When The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik described NYC as an “inverted garden, with all the flowers blooming down in the basements,” he was referring to the Village Vanguard. Down a steep staircase, the darkly lit, wedge-shaped, great-sounding West Village haunt has weathered every storm since the mid-’30s and remains the platinum standard for jazz achievement. Live albums from the Vanguard are a vital subgenre, spanning from Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane to Brad Mehldau and Gerald Clayton.

What started as Roy Hargrove’s rehearsal space in the mid-’90s became New York’s chief incubator of emerging talent in the 2000s, launching the careers of Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Miguel Zenón, Dafnis Prieto, Tyshawn Sorey (all of them later MacArthur Fellows), and many more. The intimate, membership-driven community space, first in SoHo and now at 27th and Broadway, continues its showcasing of bold new artists including Patricia Brennan, Immanuel Wilkins, Melissa Aldana, and James Francies.

In its ’90s BYOB days, Smalls birthed a jazz scene unto itself, with core players almost living at the club. Jam sessions went all night, and new artists like Jason Lindner and Omer Avital laid the groundwork for the jazz bounty of today. After a long shutdown, Smalls was acquired by ace pianist Spike Wilner and partners and renovated to become what it is now—an electrifying jazz hang with a legit bar. Its sister club, Mezzrow, just across 7th Avenue, has made itself equally indispensable.

Smoke on the Upper West Side began life as Augie’s, home to a new class of young virtuosos including Peter Bernstein, Brad Mehldau, and Larry Goldings. Shrewdly noting the space’s potential, Paul Stache turned it into the smarter-looking Smoke in 1999. The tight quarters were expanded to two lovely rooms and a serious kitchen, co-owned and run by Molly Sparrow Johnson, Stache’s wife. Top-tier bands come through on the regular, led by Orrin Evans, Wayne Escoffery, Nicholas Payton, and many more.

The big idea for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s opening of 2004 was three performance spaces, one of them a jazz club. Dizzy’s Club is smaller and less formal than Rose Theater or The Appel Room yet still spacious, backlit by large windows overlooking Columbus Circle. The roster includes esteemed leaders such as Ed Cherry, Aaron Diehl, Allison Miller, and Billy Childs, and food and drink are bounteous as well. The club’s Late Night Sessions continues to provide a platform for emerging artists.

The tables may be snug, but there’s something special about entering the Blue Note on West 3rd Street (no relation to the storied record label) and cocooning right near the bandstand. Maybe you’d see a legend on the order of Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, or Ron Carter, or a trailblazing icon like Meshell Ndegeocello, or virtuosos such as Marcus Strickland, Robert Glasper, and Logan Richardson. Even from the cheaper bar seating the sight lines are good, the sound big and enveloping.

The original Birdland, its name a reverent nod to Charlie Parker, was a major shrine in jazz history on Broadway and 52nd from 1949-1965. In the mid-’80s it returned, 50 blocks north but still on Broadway, before settling on its current location near Times Square. Comfortably roomy, with a classy but never stuffy ambiance, Birdland has attracted the top ranks of the art form, including Billy Hart, Dave Holland, Maria Schneider, the late Frank Kimbrough, and countless others.

Jazz heads know and love At the Cafe Bohemia (1956) by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. Kenny Dorham, Charles Mingus, and others recorded there as well, and Oscar Pettiford wrote a tune inspired by the club, “Bohemia After Dark.” The place was surprisingly short-lived (1955-1960), and then but a memory—until 2019, when it rose like a phoenix, in the original Barrow Street location no less (kind of like the rebirth of Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem). Bookings are consistently superb.

Of Swedish and Turkish descent, tenor saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin launched Nublu on Avenue C and watched it turn into a haven for everyone from late avant-garde bandleader Butch Morris to adventurous world-pop acts Forro in the Dark, Brazilian Girls, and more. Now in two different spots along the avenue known locally as Loisaida, Nublu pushes musical boundaries all year long, but significantly during January’s annual Winter Jazzfest, when it serves as a hub of inspirational next-level programming.

Roulette continues a journey it began in Tribeca in 1978. The avant-garde concert space moved to SoHo in 2000 and finally a larger Brooklyn theater on Atlantic Avenue in 2011. Tim Berne, Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton—that’s the caliber of improviser and composer Roulette has presented over many years, along with the annual Vision Festival and a host of other experimental music, dance, and multimedia. The old Beaux Arts hall has an inviting feel, with the balcony an attractive bonus.