Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. Originally, the club presented folk music and beat poetry, but it became primarily a jazz music venue in 1957. It has hosted many highly renowned jazz musicians since then, and today is the oldest operating jazz club in New York City.
For Japanese bookstore chain, see Village Vanguard (Japanese bookstore).History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Max Gordon opened the Village Vanguard in 1934 on Charles Street and Greenwich Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. He intended it to be a forum for poets and artists as well as a site for musical performances. Due to insufficient facilities, Gordon was refused a cabaret license from the police department and was unable to create the club that he envisioned. In his autobiography he wrote: "I knew if I was ever to get anywhere in the nightclub business, I'd have to find another place with two johns, two exits, two hundred feet away from a church or synagogue or school, and with the rent under $100 a month."[1] In 1934, he moved his business and purchased the Golden Triangle, a speakeasy at 178 Seventh Avenue South.
The Golden Triangle opened its doors in 1935.[2] The Golden Triangle's basement facility structure resembled that of an isosceles triangle. After purchasing the property, Gordon changed the name of the club to the Village Vanguard.[3]
Like its prototype on Charles Street, the Vanguard was dedicated to poetry readings and folk music. During the 1930s and 1940s, visitors to the club heard poetry read by Maxwell Bodenheim and Harry Kemp, blues and folk music by Lead Belly, and Caribbean calypso by the Duke of Iron.[2] Painters discussed the Spanish Civil War between walls dotted with political posters.[4] Comedians such as Phil Leeds performed stand-up routines.[5]
Recordings[edit]
The Vanguard helped start many careers and has hosted many recordings that are regarded as masterpieces in its basement, making it now a club of international renown. On 3 November 1957, during some of the first recording sessions at the club, Sonny Rollins, a tenor sax player, recorded three LPs.[16] These recordings were at the forefront of the hard-bop movement. The LPs documented two different saxophone-bass-drums trios. Rollins had shown an interest in smaller ensembles as early as 1955; in Paradox, he exchanged four-measure phrases with drummer Max Roach, with no other instrument taking part. In the Vanguard recordings we hear similar styles in arrangements.[17] In the song "Old Devil Moon", Rollins is accompanied only by a bassist and a drummer. Musically, this song set the standard for the piano-less trio.[18] Following Rollins, recordings continued; The Gerry Mulligan Concert Jazz Band performed and recorded there in December 1960 after returning from a European Tour.[19] Then there was John Coltrane's and Bill Evans's Vanguard titles, both from 1961 (Evans was extensively recorded at the Village Vanguard just three months before his death in 1980). Coltrane's album was five titles taken from 22 recorded songs over four nights at the Vanguard.[20]
In 1962 The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York was released. The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra performed every Monday Night beginning in 1965, recording several times,[21] and in 1976 hosted Dexter Gordon's "Homecoming" performance with Woody Shaw.[22] Rahsaan Roland Kirk performed several shows at the Vanguard in May 1970 that were compiled for his album Rahsaan Rahsaan. During the same year and only four months apart, Pat Patrick and Thelonious Monk played together at the Village Vanguard.[23]
Other recordings include Art Pepper's Thursday Night at the Village Vanguard (1977), Tommy Flanagan's Nights at the Vanguard (1986), and Wynton Marsalis's seven-disc Live at the Vanguard (1999). "The words 'Live at the Village Vanguard' do have a direct and positive influence on an album's sales", said Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note, a jazz label with more than a dozen "Live at the Vanguard" titles in its catalog.[16]
In 2013, Ravi Coltrane, the son of John Coltrane, performed at the Village Vanguard.[24]
Singer Cécile McLorin Salvant recorded many of the songs from her album Dreams and Daggers live at the Vanguard. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2018.[25]