William Hooker: A Time Within

A recording of a 1977 loft jazz concert reminds us of New York City's bohemian years

The last time I visited New York, I stayed in a hotel in Hudson Square, on the west side of Lower Manhattan.

These days, that area is a soulless wasteland of gyms, chainstores and overpriced coffee shops.

It wasn’t always that way though.

In the mid-1970s, a bunch of young avant-garde jazz musicians lived and played at 501 Canal Street, just across the str…