bahai-center

Baha’is know the New York City Baha’i Center as a place to convene for Study Circles, devotional gatherings and Holy Day celebrations. Thanks to New York City Baha’is Mike and Dorothy Longo, organizers of the seven-year-old concert series Jazz Tuesdays, musicians and music lovers have come to know the Center as a unique venue for jazz. Each Tuesday night, fans can see two sets of jazz in a smoke and alcohol-free environment for the affordable admissions fee of $15 and $10 for students with ID.

Dorothy Longo, James Jabbo Ware and Mike Longo ©2010 Scott Friedlander

In recognition of work on Jazz Tuesdays, which has brought hundreds of jazz fans to the Center, the Longos were named the recipients of the 2010 Friend of the Family Award, which is given by Y’All of New York, Inc., a prominent jazz organization, to “special folks who are indispensable to the life and vitality of the jazz community in the region and beyond.” They received the award at an Awards Concert featuring James Jabbo Ware and the Me We and Them Orchestra held on October 16^th in the Living Room at Saint Peter’s Church. William Lowe, a trombonist and member of Y’all of New York Inc.’s Board of Directors, opened the evening by saying, “When you enter the Baha’i Center, you are always greeted warmly and made to feel welcome. Everyone is so friendly and supportive.”

Jazz Tuesdays performances are held every Tuesday night in the cozy John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, which was named for the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, a longtime Baha’i who died in 1993 and who, the Longos say, inspired the series. Performers have included many musicians who played with Gillespie, including trombonist Benny Powell, drummer Charlie Persip, and Mike Longo himself. A pianist and composer, Longo worked as Gillespie’s pianist and musical director exclusively for 9 years, and then another 16 years on a part time basis until Gillespie’s illness and death.

Saxophonist Bob Magnuson, who has played Jazz Tuesdays several times, believes that the concert series is one that Gillespie, who cared deeply about building community, would have appreciated. “To do anything in jazz is hard. Rents are high. No one wants to come out. No one wants to pay. There’s no alcohol and food here. For fifteen dollars, you get two sets. And you get community. We see faces of people who would never go to concerts come to this series. That was Dizzy,” he says.