American song and musical theater came into their own simultaneously with jazz. Around the same time that Paul Whiteman “made a lady out of jazz” by playing “Livery Stable Blues” at the Aeolian Hall in 1924,classical singers began slipping material other than operatic arias into recitals.

Nowadays, it’s taken for granted that the Great American Songbook can be heard almost as often in concert halls as it is in cabarets. But in giving jazz a permanent concert home, Jazz at Lincoln Center has fortuitously created a home for the American songbook, too.

In fact, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” program has taken advantage of the new facilities to plan an ambitious expansion of its season, which kicks off tonight. Throw in the concerts planned as part of the longstanding Lyrics and Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y, and you could spend the next three months of weekends attending splendid celebrations of American song.

The Lincoln Center series is built around individual performers with serious Broadway credentials and is rich in Tony winners and nominees. Jane Krakoski (of “Nine” fame) will perform tonight’s program, “Better When It’s Banned: A Sinful Songbook.” Her emphasis is on songs from the 1930s that were restricted from the radio because of content relating to sex or drugs. The sources range from Cole Porter to Bessie Smith to the Hungarian suicide song “Gloomy Sunday.” Bassist-vocalist Jay Leonhart will perform one of Porter’s most explicit songs, “But in the Morning No.”

Rebecca Luker, one of the great “old school” musical comedy leading ladies, headlines in a single show February 12. Two weeks later she will be followed by the soulful Tonya Pinkins (February 27), who knocked ’em dead in “Caroline, or Change” last year. Ms. Pinkins’s is the only centennial program on the roster – appropriately, a salute to Harold Arlen, who bridged Broadway and the blues.

Elaine Stritch’s concert is already sold out, but the next hottest ticket on the schedule is the much-decorated Audra MacDonald, who will present a concert version of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion,” co-starring Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris (March 30 & 31). Even if only Sondheim diehards show up, it’ll still be impossible to get in.

“American Songbook” is also premiering two new works of musical theater this season in concert reading form: Steven Sater’s “Spring Awakening” and the William Balcolm-Joan Morris offering “Casino Paradise.”

Meanwhile, at the 92nd Street Y, the Lyrics and Lyricists series continues its 35th anniversary Season. Each show in the series, originally founded and produced by the late Maurice Levine, presents a group of local performers paying honor to individual songwriters.

Title to the contrary, the subjects of these shows have not always been lyricists; it happens, however, that the five shows this season are. The Great American Songbook is too often regarded as the work of Dead White Males, so it’s heartening that the Lyrics and Lyricists series this year includes one African American, two living writers, and two women – Betty Comden belongs to both of the latter categories.

The series kicked off this weekend with Mack Gordon (1904-59), an artist who hardly anyone knows the name of these days – but everyone knows “At Last” and “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” The headliners were Christine Andreas and Jason Grae, backed by Vince Giordano and eight of his Nighthawks.

With her beautiful contralto, Ms. Andreas is one of the great contemporary Broadway singers. Her rendition of “There’s a Lull In My Life,” accompanied by an equally moving alto sax obligato from Dan Block, was a highlight. If anything, Ms. Andreas is even an improvement on such fine singers as Alice Faye and Betty Grable, who introduced most of Gordon’s best known songs.

Jason Grae sang in a high baritone that split the difference between a 1930s crooner and a Broadway leading man. His specialty, however, is comedy, which came to the fore in a travel medley that was as long as it was funny: He affected an Irish brogue in “O’Brien Has Gone Hawaiian,” and sported an oversized sombrero and mustache and a Mel Blanc accent in “It’s Just A New Spanish Custom.” Wackiest of all was “Mam’selle,” in which he spouted Maurice Chevalierisms while playing deadpan comedy against Andy Stein’s intrusive violin.

The next entry in the series is “A Celebration of Sheldon Harnick” (February 26-28), best known for “Fiddler on the Roof,” as well as well-regarded Broadway classics “Fiorello,” “Golden Boy,” and “She Loves Me.” The roster of performers has not been announced apart from the lyricist himself, but I’m hoping some “Fiddler” vets might show up.

The next two events both salute female wordsmiths, including centennial birthday girl Dorothy Fields. “Dorothy’s Side of the Street: The Dorothy Fields Centennial Celebration” (March 19-21) will feature songs so outstanding that they would be worthy of attention even if their author were not the major female songwriter of her era. Hopefully this will be a jazzier-than-usual event, as the late Fields’s works – “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” and others – are performed regularly by millions of jazz musicians.

The last show at the 92nd Street Y this year will be “Comes Once in a Lifetime: Betty Comden and Adolph Green” (May 14-16). Producer Paul Trueblood promised some of their satire-oriented material, which I hope means selections from their brilliant but rarely revived “Two on the Aisle.” But it will primarily concentrate on Comden and Green’s many metro-centric productions: “On the Town,” “Bells Are Ringing,” “Subways Are for Sleeping, and “Wonderful Town.”

It certainly is.

“American Songbook” at Jazz at Lincoln Center (Broadway at 60th Street, 212-258-9800).

“Lyrics and Lyricists” at the 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington Avenue, 212-415-5500).