May 21, 2026, marks the 10-year anniversary of the Jazz Loft, a cornerstone of the Stony Brook community. What began as an effort to preserve one man’s personal collection of jazz memorabilia has grown into a celebrated institution housing 32 collections of artifacts tied to some of the biggest names in jazz.
When visitors enter the Loft, they are greeted by a vibrant display of flashy stage costumes, instruments and their cases, vinyl records and awards. Among these artifacts are items associated with Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
The experience is accompanied by jazz music playing throughout the building. As visitors continue through the Loft, the third floor reveals a lavish jazz bar featuring tables, seating and a stage for live performances.
Thomas Manuel, the Jazz Loft’s president and founder, said his original goal was simply to find a permanent home for the collection he had built over the years.
“I had worked with a lot of incredible legends in this music, and they were my mentors, and I had amassed this collection of music, instruments, photographs, memorabilia and all sorts of stuff,” he said. “It was kind of becoming unruly in my house, and so I was looking for a museum or a university or a library to house it.”
Although the idea was born in 2014, Manuel said it took two years to bring the project to life. The building that now houses the Jazz Loft had sat vacant for more than a decade, and town officials hoped it would become a cultural space rather than a traditional office building.
“It really happened by accident, but I pursued it, and some doors opened, and opportunities presented themselves,” he said. “We kind of dreamed up what this space would look like, and somehow we pulled it off.”
Once plans were in motion, Manuel said the mission expanded beyond preservation to include community-building and education.
As part of that mission, the Jazz Loft not only serves as a home for historic artifacts, but also seeks to inspire future generations through jazz education.
“We recognized [that] preserving things is great, but we need a new generation to make their voice say something, and so the education component of our mission became really clear,” he said.
Manuel said the Loft's growth has consistently outpaced their own expectations. Though they have operated on one, three, five and 10-year plans, he said they have repeatedly hit their goals ahead of schedule.
What began as a hope that the community would attend for leisure and educational purposes has grown so significantly that the Loft now must plan months in advance and, at times, turn visitors away.
“When we first started, we would have maybe one or two schools visit us,” he said. “And the big problem that we're trying to address now is literally not having enough days in the calendar to welcome all of these schools that want to come here.”
Laura Landor, the Loft’s director of education, echoed that sentiment and emphasized the importance of introducing young people to jazz and its history.
“It's interesting to be able to connect it to American history, because it has roots here, and this is where so much of it has evolved. So I believe that it's a critical piece in our storytelling,” she said.
Landor added that the Loft serves as a gathering place for jazz musicians, clinicians, professionals and those simply interested in learning more about the genre, noting that few spaces like it exist.
“I knew that there weren't a lot of places for students to go and learn about jazz as a musical genre, because there aren't a lot of jazz museums and a place where professionals … could come and work with students in an environment that supported the music that they were making,” she said.
She said the organization’s educational offerings range from jazz classes and student jam sessions to master classes, workshops and professional development opportunities for educators seeking to expand their knowledge.
Collaboration
The Jazz Loft also offers jazz education through its Pre-College Jazz Institute, in collaboration with Stony Brook University.
As of April 17, more than 40 school districts have participated in tours or educational programs at the Loft since the beginning of the academic year, according to Landor.
Patrick Serrentino, an employee of the Loft and a senior majoring in biology at Stony Brook University, said his connection to the organization reflects the impact it has had on young musicians.
“You get the freedom to express yourself. You get the freedom to work in, usually, smaller groups and in these smaller groups every voice really does matter,” he said. “It really is traditional American music, so it's patriotic in that sort of way.”
Serrentino said he began playing trumpet in fourth grade and later took part in a dedicated jazz course every day while attending Miller Place High School.
His relationship with the Jazz Loft began five years ago, when his high school performed during the venue’s Wednesday night jam sessions, where musicians can bring instruments and play freely.
Now an employee, Serrentino said he has been inspired by the stories he hears from longtime staff members and by the Loft’s continued success, including regularly sold-out performances.
“There's almost no seats available, and we have to jam people in the back and be like, ‘Oh, I think we can fit you in,’” he said. “But the stories that I hear were when this place first opened up, sometimes it'd be five or six people. They'd be happy if they got 10.”
Although he did not witness the organization’s earliest years firsthand, Serrentino said its growth is impossible to miss.
“I think it's just amazing now that it's gotten to the point where we're selling out shows. We actually have to turn people away, which is sad, but it's absolutely evolved to something that's really very special,” he said.
He said the skills he developed at the Loft transfer into various areas.
“When you play in a band, you have to work together with people. You have to listen to them. You're not going to play very well if you're not listening to the people around you in the same way,” Serrentino explained. “[It] teaches you how to dedicate yourself to something.”
He also emphasized the value of self-criticism and persistence.
“You get to see that journey of it turning from something that doesn't really sound good to something of a final piece,” he said. “So the lessons that you learn from that, I think they apply to anything. If you're working on some project, it might be really hard in the beginning, but you learn to dedicate yourself.”
Teaching jazz history
Both Serrentino and Landor said traditional music education often centers on European classical music, while jazz — a distinctly American art form — can be overlooked despite its deep roots in New York and Long Island.
“A lot of people don't realize that jazz music really is American music,” Serrentino said. “Jazz evolved into a kind of rock. It diverged a little bit [and] it evolved into R&B and hip hop, and then all [genres of music] got their roots in jazz, and it's really interesting if you start to learn the history of it.”
Landor said teaching history can also help bridge cultural divides on Long Island.
“There is so much diversity on Long Island culturally. [Oftentimes, the history] is pocketed in different places. And so to have students come in and learn sort of [under] a big umbrella [of] how jazz has influenced Long Island and our history, [it connects] some of those dots and bridges the gaps within some of the cultural divide in our seemingly diverse area,” Landor said.
As for the future of the Loft, she explained that there are big plans coming to further expand the education component.
Landor said their biggest goal is to continue promoting accessibility and ensuring that anyone and everyone can work with the Loft in one way or another.
“I hope to see [us] growing our audience, reaching out to even more diverse populations in age, different socioeconomic [backgrounds] and groups all across Long Island and trying to make sure that music is accessible,” she said.
Planting more roots
Landor and Manuel shared the excitement of expanding to Riverhead with their recent purchase of the historic Vail Leavitt Theatre, a project they believe is the right step toward furthering their mission.
“We're excited to expand programming and arts and culture initiatives that are accessible and to meet the needs of the community out there in Riverhead and on the East End,” Manuel said.
The renovations will begin in June and potentially be completed by the end of the year. The theater is expected to open in 2027.
They also pointed to Southampton as a key proof point for that expansion strategy, describing it as a strong and welcoming community that has helped solidify their model for growing audiences beyond Stony Brook.
Landor emphasized that the Southampton programming has become an important part of their East End presence. She said the response there has been overwhelmingly positive, with strong attendance and sustained interest in live jazz.
“That’s been great, and has confirmed that we can have jazz in Stony Brook and have jazz in Southampton, and we can have great audiences that are pretty full on the same night,” she said.
Manuel ended with this message: he hopes this 10-year mark is only the beginning.
“We're celebrating a 10-year anniversary, but I really hope that the Jazz Loft will celebrate a 50-year anniversary, a 75-year anniversary, 100-year anniversary, a 200-year anniversary [and so on], so I hope the next 10 years are filled with things that push us toward that,” Manuel said.
“I'm so moved when people tell me how inspired they are by their experiences here at the Jazz Loft and so I just want to maintain that. I want to strengthen that, and I want to continue to work hard to make sure that years after I'm gone, that this place still exists,” he said.
To mark the milestone, on May 21, the Loft will recreate a photograph from its 2016 opening day, highlighting how the space and people have evolved over the years. The celebration will also include a concert accompanied by catered food.
In addition, the Jazz Loft will host a gala on October 3 to commemorate the anniversary, bringing together artists and supporters.
