The SmallsLIVE Foundation Newsletter

[rlfun]

Indeed. I can't imagine what it's been like for Spike. Getting bounced around for a year by Cuomo and DeBlasio, who hate each other. Then some anonymous, heartless fool accused him of breaking city rules even though he wasn't. NYC has big plans of opening damn near everything and Cuomo needs a ratings boost. Could be trouble.

[jtx]

At this point, I think Cuomo is in need of a personality bypass. Spike was definitely done hard by circumstances, and should never have ended up the hot water that anonymous person put him in.

[rlfun]

The SmallsLIVE Foundation Newsletter
5/10/21

Dear Friends -

So we've got three weeks under our belt in operation at both venues. At Mezzrow we've now extended the week to include Tuesday and Wednesday. The limitations on our capacities is still at the COVID-19 levels (15 at Smalls and 13 at Mezzrow) but I believe there will be an increase in the next week or so. The rules are vague (as usual) because Smalls and Mezzrow kind of fall between the cracks as either a "venue" or a "bar" - we never know which one we really are according to the State Liquor Authority. Regardless, people have been coming. We've had nothing but "sold out" shows of enthusiastic and delighted audiences that are thrilled to be in the clubs again listening to the high-level music we offer.

Our Jazz Scene is resilient. The musicians are coming out, the fans are showing up. Everyone's anxious to return to our previous lives. I'm beginning to have faith that we will survive this. It was like a test of wills to see who would crack but we kept our poise and slugged it out day after day. The music is still vibrant and our club culture still there, ready to come back as soon as they allow us to. It confirms for me how important and necessary our music is for people. It's a healing force. People need to be together, social and absorbing the positive and energetic vibes that we offer. Even though I'm looking at 15 people in a room that used to hold 74, I am giddy with joy and happy to be back at work. We're going to make it through this.

We are still looking for members who would like to sponsor groups for their live performances. Below this letter is a list of bands in May that could use sponsorship. Your name goes on the site, in the newsletter and is announced at our concert. Your donation is tax-deductible. If you see someone that inspires you that you would like to sponsor (or if you just want to support the club in this way) please email us at foundation@smallslive.com and we will get you all the information. Otherwise, if you think you'd like to come to a live show, we heartily recommend buying an advanced ticket. This ensures your seat as the seats go fast, particularly on the weekend.

My sincerest best wishes to everyone and I hope to see you at the clubs.

Spike

[rlfun]

A fitting end to the "Spike, Smalls, Mezzrow, NYC - Enduring the Pandemic", chronicles. A long journey. Spike deserves a key to the city.

The SmallsLIVE Foundation Newsletter
5/31/21

Dear Friends -

There's a joyfulness in the air. I imagine it's what it might feel like at the end of a war. The battle is done and now returning home. It's been a harrowing ordeal but return to family and familiar ways are joyful and edifying. That's how it's been feeling at Smalls and Mezzrow lately - like a homecoming. As New York's infection rate plummets to the lowest levels seen since the pandemic started, the barstools have started filling up. As confidence in safety and health increases so do the crowds. The music has been stellar. The top forces of our music have come forward and are playing on new levels. After one year of sitting at home practicing, everyone's ready to come out a really hit! It's been amazing. As usual, we are archiving and live-broadcasting as well as greeting our guests, taking some drink orders and just getting back to that vibe.

The SmallsLIVE Foundation (for Jazz Art and Education) proved to be our savior. Without the generous support and concern of those that love us from all over the world, Smalls and Mezzrow would have been toast. One day, I promise to write a book on all the trials and travails the clubs endured - rats, sewage, evil inspectors. It was biblical. Like Job, we kept our faith as the trappings of our lives were stripped away. But perseverance and steadfastness (and blind stubbornness) allowed us to go day to day. The angels of jazz lovers were on our wings and then - lo and behold, as of today all of the curfew restrictions in New York City are now lifted. The subway is 24 hrs again. We may very well have our after-hours again! To celebrate this marvelous event we will begin to present our main shows at 7 and 8:30 PM and then have a house band-led jam sessions each night starting at 10:00 PM. Check the schedule below and if you want to swing by and try to sit in, please do.

I am going to begin to focus the SmallsLIVE Foundation's work away from supporting our clubs and focusing on sponsorship of artist projects. I am proposing the SmallsLIVE Foundation Living Masters Award which will include a cash award to the recipient as well as a video and audio recording to be released in conjunction with Cory Weeds and the Cellar Music Group. Our shortlist of about 8 great artists will be announced soon. We are still offering band sponsorships in our calendar. Take a look at the list below and if there's a band you would like to sponsor and have your name or a dedication listed, please contact us at foundation@smallslive.com for more information.

I'd also like to share this article in today's New York Times that mentions Smalls Jazz Club prominently (with some nice photos). CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE.

As always, I wish everyone peaceful abiding and a gentle reminder to be compassionate. I hope to see you at the clubs!

Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

[jtx]

[rlfun]

Totally agree. I hope that Spike has discussed this with media outlets. It’s a helluva story.

[rlfun]

Update from Spike Wilner: January 17, 2022

Dear Friends:

Smalls and Mezzrow are chugging along, through the thick and the thin of it. I am reluctant to report too much because it seems that everything I write lately is misconstrued and I get some rather angry responses. I don't want to turn the clubs into lightning rods or for people to think I am making any kind of political statements when it is not my intention. But in a way, it seems that what do and have done for 25 years, which is to have people gathered in a club to listen to live jazz performances, is in itself subversive by today's standards. All I can say is that we work hard to maintain the guidelines we are given by the city. We are doing what we are told. However, audiences are coming for shows, musicians are coming for jam session and the artists are creating gorgeous and important music night after night. If anything, the music feels like it's on a higher level than I remember it ever being on. Everyone is serious and these times seem to have filtered away posers and hangers-on and just left the core to preserve the flame.

We've had quite a bit of loss. Our great maestro and teacher Barry Harris has transitioned. Barry lived as full and productive a life as anyone could possibly want. He left a legacy of students and disciples (including myself) who absorbed his lessons and vibe and can hopefully take that spark and light candles to burn in the future. As Buddha said, "thousands of candles may be lit from one candle and its life is not diminished in the least". But we've also lost many other musicians. I am thinking of my very dear friend Montez Coleman, the great and vivacious drummer who was Roy Hargrove's right-hand man for so many years. His smile lit the room when he came in and few were as beloved. He passed at age 45 last week. Holes in the wall - each brick holds its place and as they are removed create a more weakened structure. Our jazz wall has many holes but is nonetheless standing.

And now - another week ahead of us, as usual. Great bands, jam sessions, live streams, recordings - we keep our business of making jazz. We face the challenges but the music is too important to simply quit or stay "temporarily" closed - we will not have it. I hope you can join us, if not in person then virtually through our live stream.

I send everyone my best wishes for a happy and productive week.
Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

Interesting...

Dear Friends:

At the end of this month will mark 15 years that I've been involved in operating and managing Smalls Jazz Club. My college buddy, Lee Kostrinsky, and I came in with the creator of Smalls, Mitch Borden, to partner up and run the club back in February of 2007. There's been quite a bit of transition since then. Our city has changed in so many ways. The jazz scene has changed in so many ways. So many of our friends and colleagues have transitioned. Both Lee and Mitch have gone on their own separate ways and I am now alone here. It's a strange feeling. Sometimes I come to the club and look around and realize that I am the only person left from back in 1994 when the club started. I look at the photos on the walls and I feel like a ghost - the proverbial ghost in the machine. As they say in Buddhism, "clinging to the reeds". Just me, haunting this sacred temple grounds, peeking around corners and watching as the world changes before me.

And yet, sometimes I stand on the foot of the stairs and peer into the tumult of the crowd. The music is vibrant and swinging and the club is packed. Everyone is vibing, the servers are delivering their drink orders in perfect tempo. The audience is ecstatic. Even though the faces have changed, the spirit is still there, this club is still so very much alive. Perhaps dingy and battered but nonetheless resilient with the strength of survival. The survival of our music and our scene and the victory of the Human Spirit over the crushing banality of our new corporate world. We live, Smalls lives, Jazz lives.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the clubs and wish everyone a happy and productive week.

Sincerest Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

Two long years......

Dear Friends -

On March 16th, 2020, I saw something that I had never seen before in all my time in New York City - restaurants giving away all their food. It wasn't a block party or a festival. It was an order from our governor to shut down all businesses in New York City as a preemptive measure against the oncoming COVID pandemic. Restaurants knew they had to get rid of all their perishables and started just giving away food to anyone who could take it - steaks, bread, dairy. The business had been slowing down considerably in the preceding week and bands were canceling left and right. I still couldn't seem to get my mind around what was about to happen to us. My friend Jesse Davis called me from Italy and warned me that I had no idea what we were in for. I remember thinking he was nuts. I thought that we'd be closed two or three nights at best - there was no way they were going to close us for a week. How wrong I was. So, now, here we are nearly two years later to the day. Having survived a year and half of being closed and then another 6 months of severe restrictions to our capacity, hours, and operation.

Now things feel like they are "normal" - the new normal, I guess. The clubs are packed again and it's beginning to really feel vibrant again. I'm still seeing faces coming out of the woodwork, slightly bewildered and knocking the cobwebs out, but joyous and grateful to be back in our confines. We definitely fought hard for this - the right to be open and present music. I will always look back at this period with feelings of awe, fear, amazement, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude to all the friends, musicians, fans, and supporters who kept us alive.

As usual, we have an amazing lineup ahead of us for the week. Please take a moment to peruse our shows and consider coming down to hear some of this live. As always, we livestream all our shows from our own website as well as our Facebook and Youtube pages for no charge. I wish everyone a peaceful and productive week and look forward to seeing you at the club.

Sincerest Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

Live st Smalls tonight. Great group.

Steve Turre (tr) Josh Evans (tr),Vincent Harring (as), Mike Ledonne (p), Peter Washington (b), Orion Turre (d)
Live at Smalls Jazz Club - New York City - 4/22/22
for more info - www.smallslive.com

[rlfun]

The latest from Spike who comes out swinging at detractors......

SmallsLIVE Newsletter

Dear Friends -

As Summer progresses to Fall I can't help but consider the passage of time - the water flowing under the bridge. I look around at the scene and the clubs. My good friend Gerry Gibbs performed last week for the first time in New York in nearly 3 years. He told me: "Spike, I came by the session the night before and the club was jam packed, the band was killing and the vibe amazing - only thing is I didn't recognize a single person!". This made me smile. I know, I know - the transitions of time, people growing older and moving on, the new younger scene taking over. Like the Bud Powell record, "The Scene Changes". I've said it before, sometimes I feel like the ghost in the machine, haunting a place that I, perhaps, should have left centuries ago but still linger - "clinging to the reeds", as the say in Buddhism.

Smalls has its share of detractors. People who say Smalls isn't the same club anymore. People who will see some two-bit club in Brooklyn and somehow think it's "like Smalls was", or something stupid like that. Nothing is like Smalls in my opinion. We can withstand the slings and arrows of criticism but we are still open night after night. We are still employing 28 bands a week. We are the oasis in the desert of banality that is the current New York City. People don't realize that we drop our cover charge around midnight and that every night, seven nights a week, we have jam sessions until 3 AM. Can someone please tell me about another place in the 5 boroughs where you can go at 2 AM, hear some music, have a drink and even sit in? There is none. We are last club standing. Sometimes when you are so ubiquitous people take you for granted. Perhaps that's the case with Smalls but show me our competitor? Where's the alternate? Smalls is still here, 28 years and running and with no sign of stopping. We are here, come join us for a drink, a blues, a warm smile and welcome at 2AM. We will be open.

My Sincerest Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

Latest from Spike:

The SmallsLIVE Newsletter - 12/26/2022

Dear Friends -

I find it hard to believe that I've now been involved with Smalls Jazz Club since 1994. The club is closing in on 30 years of operation. I remember well, it was just after the closing of The Village Gate, that my friend Grant Stewart told me about a new club (Smalls) that was opening and that he was playing the debut show. Mitch Borden was at the helm and Mitch and I soon became friends. Mitch entrusted me with running the Tuesday night jam sessions (1AM to 6AM) and my relationship with Smalls was born. The entire spectrum of my life has been refracted in this club. Besides the hundreds of gigs and sessions there's been weddings (my own included), funerals (not mine, yet), birthday parties and retirements. We've seen many musicians come through and some, pass away. We survived burst water mains, exploded steam pipes, rat invasions, 9/11 and finally, COVID. Some of the older cats have a starry-eyed remembrance of the "old" Smalls but for me it's all been the same - a beautiful and vibrant sanctuary for jazz musicians, fans and artists. I've said it before but as I stand there on the steps and look down, into the tumult of the club in operation with bands playing and drinks being served, I feel nothing but amazement. All of this still happening night after night, year after year. It's nothing short of miraculous.

All I can say is "thank you" - to everyone, the cats, the staff, the fans, the world-wide jazz community and to the Lord. We are protected here, we are grateful beyond compare. I wish everyone the most sincere and best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year and that Smalls, Mezzrow and everyone one of us can continue to perform, sit-in, keep woodshedding and propogating this music that means so much to us - jazz music.

Sincerest Regards,

Spike

[rlfun]

Spike posted this on Facebook last night. Means I still might have a chance to see Mezzrow:

As hard as it is for me to believe this, the Mezzrow 10 year lease expires in January. So many rich memories in that club over 10 years! I am pleased to announce that our landlord has agreed to extend our lease for another 10 years at very favorable terms. Mezzrow of the future here we come!

Spike Wilner

[jtx]

[rlfun]

I'm really going to try this year. Not in the winter.