The Village Vanguard's awning and sign have become iconic among jazz aficionados.
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Musicians think they've made it when they've headlined at the Vanguard, but true success is earning a permanent place on the wall.
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Max Gordon once described the Vanguard's patrons as "poets, WPA writers, hustlers, insomniacs, college students from the Bronx and Brooklyn, broads on the make, musicians and moochers, all of them crowding the place every night to let off steam." That's a lot of people.
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The clearly marked but winding trail to the men's room was immortalized in the title of Chris Potter's album Follow the Red Line, recorded live at the club and released in 2007. Along the way, it snakes past the Vanguard's famed kitchen, which now doubles as both office and green room.
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The Vanguard's skinny red awning offers little in the way of shelter, but that's hardly the point. It lends the basement club curb appeal and leads straight to its bright red doors.
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If you wish to enter this sacred jazz site, your rite of passage will be to navigate the perilously steep red stairwell. Suggestion: Use the handrails.
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Jazz club owners rarely seem to inspire warm and fuzzy feelings. That's why it's so impressive that the corner of 7th Avenue South and Perry Street, just a few feet from the Village Vanguard's entrance, was named for beloved club founder Max Gordon back in 1996.
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Of course, there's also a cover charge if you want to get in, but it's a steal by New York standards ($25 with a $5 drink minimum, $20 for students for the late set on weeknights). Although the club remains old-school — no food, no talking, no frills — it did start accepting credit cards last year.
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In the interest of accommodating lots of people, tables and chairs should take up as little real estate as humanly possible.
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Protected from the glare of sunlight, the little wedge-shaped room is peaceful in the afternoon. Musicians will sometimes come to practice here, among the spirits of jazz past, before their performances in the evening.
When the pianist Esbjorn Svensson died in a scuba accident in 2008, many fans of his group, the Swedish trio known as E.S.T., wondered if there might be some unreleased experiments lurking in a studio vault. There were. Just out is a disc called 301, which was recorded in 2008 during sessions for the group's final album.
Originally published on Mon June 25, 2012 12:01 pm
Musical genres always evolve in parallel worlds.
In the 1920s, composers of classical music such as Stravinsky and Copland began incorporating sensibilities of American jazz into their otherwise European musical culture. Various styles of folk music have always been fountainheads of inspiration for "classical" composers, so it was almost inevitable that blues-based music would make its way into the Western concert-music tradition.
Originally published on Fri October 2, 2009 11:08 am
This week's show is a tribute to the late pianist Dave McKenna with guest host, pianist and singer Daryl Sherman, who was a friend of McKenna's and is a musical fixture at New York's famous Waldorf Astoria.
It started in 1966 as a three-week agreement among composer and conductor Thad Jones, drummer Mel Lewis and Max Gordon, the proprietor of The Village Vanguard in New York. And it continues, gloriously.
From left, Marc Ribot (guitar), Chad Taylor (drums) and Henry Grimes (bass) performed at the Village Vanguard in New York City on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.
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... then switched over to violin during Ayler's "Spirits."
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Chad Taylor made a name for himself in the 1990s as part of the Chicago Underground Duo and Trio, with cornetist Rob Mazurek and guitarist Jeff Parker.
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Henry Grimes, who once performed with Ayler, Don Cherry and Charles Mingus, made one of the most remarkable comebacks in jazz history when he returned to the scene after 35 years in 2002.
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Ribot's trio covered songs from Albert Ayler and John Coltrane, both of whom recorded legendary albums at the Vanguard.
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From left, Marc Ribot (guitar), Chad Taylor (drums) and Henry Grimes (bass) performed at the Village Vanguard in New York City on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.
Credit John Rogers / johnrogersnyc.com
Chad Taylor chills out before Wednesday night's opening set.
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Marc Ribot had a famous visitor pay his respects back stage at the Vanguard: Elvis Costello.
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Henry Grimes backstage.
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Henry Grimes spent the night's opening song, Albert Ayer's "Bells," on bass ...
The guitarist Marc Ribot has played in just about every conceivable setting in New York City. But through his involvement in punk bands, funk and soul groups, film scoring, the noise community, session work with rootsy singer-songwriters, South American and Caribbean folkloric projects, the contemporary classical scene and all the other experiments, he's also long held a love of jazz, from its hairiest to most clean-shaven expressions.
Originally published on Wed June 20, 2012 10:36 am
Today, June 19, is a holiday known as Juneteenth — the oldest commemoration of slavery's end. Though the Emancipation Proclamation declared the freedom of slaves in Confederate states on Jan. 1, 1863, it was only on June 19, 1865 (months after Confederate forces had surrendered) that Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas, to spread news of the war's end, and to enforce the proclamation in Texas. The date has since been noted in Texas and across the country as a celebration of African-American freedom and history, especially since the Civil Rights movement.
Ray Anderson's Pocket Brass Band is about watch-pocket size: With three horns and drums, it couldn't get much smaller. On its new Sweet Chicago Suite, Anderson makes what the group does sound easy. Just write some catchy, bluesy tunes and then have the band blast them out.
