Coltrane . Live at the Village Vanguard

John Coltrane’s Live at the Village Vanguard is one of my favorite jazz albums and when Jac hippied me to the fact that the club had recently celebrated  75 years of music history - I had to share. The vanguard is an institution in NYC and a living testament to an era of Jazz.

The Village Vanguard celebrates its 75th birthday. This legendary club located in the West Village neighborhood of New York City has been what many believe to be the heart and soul of jazz for generations. Every fan worth their salt has his or her favorite album recorded in the tiny pie-shaped room that seats a mere 123 patrons – Bill Evans’s ‘Waltz for Debby’ and ‘Sunday at the Village Vanguard’ probably being the most famous, but John Coltrane’s ‘Live at the Village Vanguard’ is legendary. The Vanguard is where giants walked the earth and their spirit lives on.

The Village Vanguard & the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

Located at 178 Seventh Avenue South in the Greenwich Village that gives it the first half of its name, this former speakeasy was opened by Max Gordon in 1935 and was run by him up until his death in 1989. It started out booking a variety of talent, including Woody Allen in his stand-up comedy days, Harry Belafonte and Barbra Streisand , before implementing an all-jazz policy in 1957.

Max’s widow, Lorraine Gordon, now runs the club, changing it very little during her 21 years of stewardship: There’s no food, they don’t take credit cards, and don’t ask for a fancy cocktail or expensive champagne. It’s an approach that seems counter to the way many clubs are run today, but the Vanguard is first and foremost about good music.

Most nights customers can see Lorraine standing or sitting by the door, keeping an eye out for such contraband as recording devices and cameras, generally shooing dawdlers to a seat if they aren’t moving fast enough. While Lorraine isn’t there all the time, no true night at the Vanguard is complete without seeing this no-nonsense woman in action. The club is famous for all the legends that have played it, but the Gordons are jazz royalty in their own right, having their own history intertwined with many of jazz’s greatest figures.

“I think I could call Thelonious Monk ‘Cupid’ because it was because of Thelonious I met Max,” Lorraine says, matter-of-factly. “I booked Thelonious into the Vanguard. I was married to [Blue Note Records founder] Alfred Lion at the time and worked for him and knew all the musicians.”

She remembers the sets by Monk as “marvelous, as always” but not club’s biggest draw: “There were no people because no one knew Monk, including Max Gordon, who had never heard of him. Nobody knew Monk except musicians. Max booked Monk because he liked my bathing suite at Fire Island. That sure wouldn’t work today” [laughs].

That may be, but Lorraine Gordon still has an ear for talent. Her taste is deeply informed by the classic jazz sound, and she holds her artists up to her own exacting standards. Each band plays two sets a night Tuesdays through Sundays, with Mondays reserved for the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

“I try not to go with all the changes because you can be carried away by things that aren’t really jazz,” Lorraine points out. “They may look like it for a minute, until you sit and listen to it. I like what I like and I book what I like. Since I have to be here, I want to hear what I want to hear. I’m selfish.”

“People worry about this place, but we are not going anywhere,” Lorraine says with pride. “They come back with their grandchildren now; there’ve been three or four generations that have come here. It has taken root in people’s lives, which is kind of beautiful

Tags: john coltrane, village vanguard