Flushing Town Hall to welcome back audience

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The Queens Jazz Orchestra will play the first in-person concert in Flushing Town Hall in over a year next week.  Photo courtesy of FTH

The Queens Jazz Orchestra will play the first in-person concert in Flushing Town Hall in over a year next week.  Photo courtesy of FTH

By Jacob Kaye

After a year away, Flushing Town Hall will welcome concert-goers back into its space to witness the beauty of live jazz next week. 

The Queens Jazz Orchestra at Flushing Town Hall will perform in honor of the late NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath on Friday, June 18 at 7 p.m. in front of 42 people to celebrate the cultural hub’s 42nd anniversary. 

The show, which will also be broadcast virtually, will be the first in-person live performance since Flushing Town Hall closed to the public due to COVID-19 in March of last year. 

“It's really the beginning of Flushing Town Hall as a theater and organization of finally re-emerging, where audiences can now come in and experience the music, experience the culture and experience the presentations live, instead of just looking at it virtually,” said Clyde Bullard, the Flushing Town Hall's jazz producer in residence. “It's a harbinger of change, the beginning of real change.”

The show is dedicated to Heath, a jazz icon and former music director of the Queens Jazz Orchestra. Heath, who died in January 2020, had a prolific career, playing with the likes of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Tony Bennett.

“It's befitting to honor him because Jimmy Heath has given so much credibility, so much beauty, and so much honor to Flushing Town Hall, just by having him perform on stage and be a consultant to the organization for all of these years,” Bullard said. 

Safety precautions will be strictly enforced at next week’s show. Despite changes to the CDC and state guidelines, masks and social distancing will be mandatory, as will the 42 person limit.

But for Bullard, it doesn’t matter if the band is playing to a full house or a limited capacity audience. 

“I'm just looking to feel the vibration of live music and the responses that will probably be elicited from the audience,” he said. “That is my joy – experiencing the music in the moment and seeing the reaction. That makes all of it worthwhile.”