More than 50 years ago, under where Interstate 81 would later be built, stood the Clover Club — Syracuse’s own storied jazz club that saw greats such as legendary saxophonist John Coltrane.

By the 1960s, the Clover Club was gone from Almond Street and it looked like the city’s jazz scene might fall along with it, too. Urban reconstruction left a once vibrant “black music scene” in shambles, said Larry Luttinger, founder of CNY Jazz Central.

CNY Jazz Central has been giving the scene a new lease on life with the CNY Jazz Orchestra and an arts incubator, located a block from the Connective Corridor, that hosts improv comedy, jazz jams, folk singers and other acts. Luttinger’s latest effort has been to bring jazz to neighborhoods where, at one time, it may have thrived, but now is either non-existent or overpriced.

The program, Jazz in the City, has its last concert of the season on Sept. 3 at Le Moyne Plaza. The show will feature Jeff Kashiwa and Four 80 East, both of who play smooth jazz.

“Poor urban neighborhoods are in dire need of cultural activities,” said Luttinger, who is also a former professor and graduate from Syracuse University. “What we’re trying to do is bring everything to them and prove their neighborhoods are vibrant places to work and raise a family.”

Jazz in the City allows local businesses to vend at the show for free and also partners with La Liga Youth Volunteer Corps, which provides job opportunities for at-risk youth. Both aspects of the program underline Luttinger’s hope to have everything come from within the neighborhoods themselves.

“It’s very gratifying to see families leave their homes, bring their lawn chairs and see these concerts in the neighborhoods,” Luttinger said. “Families don’t have the means to go far, so we like to put the art right in front of them.”

Long ago in Syracuse, that’s where the jazz was – right in front of them, said Richard Ford, Executive Director of Signature Music, a non-profit organization that provides music education programs for Syracuse teenagers.

There was the Clover Club, Soo Lin’s on Erie Boulevard, and the Little Brown Jug near Hotel Syracuse, among other jazz clubs interspersed throughout the city. Ford, 78, said he fondly remembers taking the bus downtown in the 1950’s to see the Stan Kenton Orchestra play at the Oncenter. The band would bring budding acts along with them on tour, like Nat King Cole, he said.

But as the city’s big manufacturing companies began to downsize or move out, Ford said Syracuse began to lose its robust jazz culture. What the city now has today are neighborhoods that sometimes can’t afford to spend big money on expensive bars and jazz clubs.

It’s the jazz concerts and communities Ford remembers that Luttinger said he’s trying to preserve through CNY Jazz Central and Jazz in the City. Luttinger said he believes that the organization has now become one of the largest employers of jazz musicians in the Syracuse area.

One of Luttinger’s biggest struggles has been drawing in younger crowds to enjoy and appreciate jazz, he said.
“It’s very difficult to lure students beyond the campus boundaries; even if it’s just a block away, to sample music in the community.” Luttinger said. “It’s really too bad.”

For now, he said he finds joy in seeing jazz make neighborhoods once starved of accessible arts and culture opportunities into places they can be proud of. Recently, Luttinger said Jazz in the City concertgoers enjoyed a gallery of photos showing Syracuse’s cherished jazz clubs — proving that sometimes it’s worth remembering a page from the past.

“Jazz is America’s art form,” Luttinger said. “It’s not pop music, so by definition it’s not popular, but we have to keep this art form alive.”

Published on September 1, 2015 at 11:14 pm

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu