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The NY Times recently ran a story the end of an era in the Lower East Side music scene:

The corridor is dark and grim. A saxophone reed sits on a space heater. A lonely air freshener protrudes from the wall. Seven rooms lie off the corridor, including a bathroom for the courageous.

Incongruously, inside these forlorn rooms, some of New York's finest jazz, funk and rock musicians found a home for their work. They led their own bands, hatched plans for dozens of records and served as the musical backbone for well-known performers like Norah Jones and Dizzy Gillespie, Tom Waits and Cyndi Lauper, Enrique Iglesias and Wynton Marsalis.

For 22 years, the basement at 106 Rivington has existed as an under-the-radar practice space and rehearsal studio. But its days are done.

Indeed, many of our musicians either rehearsed down in that stinky basement or rented slots over the years. Back in the day, it was an affordable, albeit slightly funky and dangerous spot in Manhattan. No more. With almost all of Manhattan gentrified at this point, no serious musician or artist newly arrived in New York City spends even 5 minutes searching for studio space in that borough. Off to Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx they go.

Last month, the landlord, after receiving numerous citations and fines for building code violations -- a number of them specifically related to the makeshift studio -- let the musicians know they were being evicted. Friday was the deadline.

For the past two weeks, they have been moving out equipment, sometimes showing up for a last rehearsal or jam session. The eviction was no surprise to them, really. In a gentrified Lower East Side of slick hotels, including the Hotel on Rivington across the street and chic boutiques, the musicians frequenting the basement have long known that they would not have the space forever. So most agreed on one thing when they invited a reporter in for a final look: no eulogies and no sad stories about another dying slice of New York. And many were not going to miss its dilapidated state.

The End of an Era, indeed. One axiom in the music world which is set in stone: All Gigs Come to and End. Voila!

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