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New York’s Village Vanguard 75-YearAnniversary A Cause For CelebrationThe Village Vanguard’s 75th birthday celebrationin New York on Feb. 22 was anunderstated, hip affair. An assortment ofmusicians (among them Jimmy Heath, PaulMotian, Joe Lovano, Cedar Walton, RaviColtrane, Bill Charlap, Renee Rosnes, AnatCohen, Peter Washington), writers (a host ofprominent jazz critics as well as novelistAntonio Muñoz Molina), industry luminaries,employees past and present and friends ofproprietor Lorraine Gordon, 86, munched onbarbecue, rice-and-peas and slaw, drank fromthe open bar, gossiped, networked and reminisced.The Vanguard Orchestra, now in theLorraine Gordon (right) withdaughter Deborah GordonJACK VARTOOGIAN/FRONTROWPHOTOS45th year of its continuous Monday residencein this acoustic miracle of a basement, had arare night off.On this evening, the only performer wasProfessor Irwin Corey, still billing himself asthe World’s Foremost Authority at 96. Theplanet’s oldest standup comic (he first playedthe Vanguard in 1942) delivered an impromptulecture as the staff activated thesoundtrack for a brief film by DeborahGordon about her father, Max, who—from thevisual evidence in the documentary—threwmuch wilder parties than this during theVanguard’s early years. Using rare performancefootage and testimony from such backin-the-dayVanguard habitues as Corey,Lenny Bruce, Pete Seeger, Betty Comden,Adolph Green, the Duke of Iron, Eartha Kitt,Wally Cox and Max Gordon himself, Gordonimparted the flavor of the Vanguard’s formativeyears when jazz was part of a broadertasting menu comprising blues, folk, comedy,Caribbean and poetry.“Television took all the artists away thatMax could employ,” Lorraine Gordon said.“So Max switched to jazz in the early ’50s.”Seeger’s soundbyte in the film focused onthe importance of privileging perseverence,the daily grind, over the fleeting inspiration ofindividual genius. Perhaps Gordon was thinkingof this during her closing remarks, whenshe shed her crusty veneer and cried at themiracle of her club’s “longravity,” as JimmyHeath punned it. She first set foot in theVanguard around 1940 to hear Leadbelly,married Max Gordon in 1950 and throughoutthe two decades since his death has guided theVanguard into 21st century cutting edge.“I love to play at the Vanguard,” Heathsaid. “The intimacy, the clientele. The soundpeople are knowledgeable—it’s not a placewhere everything’s blowing your head off, butyou can hear everything. When I’m not playing,I like to go because of the atmosphere. Iliked Max Gordon and the way he treatedpeople. It’s a different period, things havechanged, but the feeling of the Vanguard isstill about the same.” —Ted Panken