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One of the biggest jazz festivals in the world - George Wein's New York JVC Jazz Festival - has gone belly up:

Around this time of year, posters for the JVC Jazz Festival would be appearing on the streets of New York, and jazz tourists would be finalizing plans to arrive in the middle of June for two weeks of bragworthy shows.

But for the first time in 37 years, there will be no major summer jazz festival in New York. Nor will there be related series in Miami or Chicago, as the concert company behind them is suffering a financial crisis.

At stake is one of the most celebrated legacies in American music. Two years ago the impresario George Wein sold his company, Festival Productions, to a group led by Chris Shields, a charismatic entrepreneur who planned to transform Mr. Wein's empire through aggressive growth. Now that plan has all but collapsed, as Mr. Shields's company, Festival Network, has lost its top sponsor, as well as several signature festivals, delivering what many call a painful blow to jazz.

It's a sad day, indeed, when New York City loses it's biggest jazz festival after 37 years. A depressing sign of the times. But dangerous?

"Losing a major jazz festival kind of tells the world that maybe this music isn't marketable," said Joel Chriss, a booking agent whose roster includes Randy Brecker and Freddy Cole. "It's potentially dangerous."

This music will survive...it always has...even through the "dark days" of jazz fusion in the early 70's, which was supposed to usher in the end of "straight-ahead" jazz. Times change, but the spirit of this music is too big to keep down (even the original fusion was a robust, vibrant, offshoot of the music from Louis Armstrong through John Coltrane). Indeed, there most likely will a new iteration of the great NYC Jazz Festival next year (finger's crossed), says the current CEO of the JVC Jazz Festival:

Mr. Shields says the story is not over. He wants to present a New York jazz festival next year. Although his company has been battered, he says its underlying model is sound. "This business plan can succeed, absolutely," he said. "You've seen it succeed in the promotions business, you've seen it happen in sports, you've seen it happen in management. We by no means have given up."

If there's money to be made on jazz music, someone will figure out a way to make it. Otherwise, the new model of support may just be the non-profit foundation way. We shall see...we shall see.

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