A report on Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City in 2018
Maxine Sullivan, March 1947
Dexter Gordon and Benny Bailey in 1977

Jazz club at Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village, New York City.

- Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City in 2018

19 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Monk at Minton's Playhouse, New York, 1947

Thelonious Monk

6 links

American jazz pianist and composer.

American jazz pianist and composer.

Monk at Minton's Playhouse, New York, 1947
Thelonious Monk at Minton's Playhouse, 1947
Thelonious Monk, 1961
Thelonious Monk, 1964
Monk at the Village Gate, 1968

In September of the same year, Lorraine approached Max Gordon, the owner and founder of the Village Vanguard and secured Monk his first gig there.

Gordon in 1983

Max Gordon (Village Vanguard founder)

2 links

Gordon in 1983

Max Gordon (1903 – May 11, 1989) was a jazz promoter and founder of the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City.

Evans in 1961

Bill Evans

3 links

American jazz pianist and composer who mostly worked as the leader of a trio.

American jazz pianist and composer who mostly worked as the leader of a trio.

Evans in 1961
Program of Bill Evans's graduation concert. April 24, 1950.
Miles Davis in 1955, three years before meeting Evans
Evans built "Peace Piece" on a simple one-bar ostinato left-hand figure in C major. Over this static harmonic frame, he freely improvised melodies.
Bill Evans performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival with his trio consisting of Marc Johnson, bass, and Philly Joe Jones, drums, July 13, 1978.
Bill Evans is buried at Roselawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Section 161, Plot K.
Evans is credited as creating some new harmonies, like the quartal voicing Mark Levine calls "So What" chord; first appearing in the opening track of Kind of Blue.
A Viennese trichord as a part of 6-Z17, an altered dominant tritone substitution (Db7alt) in the key of C, from Evans's opening to "What Is This Thing Called Love?".
An example of Evans's harmonies. The chords feature extensions like 9ths and 13ths, are laid around middle C, have smooth voice leading, and leave the root to the bassist. Bridge of the first chorus of "Waltz for Debby" (mm.33–36). From the 1961 album of the same name.
The first line of "Time Remembered", as penned by Evans in the early 1970s.
Chet Baker worked with Bill Evans on Chet (Chet Baker album) in 1958-1959
Jack DeJohnette performed with Bill Evans trio at Montreux Jazz Festival and other events
Joe LaBarbera performed with Bill Evans trio in 1979-1980
Chuck Israels performed with Bill Evans trio in 1962-1966
Eddie Gomez performed with Bill Evans trio in 1964-1974

In 1961, two albums were recorded at an engagement at New York's Village Vanguard jazz club, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby; a complete set of the Vanguard recordings on 3CDs was issued decades later.

Coltrane in 1963

John Coltrane

4 links

American jazz saxophonist and composer.

American jazz saxophonist and composer.

Coltrane in 1963
Coltrane's first recordings were made when he was a sailor.
Coltrane icon at St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church
Coltrane in Amsterdam, 1961
As Coltrane's interest in jazz became experimental, he added Pharoah Sanders (center; circa 1978) to his ensemble.
Percussionist Rashied Ali (pictured in 2007) augmented Coltrane's sound.
Musicians at St John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, San Francisco 2009
John Coltrane House, 1511 North Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia

The quintet had a celebrated and extensively recorded residency at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane's new direction.

Davis in his New York City home, c. undefined 1955–56; photograph by Tom Palumbo

Miles Davis

4 links

American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

Davis in his New York City home, c. undefined 1955–56; photograph by Tom Palumbo
The house at 1701 Kansas Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois, where Davis lived from 1939 to 1944
Tommy Potter, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan in August 1947
Davis on piano with Howard McGhee (trumpet), Joe Albany (pianist, standing) and Brick Fleagle (guitarist, smoking), September 1947
During the 1950s, Davis started using a mute on his trumpet. It became part of his signature sound for the rest of his career.
Davis performing in Antibes, France, in July 1963
Davis performing at Töölö Sports Hall (Messuhalli) in Helsinki, Finland, in October 1964
Davis performing in 1971
Davis's septet in November 1971; left to right: Gary Bartz, Davis, Keith Jarrett, Michael Henderson, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, James Mtume, and Don Alias
Davis and Cicely Tyson in 1982
Davis performing in 1985
Davis performing in Strasbourg, 1987
Davis at the North Sea Jazz Festival, 1991
Davis's grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, with headstone inscribed with the beginning notes of one of his compositions, "Solar"
World's first statue of Davis, unveiled in 2001, by Grzegorz Łagowski, in Kielce, Poland
The westernmost part of 77th Street in New York City has been named Miles Davis Way. He once lived on the block.

In June 1981, Davis returned to the stage for the first time since 1975 in a ten-minute guest solo as part of Mel Lewis's band at the Village Vanguard.

Gordon at the Village Vanguard, c. 2004

Lorraine Gordon

2 links

Gordon at the Village Vanguard, c. 2004

Lorraine Gordon (née Stein; October 15, 1922 – June 9, 2018) was an American jazz music advocate, the owner of the Village Vanguard jazz club in Greenwich Village, New York City, and the author of a memoir on jazz music.

The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra

2 links

Jazz big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis in New York in 1965.

Jazz big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis in New York in 1965.

They have maintained a Monday-night residency at the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York for five decades.

Mel Lewis performing in 1978

Mel Lewis

2 links

American jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author.

American jazz drummer, session musician, professor, and author.

Mel Lewis performing in 1978

The group started as informal jam sessions with the top studio and jazz musicians of the city, but eventually began performing regularly on Monday nights at the famed venue, the Village Vanguard.

Thad Jones

Thad Jones

2 links

American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".

American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who has been called "one of the all-time greatest jazz trumpet soloists".

Thad Jones

They began performing at the Village Vanguard in February 1966, to wide acclaim, and continued with Jones in the lead for 12 years.

Rollins performing in October 2011

Sonny Rollins

3 links

American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.

American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.

Rollins performing in October 2011
Sonny Rollins at the San Francisco Opera House, February 22, 1982
Sonny Rollins performing in 2005
Rollins at Newport Jazz Festival in 2008
Sonny Rollins at Stockholm Jazz Festival 2009

Reviewing a March 1972 performance at New York's Village Vanguard night club, The New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett wrote that Rollins "had changed again. He had become a whirlwind. His runs roared, and there were jarring staccato passages and furious double-time spurts. He seemed to be shouting and gesticulating on his horn, as if he were waving his audience into battle."