NEW YORK – One Friday evening, the conversation in the backroom of All Blues in Tribeca, where about two dozen people sat in leather chairs, was overtaken by the music streaming from three large, mid-20th century speakers.

Behind a DJ booth, Mr Yuji Fukushima, 62, the owner of the bar, spun a set that included 1980s funk and late-career Dizzy Gillespie, which played from a pair of German-made turntables.

Around the room were rare McIntosh amplifiers, a tape recorder from a Swiss audio company and the three speakers – JBL products that altogether cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The bar’s patrons were enjoying what Mr Fukushima called a “music massage”, inspired by some of his favourite hangouts in Japan, where he grew up.

The lounges, better known as listening bars or listening rooms, are places typically centred on a high-quality sound system that plays vinyl records. These bars stem from Japanese cafes, known as jazz kissas, which have a similar focus.

In the past year, listening rooms in New York, as well as in other cities, have opened with increasing frequency.

Nightlife proprietors point to the sustained popularity of vinyl and a lingering hesitance towards large gatherings after the pandemic. Tokyo Listening Room and Another Country are others that have opened in Manhattan.

All Blues, which opened in October 2023, sticks to the quieter, more contemplative atmosphere that characterises the traditional jazz kissa.

“I see the music bars open here and there, but those are different from what I know from Japan,” said Mr Fukushima, who also owns a boutique clothing store, Blue In Green, in Soho.

DJ Spinna, who has been playing a biweekly set since All Blues opened, likened stepping into Mr Fukushima’s bar to walking into another realm. “Everyone who walks in that place is just mesmerised. It’s like walking into another world,” he said.

In the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, a popular cocktail bar, St Ends, reopened in February 2024 as Kissa Kissa. It swopped a set-up that included iPad playlists on Sonos speakers for a roughly US$40,000 (S$54,500) sound system that spun jazz vinyl from the 1950s to mid-1970s – although it is less strict about chatter than All Blues.