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

Oscar

Jac and I like most people, grew up watching the Oscars in wonder of the stars, the directors, the writers, the producers,  the agents, the musicians and all the people that played a role through their contributions to the success of a film. Now through CANVAS, we are fortunate to meet and know some of these people and to be able to enjoy what they do as we talk about what’s going on in their world as they stop in to the shop. We would like to congratulate all of our friends whose work has been nominated for an Oscar. We hope that they have a great day, a memorable evening and that THEY ALL WIN!. 

Gordon Gekko is back. “Wall Street 2 – Money Never Sleeps” will most definitely get our box office cash. In the new issue of Vanity Fair with Michael Douglas on the cover atop a pile of gold bars, Oliver Stone said his film which was meant to be an anti-capitalism statement, ended upon be embraced by wall street and being the catalyst for a new generation of brokers looking to be Gordon Gekko.

This trailer is set to the Rolling Stones “Sympathy For The Devil” and features Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan and Shia LaBeouf. It also reveals a bit more of the story. Douglas’ Gekko has written a book, has not spoken to his daughter in years, and that daughter is dating LaBeouf.  Enjoy

Rogan Nyc is a new brand to Canvas for Sp10. Rogan caught our eye with their unique shapes, asymetrical cuts, comfortable yet modern silhouettes and incredible fabric choices. By the response we have had thus far it would seem that our customers agree. In delivery two the mesh hooded wrap scarf and the chancho poncho are two of our favorites. Enjoy! Canvas 310.317.9895

SeaVees is inspired by California in the 1960’s, but adapted appropriately for today’s modern sensibilities. Originally established in 1964 — this is not a token revival effort, but a respectful rehabilitation movement.

Born in a time when the global dream was the American dream, and all eyes were on California… We are endlessly inspired by the coolest place on the planet, in the coolest of times.

The Artist Celebration for Antje Manser and Allois was touch and go for a moment, but then in true blue support for Art style - Malibu, Canvas Supporters and friends of both Artists showed up weathered the rain and made the evening a success. David Lichten laid down the soundtrack on guitar and thank you all for coming out.

Dream by Allois

 

 

The humanoids (and animoids) Allois paints exhibit many of the same distortions and contortions that we see in so much current “lowbrow,” or “newbrow,” painting. But instead of employing an illustrator’s insistent descriptive precision, so prevalent in “newbrow,” Allois engages the brush and palette of a modern painter, luminously impressionist, impetuously expressionist, oddly surrealist, providing her characters with soul even as she compromises their visual substance – indeed, by compromising that substance. She renders her figures vaguely, but they are not vague; as ciphers for sensations and sensibilities, they must be fuzzy to the eye in order to be credible to the heart.

Talking Gold . Rocking Wolverine's

Sometimes CANVAS get it right – sometimes!!!  Mr. Gold standard himself, Shaun White sits down with Bob Costas to talk about his snowboarding triumph at the winter olympics, wearing a pair of rust colored 1000 mile limited edition boots by Wolverine. If they are good enough for the golden boy Shaun White - what’s up?? These boots are GGGOOOLLLDDD  Available at CANVAS 310.317.9895

CONGRATULATIONS TO SHAUN WHITE FOR AN OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AT THE 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS.

THE AQUA . residential tower . chicago

It is the tallest building designed by a woman-owned architectural firm and the first skyscraper from Chicago’s Jeanne Gang, of Studio Gang Architects, who is just 45 years old. Aqua also is a real estate miracle: Its financing documents were signed in late August 2007 — just before the credit crunch hit it. Had the tower been delayed by 60 to 90 days, says the building’s architect-of-record and co-developer,  Jim Loewenberg, it might never have been built.

None of this would matter without Gang’s singular design (left), whose three chief components are hotel space (for now, without an occupant) on floors 4 through 18, apartments on floors 19 through 52 and condominiums from floors 53 to 81. There are also shops, parking and townhouses facing an adjoining park.

Essentially, the Aqua is a residential skyscraper, a place to live (or sleep) rather than a place to work. And it fully takes advantage of the aesthetic freedom afforded by that identity, which means it doesn’t have to be tidy and buttoned-down, like a corporate headquarters. 

The story of how this tower came to be is already the stuff of legend: In 2004, Loewenberg, a veteran Chicago architect and developer who had blighted River North with banal high-rises, was seated next to Gang, a rising star whose then-tallest independently completed work was a Rockford community theater that had a 90-foot-tall fly tower, at a Harvard Club dinner where Frank Gehry was the speaker.
Loewenberg was looking for a young architect who would produce an out-of-the-box design for a tall tower at Lakeshore East, which rises west of Lake Shore Drive and south of the Chicago River. In Gang, he found one.

Responding to the site for the proposed tower, which was surrounded by a forest of nearby high-rises, she and her colleagues produced a novel concept: A skyscraper whose balconies would be stretched outward, by anywhere from 2 to 12 feet, to capture views that would not be available otherwise. If you lived on the east side of the tower, for example, you wouldn’t just see Lake Michigan. You would be able to peer through the thicket of adjoining high-rises and see Millennium Park.

In turn, Gang sculpted the balconies into a larger visual order inspired by the layered topography of limestone outcroppings along the Great Lakes. Reflecting her talent for giving poetic form to mundane materials, the design seized on the plasticity of concrete. When the plan was unveiled in 2006, it prompted raves from critics — and no small amount of private sneering from some of Gang’s male competitors, who clucked that the balconies would be mere decorative appendages.

Yet the nearly finished outcome richly fulfills the promise of Gang’s concept. The balconies elevate an otherwise-ordinary concrete-framed structure to the level of art.

Engineered Garments . Herringbone Shawl Collar Cardigan