{"id":29,"date":"2024-02-11T17:14:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jazzonjay.org\/?page_id=29"},"modified":"2024-02-27T16:13:05","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T16:13:05","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jazzonjay.org\/?page_id=29","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy and Tim Coakley at the Annual Schenectady JAM concert.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The origins of the name \u201cJazz on Jay\u201d can be traced back four decades. Tim Coakley, the legendary Capital Region jazz historian and one of the first Jazz on Jay performers, says concerts began in the 1980s. Sponsored by the Jay Street Merchants Association, it ran during the evenings when stores would be open. But economic turmoil took its toll and the series ended.\u202f\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Maureen Gebert visited Boston’s Quincy Market and the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in the mid-1990s, she noticed how the downtown area came alive with music.\u202f\u201cMusicians just set up outside shops and I realized it was something we could do on Jay Street,\u201d said Gebert, who started working for the City of Schenectady\u2019s development office in 1995. Others liked the idea, so Gebert sought out musicians for a six-week series of 90-minute concerts on Wednesdays.\u202f<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBelieve me, this was a low-budget endeavor. I went up and down the street asking shop owners to put chairs out. A few businesses even contributed money so we could pay the musicians. One of the first groups was the Terry Gordan Quintet, who drove up from Schoharie,\u201d Gebert said. \u201cI knew it was working when one day I was watching from a distance and a woman came up to me and said, ‘We have this every week, isn’t it wonderful?\u2019”\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n

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Jazz on Jay inside Proctors<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Gebert applied for a Schenectady County Initiative Program grant. \u201cSince I had to have a name for the event to apply, I called it Jazz on Jay, not always jazz, always on Jay,\u201d Gebert said, noting that with Proctors hosting the rain location, \u201cthe reverse is true now\u2014always jazz\u2014not always on Jay.\u201d\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gebert credited Karen B. Johnson, former Schenectady Mayor and longtime Proctors staffer, \u201cfor taking pity on me and helping to really turn it into a series. Both Karen and I wanted this series to be an opportunity for the younger musicians, because we had such talented kids in our schools,\u201d Gebert recalled.\u202f\u00a0<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those early years, concerts started at noon on Wednesdays. In 1999, the series moved to Thursdays.<\/mark><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The origins of the name \u201cJazz on Jay\u201d can be traced back four decades. Tim Coakley, the legendary Capital Region jazz historian and one of the first Jazz on Jay performers, says concerts began in the 1980s. Sponsored by the Jay Street Merchants Association, it ran during the evenings when stores would be open. But…<\/span><\/p>\n

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