# Jazz, Love and Letting Loose: Brooklyn’s Surprising Senior Jazz Scene: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/12/10/jazz-love-and-letting-loose-brooklyns-surprising-senior-jazz-scene-video/
- Published: 2018-12-10T21:45:37+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**As a producer on **_**Jazz Night in America**_**, part of my job is to highlight
the intersections of jazz and everyday life. It’s easy to get caught up in the large,
romantic art projects and album releases, but what about the stories that are happening
in our own backyards? When I started asking that question, I was introduced to Jazz
966**[**6**](http://www.fortgreenecouncil.org/jazz966).

Odds are, when you think about going out, whether it’s clubbing or to hear live 
music, you don’t envision an elderly crowd. Most traditional clubs aren’t set up
to cater to the aging population and as a result, senior music lovers can be left
out in the cold. There’s where Jazz 966 comes in. Founded in 1990 by the Fort Greene
Council in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jazz 966 is a senior center by day, but, on Friday nights,
it transforms into a swinging jazz club. 966 is an affordable, inclusive, and lively
refuge for seniors to hear live music — and, arguably, more importantly, to dance.
The club’s lineup runs the gamut, ranging from neighborhood locals to renowned jazz
giants like trumpeter Wynton Marsalis[s](https://www.npr.org/artists/15396341/wynton-marsalis).

At _Jazz Night_, we accompanied two of the club’s regulars, Ted Harvin, 81, and 
Delrosa Marshall, 74, through a typical evening. The duo has been frequenting the
club for almost a decade now, and it’s become a pivotal place for them to socialize,
especially as Ted’s mobility has decreased. Despite the additional challenges they
face, including reckoning with aging, the joy that music and dance bring them prevails.“
I think my outlook on life hasn’t changed since I was 20,” Ted says, “I know that
she says, ‘Well, why are we here?’ We’re here to enjoy life, and that’s the only
thing we can do: Just enjoy it.”

https://youtu.be/h1pNEVYaERw

![](https://i0.wp.com/mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/shared/npr/styles/placed_wide/
nprshared/201812/674721151.jpg?w=640)

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