The Jazz Gallery

JAZZ GALLERY FOUNDER DALE KELLEY FITZGERALD LEAVES BEHIND MASSIVE LEGACY THAT LIVES ON IN MUSIC, LIFE & THROUGH THE LOVE OF OTHERS

THE JAZZ GALLERY PLANS ARE UNDERWAY FOR A CELEBRATION

IN THE SPIRIT OF DALE FITZGERALD IN COMING MONTHS

THE GABRIEL FITZGERALD EDUCATION FUND IS FORMED

Dale Kelley Fitzgerald, who co-founded New York’s prestigious Jazz Gallery in 1995 and was its Executive Director until 2009, died on March 20 at Calvary Hospital in Bronx, N.Y., after a long struggle with cancer. He was 72. 

A strapping man with a well-trimmed goatee, Mr. Fitzgerald possessed an impeccably cool demeanor, a fiery spirit, ample amounts of personal charisma, and a pedagogical bent that emerged during pre-concert introductions that he delivered in an authoritatively resounding baritone voice. He earned a Ph.D in anthropology in 1976 at the University of California, Berkeley (his thesis was titled Spirit Mediumship and Seance Performance Among the Ga of Southern Ghana), and taught Cultural Anthropology at Brown University, the New School For Social Research and Lehman College.

After leaving academia and hoping to immerse himself as deeply in the world of jazz as he had immersed himself in the culture of Ga people with whom he lived in 1968 and 1969 while researching his thesis, Mr. Fitzgerald took a job washing dishes at the Village Vanguard, the iconic Manhattan jazz club. 

He started a business moving fine art and antiques, and managed several musicians, including the tenor saxophonists Pharaoh Sanders and Nick “Big Nick” Nicholas. In 1988, he began what would be a 26-year business relationship with jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove as his business manager, along with business partner Larry Clothier. In 1992, he leased a practice and rehearsal space for Mr. Hargrove at 290 Hudson Street in the southwest corner of Greenwich Village. Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Hargrove and Lezlie Harrison discussed using it as a venue where the intersection of experimental jazz and jazz-influenced visual artwork could be explored. The result was the not-for-profit Jazz Gallery, an ideal vehicle for Fitzgerald to deploy his academic and business skill sets. 

Towards this end, Mr. Fitzgerald, Ms. Harrison and artistic director Rio Sakairi would host a multi-ethnic array of New York’s finest young jazz musicians at a stage of their career when they did not yet have access to major club stages,  providing artist-in-residence opportunities, composition commissions, mentorship programs and inexpensive rehearsal facilities. Mr. Fitzgerald presented the first New York performance by the iconic Cuban jazz pianist-composer Chucho Valdés in 1996, foreshadowing a “Jazz Cubano” series that featured original music by a cohort of recent arrivals from Cuba—and from other Caribbean and Central American nations—who have since made their mark on the international jazz playing field.

One was Dafnis Prieto, who would earn a MacArthur “genius grant," as did Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, and Miguel Zenon after performing at The Jazz Gallery during their formative years. Eleven subsequent recipients of Doris Duke Foundation awards considered The Jazz Gallery home. So did dozens of emerging young musicians whose names now are familiar to all devotees of 21st century jazz. As one of them stated in a Facebook eulogy, during his 14-year stewardship, Mr. Fitzgerald “touched the lives of all us with knowledge and kindness.”

Mr. Fitzgerald’s multi-faceted approach to the arts came through as well in performances by poets Jayne Cortez and Carl Hancock Rux, and various photography and painting exhibitions, most notably the Smithsonian Institution’s Seeing Jazzshow in 1998.

Dale Kelley Fitzgerald was born on December 23, 1942 in Wakefield, Rhode Island, to Zella and Paul Fitzgerald, who ran Point Jude Boats in Wakefield. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.

Besides his wife, Flor Urrutia Fitzgerald, and their son, Gabriel, of New York City, Mr. Fitzgerald is survived by a daughter, Shenna Fitzgerald, of Nederland, Colorado; by stepdaughters Brenda Hill of Buffalo, NY, and Dawn Spears, and her husband, Cassius Spears, of Ashway, Rhode Island; by stepson Kevin Fayerweather of Atlanta, Georgia; by a sister, Kathy Fitzgerald, and her husband Bill Rounseville, of Boston, Massachusetts; and by a grandson, Quinn Kingsbury and six nieces and nephews.

In a Facebook entry last April 24th, Mr. Fitzgerald penned what might be construed as his own eulogy: “Those of you who have known me well over the years know that my work on behalf of The Jazz Gallery has always been a labor of love, propelled by a deep passion for the music and those who play it. A perceptive friend of mine in speaking to me about his understanding of my role in the founding of The Jazz Gallery, commented that I did what I did not because it was something that I wanted to do, but rather something that I had to do. This is where the depth of passion will lead you.” (Ted Panken)

In lieu of flowers or other gifts in the wake of Dale Fitzgerald's passing, his family is asking that donations be made to his son Gabriel's education fund, HERE.
*Stay tuned* in the coming months, we will be announcing THE JAZZ GALLERY date for a BIG celebration in the spirit of Dale Fitzgerald at the space,  more details soon

*photo courtesy of Ingrid Hertfelder

Kim Smith
public relations
718 858 2557 (w)
917 349 8090 (c)
ksmithpr@earthlink.net


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