Smoke, New York’s jazz hub, will turn 26 in 2025. As its founder and owner, Paul Stache, points out, many clubs come and go in a few years. So what does Stache mean in Smoke’s impressive quarter-century?

Know what you like and remain Smoke faithful to that formula. “It’s improvised music. And I think at the end of the day, that’s what I like. That’s the merit I have of booking the club and, in short, what others I have to say. “I think there’s a very unbreakable and normal clientele that comes to pay attention to the music,” he says.

As Stache and I spoke over Zoom, it’s about this, about building and maintaining a place where the world’s most productive jazz musicians need to play.

Steve Baltin: Congratulations on the twenty-fifth anniversary.

Paul Stache: I signed the lease in 1998 and opened the doors in April 1999, so yes, time flies. I like: “Shit, 25 years, how did it go? But here we are, yes.

Baltin: I think when you opened Smoke in 1999, you were looking for a much different detail than you were looking for when you were 25 years older and had all this other experience and relationships with musicians.

Stache: I think that’s true. I think when I came here to New York, when I opened Smoke, I was 25, and when I moved to New York, I went to New York, the jazz clubs were what made me feel at home. I grew up around jazz. My father was a big jazz fan and had a gigantic record collection. And when I opened Smoke for the first time, I learned that many of those legendary musicians I grew up listening to now live in New York. So I spend a lot of time researching to find out who is still in New York and who will be able to play. I booked the Benny Golsons of the world and the George Colemans and Harold Maberns. There were many legendary listens. I was surprised by all those legends who live here in New York, Buster Williams, all those other people who are nearby. It was natural for me to call those cats first and go from there. In fact, I laid the musical foundations for the club and ebooking. Above all, show the legends of this music. Clearly, after 25 years, he is surely right. You make new connections, you meet other musicians. People ask me, “What kind of music do you book electronically on Smoke?” » For me, the most important thing is that it is intelligent music. And I try to make the store as big as possible. And, obviously, there is a sure audience that has an aesthetic that also reaches Smoke. Obviously I need to offer what other people need to hear and what they like, but first and foremost, for me, it has to be really intelligent music. And when George Coleman and Harold Mabern opened the club in 1999, you set a popular and pretty high bar in terms of what was offered. But there’s clearly a lot of smart music in New York. People ask me, “Why don’t you open another Smoke somewhere else?” I said, “You know what? This will be difficult to do. The pool of New York musicians is very broad and there is a lot of skill here. Of course, it’s never easy, but it’s less difficult in New York because of the skill here.

Baltin: What has the scene been like throughout your 25 years?

Stache: I talked to Al Foster the other week and we were looking to find out who else is in the Hudson Valley. It turns out that part of New York’s jazz scene lives in the Hudson Valley. You’ve got Dave Holland up there, you’ve got Al Foster up there, I think Joe Lovano is up there. Kevin Hayes would be coming this weekend. It’s that many musicians left the town because the town has become unaffordable, Lorenzo Tujá. And it definitely has an effect. In this scenario I place myself now more than ever, not only as a presenter, but also as a travel agent. I was really disconnected from the phone right before this zoom and needed to book a hotel via email because yes, you’re right. The people of New York are like they used to be. So it definitely affects us, too.

Baltin: Are there any artists for you who define Smoke and who grew up in the club?

Stache: I think Emmet Cohen started coming here to play when he was [young] and it’s been really fun to watch him grow into the musician he is now and it’s just wonderful that he’s still playing at the club for a few years. times a year. Gregory Porter, I don’t forget meeting his manager Paul Ewing before many people knew how incredibly skilled Gregory Porter is. He handed me a CD and I said, “I don’t normally do e-books about artists on CDs. ” » But Paul Ewing insisted that I check it out. So I did it. I brought it without delay, I don’t forget it, Gregory Porter and his organization ended up in a normal residence on Thursday nights. I think they played at that residency for two or three years, I mean. Gregory is notoriously a big star now and with good reason. I’m probably missing other people here. Clearly there have been many wonderful musicians who have come along and noticed many skills expand and grow. Orrin Evans started betting here very early, Jeremy Pelt. Many musicians began to emerge in their teens or twenties and have now become artists. In some ways, it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of this adventure.

Baltin: What do you consider the role of Smoke to be for artists?

Stache: I’m a music fan; I’m not someone who is looking for artists. I seek to offer a position that allows music to flourish and artists to expand their music. And rarely, when it works for them, is it surprising. We feel lucky to be part of it.

Baltin: What do you attribute Smoke’s longevity to?

Stache: I’m not saying it’s easy to fill a jazz club five nights a week with shows, it’s a lot. One of the reasons for the longevity is that put options in New York can be very, not just New York, I’m sure too, modern and a position is big for a few years and then it stops being big and then it disappears, right? ? He doesn’t? So I think leaning on the neighborhood, the audience, the network paintings and the New York audience and presenting music for New Yorkers is what worked for us. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a lot of those credits to some of the phenomenal musicians who come through here. Brandford Marsalis has just passed through the club. A few weeks ago we had Brad Mehldau and Dave Holland, we just closed a race with Cyrus Chestnut. We have Joe Lovano next week. We have Ravi Coltrane hitting the club, opening our Coltrane Festival. We were very fortunate in the sense of what we were able to present. We feel very lucky and grateful to have the opportunity to showcase such wonderful artists. It’s a hard labor of love. It’s the music we love and the music we need to hear. Of course, there are many paintings between the two, but New York audiences also know what they need to see. We are grateful for the artists. Well, it’s funny though because, you know, again, I know.

Baltin: What have you heard from the artists about why they will be playing Smoke?

Stache: I think the intimacy of the room has something to do with it. Although we are a little bigger now, we have an 80-seat space. It’s an 80-seat space with no real green room. We have a little workplace that I give to the musicians when they feel the need, just relax, step aside, step away for a moment. But all that is combined with the audience. So I think the feedback that artists get from audiences is a little more immediate, a little warmer, and a little more intimate here than other places. During the break in filming, the artists meet with everyone else in the lounge next to the bar. It is an intimate feeling. I think that has something to do with it. The other thing I think about, without patting myself on the back too much, is that I have strict criteria for what a concert hall should look and smell like. I think in many cases about the way music is offered. If I have a mistake. I think my partner, who is the executive chef, shares this sentiment: in some ways we are a bit of a perfectionist. If you feature Brad Mehldau, you better make sure you have the most productive piano you can find. And Ron Carter, you better make sure the bass has the sound formula to play, that it sounds as smart as Ron Carter sounds. And those kinds of things are important. I think artists appreciate having a collection of microphones, a sound formula, and a sound engineer who cares about it and can access it, because let’s face it, the audience that comes here is their life set. They practice for hours a day. They play music all the time. So if you’re going to place them in a room, make sure they look good and sound good.

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