The SmallsLIVE Foundation is a 501(3)C not-for-profit chartered in the state of New York. The primary mission of the SmallsLIVE Foundation is to preserve and archive all the live jazz performances at Smalls Jazz Club and Mezzrow.

The SmallsLIVE Archive began in September of 2007 and now has more than 20,000 shows archived and represents more than 4000 musicians. The SmallsLIVE Archive database is searchable by name, date or instrument. The majority of the shows performed since 2007 are available as video or audio streams on our website. All the artists represented own their shows and are paid royalty through the foundation for usage of the material. The SmallsLIVE Archive is an educational resource documenting a significant jazz scene as it develops over the years live in the clubs. Some of the artists documented are now deceased and the material has become truly historic. The SmallsLIVE Archive has been part of an educational series taught at The New School for Social Research Jazz & Contemporary Music Department entitled “SmallsLIVE: Profiles From The Contemporary Jazz Scene”, where students used the archive to research and report on current players. Donations to the SmallsLIVE Foundation are used to cover bandwidth and cloud server costs as well as the maintenance of the website.

In addition to the SmallsLIVE Archive, the SmallsLIVE Foundation offers a free livestream of every show directly from Smalls and Mezzrow. The live-stream is free from the Smalls Jazz Club site (www.smallslive.com) and on our Youtube channels (https://www.youtube.com/@smallslive) and (https://www.youtube.com/@mezzrowjazzclub8350)

All donations to the SmallsLIVE Foundation are tax-deductible.

To access the SmallsLIVE Audio/Video Archive, you must join as a member and make a tax-deductible donation to the foundation. One month access is a donation $10. Yearly access is a $100 donation. Members may freely donate as well as make automatically billed monthly donations.

The SmallsLIVE Foundation also sponsors the SmallsLIVE Living Master’s Series. This is an honorarium award for jazz artists who are seniors and have been important contributors to the Smalls and Mezzrow communities in their careers. This includes a cash award for the grantee as well as a video/audio recording live from the clubs to archive and preserve the work of these important jazz artists. Winners of the award include Tyler Mitchell w. Marshall Allen, Kirk Lightsey, Sheila Jordan, David Liebman, Jesse Davis, George Coleman, Ken Peplowski, Jack Walrath and Roger Kellaway. These projects are available through the Cellar LIVE Music Group.

During the two-year period of the COVID shutdown, the SmallsLIVE Foundation became a critical component to the survival of the clubs. The Foundation’s “Get the Cats Working Again” initiative, raised money to pay bands to perform nightly from the shuttered club for our live-stream world audience. Thanks to the outpouring of good-will and on-line contributions Smalls and Mezzrow were able to pay the club expenses of rent, insurance and skeleton-staff and survive COVID. Today the clubs are open to vibrant and thriving audiences.