Brian Lera on WNYC, and now we continue our Pledgedive mini-series on some of the lesser-known music worlds of New York City, not the top of the charts, types of music, but some of the music

scenes around genres that could maybe only be found in an arts-loving city like ours, which is a

magnet, of course, for artists of all types.

We're hearing about some of these niche music communities and how you can get involved

if you're interested as an artist or a listener and how they make

it work in this expensive city when you're not making pop charts kind of art.

Our guest for today is Patricia Nicholson Parker, a dancer, choreographer, and poet who is

the executive director of Arts for Art, an organization that embraces music, movement, and improvisation in the arts

and in activism.

We'll hear another clip or two that's relevant to her work as we go for the fun of it.

Patricia, welcome to the Brian Laird Show.

Hello, thank you for inviting me.

I noticed that the Arts for Art website features a quotation

from saxophonist or Nett Coleman on your homepage. It says jazz is the only music in which the same

note can be played night after night, but differently each time. I love that. It even applies to

this show.

Is jazz central to the organization's work?

It is.

Yes, it is.

Especially what we call free jazz or avant jazz or what I now often just call creative

improvised music.

That is central to what we do.

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