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The director of the non -profit location has reserved and guided artists of his intestine for a long time.

By Stephanie Jones

Rio Sakairi patted around inside her purse and retrieved a key that unlocks the elevator at 1158 Broadway. Exiting on the fifth floor, she glanced toward the black door leading to the performance space in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood, where the Jazz Gallery has made its home since 2012. The saxophonist Ben Wendel’s four-vibraphone band was about to perform on this January night: “This one you want to hear from the beginning,” she said.

The Jazz Gallery has long had a reputation as a live music venue where artists take risks and stretch their sound. This year, the nonprofit is celebrating its 30th anniversary; Sakairi has served as its artistic director since 2000. (She received the formal title in 2009.)

“It’s just the music that stimulates my decisions,” he said, placing his coat on a sofa in the gallery boardroom. Sakairi, 53, scheduled the position during the time he has worked there. “When other people ask me what I play, I say jokes:” I touch musicians. “

Sakairi is credited with nurturing an environment that has given major artists an early boost, including Gretchen Parlato, Linda May Han Oh, Gerald Clayton, Lizz Wright, Vijay Iyer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Miguel Zenón, Kris Davis and Robert Glasper. “Absolutely my first real show as a leader” was at the Gallery, Glasper said via email, adding that the venue “was always open to me exploring what was in my mind and working it out live in front of an audience.”

While those artists remember, Sakairi was a fierce defender, Franco of expression and artistic development.

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