Lorraine Gordon
Lorraine Gordon (born October 15, 1922 in Newark , New Jersey, as Lorraine Stein ; † June 9, 2018 ) was an influential American jazz club owner and political activist. As the first “jazz advocate” she was awarded the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship (the most important jazz prize in the USA) in 2013 .
biography
Gordon became a jazz fan as a teenager and started collecting jazz records early on. From 1942 to 1947 she was married to Alfred Lion , the founder of Blue Note Records , and became his employee; she also supported his artists; for example, it gave Thelonious Monk a chance to perform in the Village Vanguard in 1948 . In 1950 she married the Vanguard owner Max Gordon.
Lorraine Gordon raised two daughters and began to get involved in politics in 1957. In that year she joined the anti-atomic bombing initiative Stop Atomic / Nuclear Explosions (SANI), later also the initiative “Women Strike for Peace”. As part of her work for the women's peace movement, she was invited to Moscow in 1965 ; also to Hanoi during the Vietnam War . In addition, she worked for 15 years in one of the first poster shops with an artistically high-quality range. In 1980 she became the manager of the recently rediscovered aged musician Jabbo Smith and volunteered for the Brooklyn Museum .
When problems at Village Vanguard became apparent - Max Gordon was not feeling well and wanted to sell the club - Lorraine Gordon joined the management in 1987. When her husband died after an operation in April 1989, she took over the Village Vanguard at the age of 66 and continued to run it successfully as an important jazz venue for the next few decades. In 2006 she presented her autobiography, in which she remarked that she had not come out of the blue to Village Vanguard, but had followed the course of the music she loved all her life. In 2013 she was honored with the AB Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy for her long service to jazz .
literature
- Lorraine Gordon with Barry Singer: Alive at the Village Vanguard. My life in and out of jazz time , Hal Leonard Corporation, Milwaukee / USA 2006
Web links
- Portrait page (NEA Jazz Masters)
- Will Friedwald : Woman at the Vanguard (portrait)
- Ethan Iverson : Ethan Iverson Remembers Lorraine Gordon - The Bad Plus pianist recalls the Village Vanguard owner (10/15/22 - 6/9/18). March 27, 2019, accessed March 30, 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ^ On the death of the jazz club owner Lorraine Gordon, New York jazz club boss. June 11, 2018, accessed June 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Jim Eigo: Alive At The Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time (review of the book). (No longer available online.) In: AllAboutJazz.com. November 16, 2006, archived from the original on December 11, 2006 ; Retrieved July 11, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ cf. Book reviews Jazzzeitung 3/2007
- ^ Lara Pellegrinell: A Room With A Life of Its Own: The Village Vanguard. (No longer available online.) In: America's Most Fascinating Jazz Clubs. January 1, 2000, archived from the original on May 14, 2011 ; Retrieved July 11, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gordon, Lorraine |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Stein, Lorraine (maiden name); Lion, Lorraine (first married name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American club owner and peace activist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Newark (New Jersey) |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 9, 2018 |