Village Vanguard
174 7th Avenue South | also 176 7th Avenue South, 180 7th Avenue South, 178 7th Avenue South | West Village | built 1922
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1935
The Village Vanguard moves into this basement
Max Gordon opened the Village Vanguard in 1935 and moved it that year to this wedge-shaped basement on Seventh Avenue South, its home ever since. It began with poets and folk acts and became a jazz room in the 1950s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
Poets, Lead Belly and a calypso singer fill the Vanguard's first programs
From the start the Vanguard was a room for poetry and folk music rather than jazz. Over the following years patrons heard verse from Maxwell Bodenheim and Harry Kemp, blues from Lead Belly and calypso from the Duke of Iron. Painters argued about the Spanish Civil War under political posters on the walls, and comedians such as Phil Leeds tried out stand-up routines.
“…poetry read by Maxwell Bodenheim and Harry Kemp, blues and folk music by Lead Belly, and Caribbean calypso by the Duke of Iron…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1940
Roy Eldridge's 1940 engagement hints that jazz could carry the Vanguard's bill
Trumpeter Roy Eldridge played the Vanguard in 1940, and his set and his devoted fans suggested that jazz might become the club's main draw. That same year a house trio formed from Eddie Heywood, Zutty Singleton and Jimmy Hamilton. As bebop developed through the 1940s, small groups came to dominate the room, and college students and Greenwich Village artists took an interest in jazz.
“In 1940, Roy Eldridge performed at the Vanguard. His performance and his dedicated fans raised the possibility that jazz could be the main attraction.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1948
Thelonious Monk plays a one-week Vanguard booking arranged on Fire Island
In the summer of 1948 Lorraine Lion was trying to promote the little-known Blue Note pianist Thelonious Monk when she met club owner Max Gordon by chance on Fire Island. Gordon told her he had an opening in September, and they struck a deal. Monk was in and out in a week, but the connection between Lorraine and Max took hold, and the two married in 1949.
Source: The New York Times
- 1957
The Vanguard puts jazz at the top of the bill and books Davis, Monk and Mingus
By 1957 Max Gordon had reversed his booking policy, according to one commentator, so that jazz headlined and folk singers and comics filled out the evening. Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Mingus, Stan Getz, Carmen McRae, the Modern Jazz Quartet and Bill Evans, who became a regular, all appeared on the stage. After the 1950s began, the Vanguard ranked as the leading small room for jazz.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1957
Sonny Rollins records live at the Vanguard, setting a template for jazz trios
On November 3, 1957, Sonny Rollins recorded material for three albums during a single night at the Vanguard, playing without a piano in a trio of saxophone, bass and drums. The stripped-down format became a recognized way to record a live jazz club date.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1961
Bill Evans Trio records Sunday at the Village Vanguard
Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian recorded the sets that became two classic live albums, Sunday at the Village Vanguard and Waltz for Debby. LaFaro died in a car accident eleven days later.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1961
John Coltrane records live here
Coltrane's quartet, joined by Eric Dolphy, recorded several nights of sets here in early November 1961, released as Live at the Village Vanguard.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1966
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra begins a Monday-night residency
The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra played Monday nights at the Village Vanguard between 1966 and 1990. The big band eventually became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, at a club that had been the leading small venue for jazz since the 1950s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1989
Lorraine Gordon reopens the Vanguard two days after Max Gordon's death
Max Gordon, who had opened the Vanguard in 1935, died on May 11, 1989. His wife Lorraine closed the club for a single day, reopened it on May 13, and continued running it herself until her own death in 2018.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
The Vanguard turns 80, still a 123-seat wedge one flight below the sidewalk
The Vanguard marked its 80th anniversary in 2015 in much the same room Max Gordon opened in 1935: a wedge-shaped basement with 123 seats. The Times counted more than 100 live albums made there, by Coltrane, Evans, Rollins and Marsalis among others, and credited the acoustics. Under Lorraine Gordon a new band arrived every Tuesday night, and the first set began promptly at 9 (later 8:30).
Source: The New York Times
- 2018
Lorraine Gordon, who ran the Vanguard for 29 years, dies at 95
Lorraine Gordon died in Manhattan of complications from a stroke, still the club's proprietor. She had first come to the Vanguard in 1940 as a 17-year-old member of the Hot Club of Newark, and married Max Gordon in 1949. The Times noted that her brother Phillip, a jazz fanatic, painted the mural on the back wall. Her daughter Deborah Gordon was to take over the club.
Source: The New York Times
Further reading
- Village VanguardWikipedia
- Then & Now photos: 174 Seventh Avenue SouthVillage Preservation: Greenwich Village Then & Now
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