At the 2015 Venice Biennale, jazz pianist, composer and artist Jason Moran recreated two of New York City’s most iconic jazz club stages to interrogate the social and artistic impact the spaces had on the music.

The life-size installations focus on two defining, but very different clubs; Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, whose large open dance floor and cacophonous band shell was built for lindy hopping Midtowners getting down to the greatest swing bands of era; and the soft-padded stage of the Three Deuces on 52nd Street, which was an incubator for be-bop’s hard grooving pioneers like Charlie Parker and Max Roach.

Bringing the installations home to New York City for the first time, Jason Moran’s STAGED opens at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick gallery today, a touchstone for investigating the visual and architectural history of jazz in the context of the city’s rapidly changing social fabric.

Accompanying the original exhibition, Jason Moran has released a three track EP of original recordings, via The Vinyl Factory.

STAGED runs until 30th July at Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick gallery. This story is originally published on The Vinyl Factory

Credits:

Filmed & edited: Pawel Ptak
NYC Filming: Jason Bergman
Produced by: Anoushka Seigler & Anton Spice

Archive footage:
Ella’s Archives
The Motion Devotion
William P. Gottlieb
Bob Parent

Thanks to:
Roland Augustine and Lauren Wittels at Luhring Augustine

Music: Thelonius Monk – ‘Round Midnight
Bird & Diz – Bloomdido
John Coltrane – My Favourite Things
Jason Moran – He Cares
Ella Fitzgerald & Chick Webb – St. Louis Blues
Max Roach – Driva Man