Village Vanguard
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The Village Vanguard is a jazz club, located at 178 Seventh Avenue South (just below West 11th St.) in New York City, which has been around since 1935, and has featured all the big names in jazz. It was founded by Max Gordon (died 1989) and is now run by his wife, Lorraine Gordon. At first it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry. In Christmas 1949, The Weavers played here, but it has been known as the home of live jazz since it switched to an all jazz policy in 1957.
The Vanguard is in a dark basement in Greenwich Village. After walking through the red double doors and down a steep flight of steps (and paying a cover charge), one enters a surprisingly small, wedge-shaped room with a low ceiling, decorated with various jazz posters and antique instruments on the walls. The bandstand is at the point of the wedge, with tables spreading outward. At the back of the club is a small bar and along the wall stage left is a raised banquette, the "cheap seats." At the rear on the right is a passageway to the back rooms of the club, including a tiny "kitchen" (where the musicians hang out — no food is served at the Vanguard) and, if you follow a painted red line through a warren of twists and turns, the men's room.
Over a hundred jazz albums have been recorded at the venue since the (originally single) album under Sonny Rollins name in 1957. The two most famous engagements in the club's history are probably those of Bill Evans and John Coltrane, both of which took place in 1961. Wynton Marsalis regularly recorded at the club in the early 1990s; the results were issued in a multi-disc set.
A typical engagement at the Vanguard lasts six nights with sets at 9 and 11 PM. On Saturday and occasional Fridays a third set is added at 12:30 AM. Monday nights are reserved for the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formally known as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band) who have played the Vanguard every Monday since 1966.
