The Village Vanguard at 75.

[Hardbopjazz]

One of, if not the greatest jazz club turns 75 years old. What a privilege it is living in NY and getting to go to this club so often. The list of recording alone done at the Vanguard top 100. Not to mention just about every jazz great has graced its stage at some point.

article

It is the sacred ground of cool—no, the sacred underground, the essence of bohemian intelligence and taste embodied in place. Why would Barbra Streisand, a pop phenomenon who could sell out just about any concert hall in the world, insist on booking the Village Vanguard last fall as a rebranding strategy? Because to be granted the stage of this dark little basement in Greenwich Village is to be sanctified as something more than a pop star—an artist serious and smart and adventurous enough to be worthy of association with the most innovative musicians in jazz history. Opened 75 years ago next month—on the site of a former speakeasy, not long after the end of Prohibition—the Vanguard remains virtually unchanged today, a miracle of acoustics and high standards, a hostel of arty coziness. From the start, it has been an outlet for performers in the vanguard of the Village sensibility—at first, pre-Beat poets and literary renegades; then comedians (such as Lenny Bruce, who, much to the puzzlement of the Vanguard’s publicity-savvy founder, Max Gordon, got busted for obscenity at a competing club, Café Au Go Go) and folksingers (such as Woody Guthrie’s group, the Almanac Singers, who were voguish in the era of radical proto-chic); and, eventually, the jazz artists (Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Art Pepper, Max Roach, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, and countless others, including the giants depicted at left), who have been the club’s main attractions since the late 50s. Says the Vanguard’s Medici-esque matriarch, Lorraine Gordon, now 87, “I have no idea why the hell we’re still here and everyone else from 1935 is dead.”

Those memebers that have been to the Vanguard, or played at the club, who was the artist(s) you have seen or worked with?

Here are some I have seen, and I know there are others.

Barry Harris

Bobby Hutcherson

Cecil Taylor

Cedar Walton

Charles Tolliver

Clark Terry

Dr. Lonnie Smith

Frank Wess

George Coleman

Greg Osby

Heath Brothers( all 3)

Jackie McLean

James Moody

Jim Hall

Jimmy Heath

Joe Henderson

Joe Lovano

Johnny Griffin

Kenny Barron

Lee Konitz

Lou Donaldson

McCoy Tyner

Michael Weiss

Roy Hargrove

Slide Hampton

Sphere (with Gary Bartz)

Tony Oxly

Edited January 10, 2010 by Hardbopjazz

[mjzee]

We should get Lorraine to post here.

[kh1958]

My first visit to New York City was in 1984, and on my first visit to the VV, George Coleman performed. I really enjoy the sonic experience of the Vanguard; it's reputation for great sound and instrumental balance is well-deserved.

Since then (and mostly on visits from 1992- the present), I've heard there on one or more occasions:

Don Cherry

Mal Waldron

Bobby Hutcherson

Tom Harrell

Jason Moran

Greg Osby

Roy Hargrove

Terrance Blanchard

Pharoah Sanders

Michel Petruciani

Paul Motian

Craig Handy

James Carter

Tommy Flanagan

David Sanchez

Cyrus Chestnut

Clark Terry

Robert Glaspar

Eric Reed

Nino Josele

[Hardbopjazz]

We should get Lorraine to post here.

That would be nice. I am going in 1 1/2 weeks to catch Lee Konitz. If I see Lorraine I will ask her. She'll probably tell me to be quite.

[medjuck]

What kind of music did they present in the '30s? I have to admit I don't know much about it before the '50s.

[mjzee]

What kind of music did they present in the '30s? I have to admit I don't know much about it before the '50s.

Great book:

Live at the Village Vanguard, by Max Gordon

In the '30's, they had poets and other bohemian entertainment. In 1939, Max discovered Judy Holliday. She knew Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In the '40's, Leadbelly, Josh White, Richard Dyer-Bennet. An eclectic mix.