Perhaps it was the nuns in Baton Rouge, La., who encouraged him to join the school choir; perhaps it was the prodigal enchantment with gospel music; perhaps it was the assurance that he had a mellifluous voice that could carry a soaring note; or perhaps it was simply osmosis because of the proximity of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, a mere 50 miles from his home.

Whatever it was, Derek E. Gordon – president and CEO of Jazz at Lincoln Center – knew pretty early on that he was going to be in the music business. He knew this at an age when most young people are still struggling with an identity crisis, if not with a career choice. He knew this even when a part of his mind pushed him in the direction of teaching, while another part held out the prospects of joining a seminary.

And so a reporter expected that when he asked Mr. Gordon about what drove his ambition and success, the answer would be larded with references to his upbringing and to the opportunities that came his way after he’d obtained a master’s degree in music from Louisiana State University: executive director of Pennsylvania Council of the Arts and of the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and senior vice president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, among other high-profile positions and appointments.

Instead, here’s what the 50-year-old Mr. Gordon said:

“I’m a strong believer that you’re placed on Earth to make a contribution to humankind. I’m a strong believer that whatever you do, you’ve got to look beyond your own personal success and see how many other lives you can touch.”

Touching lives is certainly what he helps do at Jazz at Lincoln Center, not only offering New Yorkers a dazzling menu of entertainment and educational programs but also creating performance opportunities for rising musicians from all over America and many parts of the world.

“Every artist needs an interlocutor,” Mr. Gordon said over lunch with The New York Sun. “I can understand the artist’s passion. I can help them make connections. I can create an environment and an artistic forum for practitioners and lovers of jazz.”

He does this with an annual budget of $28 million, 60% of which is raised through ticket sales and rentals. He must raise the rest along with his board and its chairman, Lisa Schiff, an energetic development staff, and with the formidable assistance of his friend, Wynton Marsalis, the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He does this empowered with the brand-new 1,200-seat, 100,000-square-foot Frederick P. Rose Hall, the first performing arts facility anywhere designed specifically for jazz; there’s also 500-seat Allen Room, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, which has 140 seats.

Mr. Gordon makes his connections in behalf of Jazz at Lincoln Center with the self-confidence of a man who came to this most exacting of cities with a professional portfolio that was recognized by its Establishment well before he arrived.

Here’s an illustration of that: At one point during lunch, Mr. Gordon looked up and saw Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group – a powerful investment bank – leaving the restaurant with Blackstone’s senior chairman and cofounder, Peter G. Peterson. Mr. Schwarzman also happens to be the chairman of the Kennedy Center in Washington, where, for 12 years until he came to New York in July 2004, he was responsible for the overall planning, management, and supervision of programs and operations in the areas of jazz, education, and outreach. In fact, Mr. Gordon’s arrival in New York last year coincided with Mr. Schwarzman’s appointment at the Kennedy Center.

Mr. Schwarzman greeted Mr. Gordon warmly, asked how he liked New York, and then introduced him to Mr. Peter son, who’s also chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and the man widely considered the head of the American Establishment. Another meeting, another greeting, another contact.

Witnessing that encounter prompted the reporter to ask: “Well, do you consider yourself a New Yorker now?”

Mr. Gordon smiled in the knowledge that, even before he moved permanently to the city last year, he’d maintained an apartment in Manhattan in order to attend cultural events. But residence in itself, he suggested, did not make a man a New Yorker.

“Being a New Yorker is something that you earn,” Mr. Gordon said. “It’s something that I aspire to – so I won’t pretend that I’m a full-fledged New Yorker yet. But I hope that through my work, I’ll demonstrate the trust that this city has placed in me to advance the cause of jazz.”

That Mr. Gordon, the son of a bricklayer, sees his work in evangelical terms – “trust,” and “advance the cause” are the sort of phrases that readily come forth from him – is reinforced by the history of jazz and the special place it holds in the hearts of Americans and New Yorkers. Jazz evolved from ragtime music of the late 19th century; “a systematization of instrumental functions within an essentially collective ensemble took shape, as did a regularization of the repertory” between 1910 and 1920, according to an account in the Encyclopedia Britannica. In New York, jazz made its initial mark in nightclubs and bars in the West Village, where it flourishes to this date.

Now Mr. Gordon and his friend Mr. Marsalis are bringing the music form uptown in a big way. Adds Mr. Marsalis: “Our mission is to elevate through the art of swing.”

“Whether you’re having a great time in your life, or a bad time, jazz is always there for you – that’s what we are saying,” Mr. Gordon said. “If you move people through music, they will thank you.”

It’s not just patrons of Jazz at Lincoln Center who thank Mr. Gordon by their custom of an ever-growing series of events: the facility organizes several events virtually every evening of the week; it dispatches the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra around the country; it invites jazz ensembles from other countries to perform in New York.

Corporate New York is lining up solidly behind him, too. And what does he tell his sponsors, whom he must cultivate relentlessly?

“I tell our sponsors that jazz is creativity, it’s excitement, and it’s energy,” Mr. Gordon said. “It’s improvisation, rhythm, harmonies – all of which speak in the unique language that’s jazz. I tell them that I am an artistic administrator, and that one of my responsibilities is to get artists to succeed. I also tell them that Jazz at Lincoln Center contributes to the economy of Columbus Circle, that we bring people to the area when they aren’t naturally there – on weekends, for example.”

Any wonder, then, that the financial support Mr. Gordon and his team have been able to mobilize enable productions that include not only concerts, national and international tours, but also residencies, weekly national radio and television programs, recordings, publications, an annual high-school jazz band competition and festival, a band director academy, a jazz appreciation curriculum for children, advanced training through the Juilliard Institute for Jazz Studies, music publishing, children’s concerts, lectures, adult-education courses, film programs, and student and educator workshops.

“There’s simply no cultural institution anywhere in the world like this one,” Mr. Gordon said. “I have the perseverance and patience to develop it even more. I know what can be accomplished. The endorphins are kicking in. And you know what success is predicated on? It’s the ability to listen. I have that ability. I also have the ability to appreciate the enormous effort my colleagues make. Taken together, there’s nothing quite like Jazz at Lincoln Center. This couldn’t have happened anywhere else in the world. Only in New York.”

Coming from someone else, these words might have sounded boastful. Coming from Derek Gordon, they came across as simply a statement of fact.