The Village Gate

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The Village Gate was a New York nightclub founded in 1958 and located on the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village . It existed in this form until 1993.

History of the Village Gate

The club was opened in 1958 by the impresario Art D'Lugoff (1924-2009); it was on the ground floor and basement at 158 ​​Bleecker Street. The broad structure from 1896 in the style of the Chicago School was built by the architect Ernest Flagg . and was in Manhattan as Mills House No. 1 and served as a dump for assembly workers.

In the 38 years of its existence in stepped Village Gate famous artists such as John Coltrane , Coleman Hawkins , Billie Holiday , Duke Ellington , Dizzy Gillespie , Bill Evans , Herbie Mann , Art Blakey 's Jazz Messengers , Thelonious Monk , Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin , which made her debut here on the New York music scene. In 1968 the musical Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living premiered here in Paris . In addition to jazz, he also presented folk music such as Zal Yanovsky and cabaret artists at the Village Gate .

On January 15, 1961, Max Roachs became We Insist! Freedom Now Suite premiered at a benefit concert for civil rights organization CORE that cost $ 2.50 admission. In the 1960s, the radio DJ Symphony Sid had a regular show here, "Monday Nights at the Gate" , which featured many musicians from the New York Latin music scene. In the Village Gate then numerous live albums incurred by the salsa music ( Salsa Meets Jazz ) with Sonny Stitt / Eddie Palmieri , Dexter Gordon / Machito , Dizzy Gillespie / Tito Puente and with James Moody , Wynton Marsalis , Bobby Hutcherson , David Fathead Newman , Slide Hampton and Pharoah Sanders . At a benefit event for Timothy Leary in May 1970, a. a. Jimi Hendrix , Jim Morrison and Allen Ginsberg . From 1971 to 1973 the Village Gate hosted a musical comedy revue called National Lampoon Inc , which featured comedians such as John Belushi , Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest ; u. a. with a satire on the Woodstock Festival 1969 ( Woodchuck ).

Since 1966, harpist Daphne Hellman has performed at the club with her Hellman's Angels every Tuesday evening when she was in town.

On the upper floor of the house, D'Lugoff opened the Top of the Gate club , which offered jazz music until the mid-1970s. The Village Gate closed in 1994 and briefly reopened in 1996 on West 52nd Street. (240 West 52d Street), which played the revue The Village Gate 52nd Street - A Brief History of White Music . Le Poisson Rouge has been located at Bleecker Street since 2008 and offers multimedia and cabaret in addition to (jazz) music .

Important jazz recordings from the Village Gate

Web links

Notes / individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]

Coordinates: 40 ° 34 ′ 38.4 "  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 20.5"  W.