Jazz at Lincoln Center is an organization based in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center (now Deutsche Bank Center) in October 2004. The organization seeks to “represent the totality of jazz music – educationally, curatorially, archivally, and ceremonially.” They advocate for jazz, culture, and arts education globally. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

The center hosts performances by the orchestra and by visiting musicians. It is home to the New York City Opera. Many concerts are streamed live on the center's YouTube channel. The center also presents educational programs in its home buildings, online, and in schools throughout the country.

The organization reaches approximately 3 million people of all ages every year through concerts (where more than 90 percent of seats for major shows are sold), tours, musical instruction programs, sheet music, recordings on their label (Blue Engine), and live performances on their platform JAZZ LIVE.

The center has large speakers throughout the building that constantly play the music of great jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, etc.

During the mid-1980s, the Lincoln Center sought to attract new and younger audiences. The space wasn’t used during the summer and the organization wanted to find ways to fill the halls while resident companies performed elsewhere. Jazz enthusiasts on the Lincoln Center campus fought for jazz to be recognized by the organization. In a 1986 report the organization said, “Lincoln Center should focus on excellence in its course offering and that no compelling case can be made for adding a constituent in an area like jazz.” This was after the third proposal from then director of visitor services, Alina Bloomgarden, to introduce a permanent jazz program to the Lincoln Center. It was believed that jazz audiences would be too rowdy. Bloomgarden then decided to invite Wynton Marsalis to help her plan a summer concert series. In order to succeed, this concert series had to show commercial viability and merits of both the music and community it came from.

In 1987, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis was involved in starting the Classical Jazz concert series, the first series of jazz concerts at Lincoln Center. The concert series began in August 1987 and they celebrated women in jazz. This included Betty Carter, Sasha Dalton, Marian McPartland, and others. Given the high stakes, success of this concert series was pertinent. At this point in time, many great jazz innovators had died, jazz clubs were shutting down, not many colleges and universities had jazz programs, and there was a rise in commercial aspirations with electronic music. It was also a polarizing time in the United States with many places still being racially integrated, the AIDS epidemic, boost in militarization and globalization with the Cold War, and Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs increasing mass incarceration. By their second year, they had their own radio services on the National Public Radio and began touring.

A sense of what Marsalis was saving was recorded in this three part suite, "The New Orleans Function," that was styled after New Orleans funeral marches. Stanley Crouch (involved in finding Jazz at Lincoln Center) wrote an impassioned oration that was delivered by Reverend Jeremy Wright. This sermon is read as a statement of purpose for what Jazz at Lincoln Center would become:

“It is possible that we who listened heard something timeless from those who are the descendants of the many who were literally up for sale—those whose presence on the auction blocks and in the slave quarters formed the cross upon which the Constitution of this nation was crucified. Yet—even after that crucifixion, there were those who rose in the third century of American slavery with a vision of freedom.” "There were those who lit the mighty wick that extended from the candle—and carried it. There were those who spoke through music of the meaning of light—those who were not content to accept the darkness in the heart that comes when you surrender to dragons who think themselves grand. There were those who said, “Listen closely, now”—those who said, “If you give me a fair chance, I will help you better understand the meaning of democracy.” Yes—that is precisely what they said. “If you give me a fair chance, I will help you better understand the meaning of democracy.” These are they who were truly the makers of a noble sound.”