The JALC initiative features jazz programs by such artists as Ahmad Jamal and Wynton Marsalis, who is also the managing and artistic director at the JALC. Performances are held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, which officially opened in 2004. The 100,000 square foot facility is the first complex on record to be designed specifically for jazz-type music.
Jazz, itself, originated in the early 1900s in the southern United States. The African-American based music can be defined in a variety of forms, including New Orleans jazz, Gypsy jazz, bebop, jazz rap, and swing. A popular form of American music, jazz was particularly favored in the 1920s and 1930s during the period known as the Jazz Age.