"To live in the world of creative music is a blessing," says jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano. "And Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center have given us in the jazz community a solid home base to develop and express our innermost passions, ideas, and explorations. The foundations of jazz are clear. Now it's up to us as musicians to dare and improvise to create music into tomorrow. Imagination and execution is everything."

Last fall, Jazz at Lincoln Center opened the doors to the world's first performing arts center built for and dedicated to jazz. Since then, Frederick P. Rose Hall has become a great jazz destination and a center of the jazz world in New York.

But jazz is more geographically diverse than that. Jazz came out of the great cultural stew of New Orleans. She spread to the great cities of the heartland, went West to give birth to the cool, and came East to Pittsburgh and Philly, as well as to New York. The contemporary masters featured in Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2005-2006 season come from these great American cities.

The season will spotlight these places where jazz took its roots and where it grew into the magnificent art form that it is today‹cities with their own special brand of jazz like New Orleans and Kansas City, as well as such jazz hotspots as Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Philadelphia. With incredible programming planned, many shows in this new season are likely to sell out fast.

"As we strive to establish a greater rapport with our audiences in the House of Swing," says Marsalis, "our new season is designed to welcome musicians and fans from all over the U.S. Jazz music grew up in many important American cities. Of course, even though almost everyone loves where they're from, ultimately, the most ambitious musicians brought their sounds and styles to New York. Jazz people named New York City the 'Big Apple.' They made New York swing. That's why so much attention is paid to New York as the capital of jazz. But let's not forget the importance of those tributary cities that give this music a truly national foundation. The jazz tradition in these cities continues today."

Jazz at Lincoln Center President/CEO Derek E. Gordon puts it this way: "The opening of Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home‹Frederick P. Rose Hall‹has enhanced the country's artistic landscape with significant effect and to international acclaim. We intend to continue our contribution to American culture in that tradition with our upcoming season. Jazz at Lincoln Center will celebrate this great music by recognizing the great American cities where the masters of jazz were born or achieved fame. All roads lead to New York, but it takes a nation to truly represent the art form of jazz."

Gordon concludes, "As each stream flows into the growing strength of the river, so will Jazz at Lincoln Center add to the positive forward momentum of jazz music. Our culture and this music are enriched by the regional influences of the cities where jazz was nurtured. Bringing it all together in the great city of New York will only heighten the creativity. Welcome."

Cities represented in the upcoming 2005-2006 season are:

Subscribing now will assure you the best seats at a discount to all upcoming shows before single concert tickets go on sale to the public. Renewing subscribers may keep their seats from last season or request improved seats. If there's ever a performance that a subscriber can't attend, Jazz at Lincoln Center will make every effort to exchange their ticket for another performance of the same event. Or it will help the subscriber donate their ticket‹that way the subscriber gets a tax deduction, and a lucky jazz lover gets a seat.

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Scott H. Thompson is Assistant Director-Public Relations for Jazz at Lincoln Center.