Jazz Central Studios

As a exponent of the creative ecology of the Twin Cities, Jazz Central Studios holds that the jazz arts are essential to community vitality. JCS embraces the diversity of expression, and seeks to provide opportunities for celebrating the experience of jazz. JCS advocates for jazz culture, defined broadly as a part of the African-American expressive response to American history, which has become an international symbol of justice and freedom of participation in creativity. In its participation in UNESCO's International Jazz Day each April 30th, JCS supports the values of spontaneity, inclusion, expressivity, collaboration with the interdisciplinary arts, and the decompartmentalization of style and genre. At JCS, jazz is grounded in a participatory, interactive, open and boundary-crossing transactional mode of musical and cultural communication between artists and audiences.

As a community-based non-profit (501 (c)3) musical arts organization dedicated to the performance, education, and experience of jazz as broadly defined as a multidimensional and multicultural artform, Jazz Central Studios is committed to the preservation of the unique legacy of jazz culture in the Twin Cities through its partnership with the Twin Cities Jazz Festival; moreover, Jazz Central Studios, through the efforts of its highly qualified artistic directors, advisers, and associates, acts responsibly and proactively in planning for the benefit of future audiences, to ensure excellence in, and access to, jazz performing, active learning, and vibrant music experiences through grant opportunities and enhanced efforts in community outreach.