive director Derek Gordon foresees no such conflict: "When you consider Wynton's vision, when you look at Viñoly and his creative design, you see that everything is meant to be flexible," he says. "The Rose Theater can be configured in a variety of ways. The Allen Room is designed to accommodate a range of events and activities. Many different types of visitors will want to come to this space, and we want them to feel welcome. Wynton calls this 'the House of Swing,' and that is the principle behind everything here. It's got to flow; it's got to swing."
Jazz at Lincoln Center, Broadway at 60th St., New York; 212/721-6500; for complete schedule of performances, see www.jalc.org.
ROBERT SANDLA writes for Opera News, Dance Magazine, and Playbill.
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