The Village Vanguard jazz club in New York has been running continuously and sometimes perilously since 1935. Reached via a steep flight of steps leading to a narrow basement with a small bandstand at the far end and a smaller bar next to the tiny artists room and toilets. All the cramped seats provide a good view of the action, an indication of its size is that it cannot, in theory seat more than 123 paying customers for any performance. No food is served, just the music.
The Vanguard may appear unremarkable, but it is quintessential, setting the standard not just for longevity but as the place to experience great jazz in its ideal setting- an intimate club with great acoustics and an appreciative audience. The Village Vanguard established and continues to exemplify the optimal environment for live jazz. Ronnie Scott’s comes close, so do the Bimhuis in Amsterdam and the Duc des Lombards in Paris but none hold a candle to the Vanguard.
It is also the place where any serious up-and-coming performers appear to establish their jazz credentials ( or not) and where jazz greats continue to perform to tiny audiences but with a much wider resonance. While , as you would expect , the Vanguard is best known for trio and small group performances its minuscule bandstand regularly hosts big band sessions-the Monday night sessions were legendary for the quality of the charts and for attracting great players to sit in on their off nights. The great Mel Lewis/Thad Jones big band were regular fixtures there in the 60’s and 70’s. The various manifestations of the Mingus big band continues to play the Vanguard frequently.
The Vanguard owes its continuing life to Max Gordon (1903-89) and Lorraine Gordon (1922-2018).
Max Gordon was born in Belarus and emigrated to the USA as a child and arriving in New York in 1926. He established the club initially as a showcase for folk music, Village poets and cabaret, By the early 1950’s it had transitioned to jazz.
Louise Gordon, a new Jersey native was a jazz fan from her teenage years with a background in the visual arts and radical politics. In 1942 she married Alfred Lion co-founder of the legendary Blue Note jazz label which gave her a ring side seat to immerse herself in the development of modern jazz from its earliest stirrings uptown at Minton’s. She married Max in 1949 and took over the running of the club on his death.
Neither Max nor Lorraine were absentee owners, in the same lineage as Ronnie Scott & Peter King. They were almost always present at the club, each with a distinctively gruff attitude to their customers-less so with their musicians. Max and Lorraine were visibly present at my various visits to the club, often answering the phone to confirm bookings-the Vanguard was legendarily low tech under their stewardship. The beating hearts of the club.
Both Max and Lorraine wrote books describing their association with the Vanguard, Max’s entitled Live at the Village Vanguard., Lorraine’s entitled Alive at the Village Vanguard. Both are still available and are good reads not least as an introduction to the perilous environment of jazz club ownership. And pen portraits of many of the jazz greats who have played the Vanguard.
Here’s a short video interview with Lorraine Gordon to commemorate her receiving the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship award in 2013, the year before she died.
To any jazz fan the term “live at the Village Vanguard” has a special fascination. This is related to the stellar collection of live recordings of jazz greats starting with Sonny Rollins’s A Night at the Village Vanguard Live continuing right up to the present day with such performers as Fred Hirsch, Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano and Jason Moran. The Sonny Rollins double album recorded by Blue Note over two sets in 1957 set the standard for the quality, immediacy, and intensity of a great live jazz recording. Sonny Rollins was already an established rising star in 1957, that was less the case for Bill Evans when he recorded Sunday at the Village Vanguard with his legendary first trio with Paul Motian on drums and the incomparable Scott La Faro on bass. That album acted as both a calling card and an early signifier of everything that Bill Evans went to achieve in his subsequent career.
One of the more bizarre reflections listening again to the Rollins and Evans albums is the obvious scarcity of the audiences present for the recordings. Each number ends with a brief patter of applause before the band launches into the next tune. It is hard to equate the historic nature and volcanic impact of these recordings with the small number of paying customers audibly present.
The Vanguard has two interrelated claims to fame; as the ideal showcase in which to hear new and established jazz greats plying their craft in an intimate setting together with providing the venue for an extensive discography of live recordings many of which have become classics, compulsory listening for jazz aficionados and essential introductions to jazz for newcomers to the music.
The Playlist
My playlist kicks off with selections from the aforementioned sets from Sonny Rollins and Bill Evans and takes you through a range of live recordings, more or less sequentially up to the final contemporary tracks from Cecile McLorin Savant.
I leave you with the following quote that adorned the Gordon’s cramped office at the Village Vanguard,
“Jazz functions better underground.”
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