Glenn Leslie is between a rock and a jazz place

Glenn Leslie wants to reintroduce people to the kind of jazz he loves.

"Jazz is supposed to be about improvisation," says Leslie, who has done everything in the industry from handling Lou Reed tours to managing artists. "It's not the pop-jazz that people think is jazz today."

For Leslie, jazz is about inventiveness as much as technical prowess, about unpredictability as much as knowledge. It is closer to rock and roll than classical performance. And that's why Leslie is working to launch an avant garde-leaning jazz series at the rock club Mr. Beery's in Bethpage.

"I wanted to do this in a rock club because Thurston Moore, Henry Rollins and musicians like them love this type of improv jazz," he says. "And you can hear it in their music and in rock as early as Iggy and The Stooges."

Leslie wants to launch the series with the Bern Nix Trio, including Nix, the guitarist who was an original member of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time Band and also performed with Marc Ribot and John Zorn.

With those credentials, as well as being named one of Down Beat's Top 10 jazz guitarists, Nix, whose new album is due this fall, should be far more in demand than he is, says Leslie, who also manages him. "There aren't a lot of presenters or curators who are interested in exploring this kind of music," Leslie says. "They need to be more open-minded. I want to show them that this can work. There are a lot of people who know the difference between jazz and smooth jazz, and many of them live on Long Island."

Bern Nix plays Mr. Beery's, 4019 Hempstead Tpke., Bethpage, 516-579-7049, at 8:30 p.m. April 17. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Contact The Long Island Sound at glenn.gamboa@newsday.com or follow @ndmusic on Twitter.