New York City is known for many things: great theater, delis, the dreaded Yankees and, for the purpose of this column, some of the best jazz anywhere. And every other year since 1998, The City has been home to the annual conference of the International Association of Jazz Educators, also known as the IAJE Conference. As in the past, this year’s conference, Jan. 11-14, had plenty of positives and several negatives. Time and space allows for only a general overview of what I saw and heard.

This conference attracts between 8,000 and 10,000 jazzers of all stripes: performers, educators, music and recording industry reps, journalists and general jazz fans. It’s billed as the largest conference of its kind on jazz. And one does get that impression when traveling the hallways of the New York Hilton and Sheraton Hotels to attend performances, workshops, panel discussions or touring the exhibit area. There’s nonstop energy to this event, with days starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until 2 the following morning. And while there are times when the energy can be overwhelming, the vibe is one that is, for the most part, upbeat.

For performances, I heard several groups that fed off of the prevalent camaraderie. Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet played a ferocious set on Wednesday evening in the main ballroom of the Hilton. The creative fire they exhibited set a tone for the rest of the conference. And special note is made of Coltrane’s pianist, Luis Perdomo, whose exuberant solos were imaginatively creative. The Boston-based vocal group Syncopation gave a rousing set on Thursday afternoon, with UNH and Berklee School faculty member and pianist Mark Shilansky featured on several well-executed solos. Shilansky told me that he was “honored to part of the event” and that he, too, liked the overall vibe. The Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra and the Count Basie Big Band played side-by-side on Friday’s NEA Jazz Master’s Concert, an annual part of the conference, with both bands pulling out all of the stops for a magical evening of big band jazz.

As for workshops, Andy Milne & Dapp Theory gave an excellent workshop on blending jazz and hip-hop. Milne explained how he came up with concept, saying, “I felt that there was a way to blend the two styles organically, with the right musicians being involved, musicians who would be open to the approach.” The two tunes they performed as part of the workshop proved his concept, and then some. Another excellent workshop was presented by saxophonist Steve Wilson, formerly with Chick Corea and Dave Holland. Using his working group, Wilson and his colleagues presented a very interesting and thorough clinic on developing time, or groove, within the ensemble. “Time is the enabler of all that a musician does in jazz,” Wilson noted. One workshop that I caught that was basically a waste of time featured just a saxophonist playing with two drummers. I’m not sure what the intent was, other than to let the saxophonist to play lots of notes, which had very little depth or swing for that matter. Another workshop I caught on Saturday attempted to blend jazz and flamenco music. It sounded forced and somewhat stilted, but, the basic concept is there with some ironing out.

A couple of interview sessions were a real treat. Jazz Times hosted an interview of Sonny Rollins, with journalist Ira Gitler prodding the saxophonist to speak about his life and career and the people who played a role in them. Down Beat hosted a similar interview with Clark Terry, who received the IAJE’s highest honor, the President’s Award.

Several New Hampshire and Maine musician/educators were found roaming around. Drummer Les Harris Jr. of the Jim Howe Trio told me that he liked the variety of performers and workshops and the overall atmosphere. Ken Clark, chairman of the N.H. All-State Jazz Festival and drummer for the Seacoast Big Band, has two perspectives on the event. “From the perspective of a music educator, I think that their education offerings have gotten better and more focused. I did have issues with the scheduling, though. They could have done a better job in that area. As a musician, there’s lots of superb artists to check out, which for me is always a positive thing.”

Indeed, there were instances in which excellent musicians gave interesting workshops during performances by high profile artists, such as on Friday afternoon’s Latin percussion workshop by master conguerro John Santos being up against a performance by Bob Mintzer’s Big Band. And both of those were on at the same time as the Clark Terry interview. My other complaint is that once again, the blues were completely overlooked as far as workshops or performances. This is the most basic and fundamental component in jazz. Surely there are clinicians/performers who could be brought in to present something on this.

Still, this is one of those positive events for jazz. It would be great to see IAJE enter into a partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center to develop some joint performances and/or workshops. Maybe down the road on that one.  And, by the way, the conference returns to New York again next year. Guess I’ll start saving and planning now.

An upcoming local performance of note: Guitarist John Jorgenson will play with his quintet on Friday at the Stone Church at 8 p.m. Jorgensen, a member of the Desert Rose Band and guitarist for Elton John for several years, will play “gypsy jazz” in the mode of the legendary Django Reinhardt (Jorgenson played Reinhardt in the movie “Head In the Clouds”). If you like the music of the Hot Club of Portland, you’ll want to check out this show.