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Max Gordon (Village Vanguard Founder)
Max Gordon (March 12, 1903 – May 11, 1989) was an American jazz promoter and founder of the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City. Life and career Born in Svir, Russian Empire (now in Belarus) to a Jewish family, Gordon emigrated to the United States in 1908 at age five. The family settled in Portland, Oregon, where he later attended Reed College. As a young man, he was interested in Russian and French novels and saw himself as a romantic type. Pursuing his parents' wish that he become a lawyer, he moved to New York in 1926 to attend Columbia Law School, but began working in nightclubs and dropped out: "I learned to take my education where I could find it." In 1932 Gordon opened his first venue, Village Fair, in the tradition of Viennese coffee houses as a place for artists and writers. He relocated the venue once in 1934 and opened the Village Vanguard in 1935. The Vanguard initially offered poetry and was frequented by poets Maxwell Bodenheim and Harry Kemp. Ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Svir, Belarus
Svir is an urban-type settlement in Myadzyel District, Minsk Region, Belarus.Назвы населеных пунктаў Рэспублікі Беларусь: Мінская вобласць: нарматыўны даведнік / І. А. Гапоненка, І. Л. Капылоў, В. П. Лемцюгова і інш.; пад рэд. В. П. Лемцюговай. — Мн.: Тэхналогія, 2003. — 604 с. ISBN 985-458-054-7. (djvu) С. 327. As of 2025, it has a population of 925. History It is believed to have been founded in the 13th century by the Lithuanian duke Daumantas and was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. The mound in the town has remains of fortifications from the 14th to 16th centuries. In the 18th to 19th centuries, the Lithuanians in Svir and its vicinities were Slavicized. Gallery Śvir, Rynak, Śviatoha Mikałaja. Сьвір, Рынак, Сьвятога Мікалая (1900).jpg, Market square in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler (; July 13, 1936 – November 25, 1970) was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer. After early experience playing rhythm and blues and bebop, Ayler began recording music during the free jazz era of the 1960s. However, some critics argue that while Ayler's style is undeniably original and unorthodox, it does not adhere to the generally accepted critical understanding of free jazz. In fact, Ayler's style is difficult to categorize, and it evoked incredibly strong and disparate reactions from critics and fans alike.Claghorn, 1982. His innovations have inspired subsequent jazz musicians. His trio and quartet records of 1964, such as '' Spiritual Unity'' and '' The Hilversum Session'', show him advancing the improvisational notions of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman into abstract realms where whole timbre, and not just mainly harmony with melody, is the music's backbone. His ecstatic music of 1965 and 1966, such as "Spirits Rejoice" and "Truth Is Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy that combined satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003. Bruce forged new paths in comedy and counterculture. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked Bruce third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Early life Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York, to a Jewish family. His British-born father, Myron (Mickey) Schneider, was a shoe clerk; they saw each other very infrequently. His mother, Sally Marr (legal name Sadie Schneider, born Sadie Kitchenberg), was a stage performer and danc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Gregory
Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, writer, activist and social critic. His books were bestsellers. Gregory became popular among the African-American communities in the southern United States with his "no-holds-barred" sets, poking fun at the bigotry and racism in the United States. In 1961 he became a staple in the comedy clubs, appeared on television, and released comedy record albums. Gregory was at the forefront of political activism in the 1960s, when he protested against the Vietnam War and racial injustice, and advocated for animal rights. He was arrested multiple times and went on many hunger strikes. He later became a speaker and author. Gregory died of heart failure, aged 84, at a Washington, D.C., hospital in August 2017. Early life Gregory was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Lucille, a house cleaner, and Presley Gregory. At Sumner High School, he was aided by teachers, among them Warren St. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woody Allen
Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolades, including the most nominations (16) for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He has won four Academy Awards, ten British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, as well as nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award, Emmy Award and a Tony Award. Allen was awarded an Golden Lion, Honorary Golden Lion in 1995, the BAFTA Fellowship in 1997, an Palme d'Or, Honorary Palme d'Or in 2002, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2014. Two of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Allen began his career writing material for television in the 1950s, alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also published several books o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress, singer, comedian and author. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in '' St. Louis Woman'' in 1946. She received a Special Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of '' Hello, Dolly!'' in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special ''Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale''. Her rendition of " Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952. In 1976, she became the first African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on October 17, 1988. Early life Bailey was born in Newport News, Virginia to the Reverend Joseph James and Ella Mae Ricks Bailey. When she was very young, the family moved to Washington, DC. After her parents' divorce, Bailey moved to Philadelphia to live with her mother. Bailey made her stage-singing debu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barbra Streisand
Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the first performer to earn EGOT, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. Streisand's career began in the early 1960s performing in nightclubs and Broadway theaters. Following guest appearances on various television shows, she signed to Columbia Records—retaining full artistic control in exchange for accepting lower pay, an arrangement that continued throughout her career. Her studio debut, ''The Barbra Streisand Album'' (1963), won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Throughout her recording career, Streisand has amassed a total of 31 RIAA certification, RIAA platinum-certified albums, including ''People (Barbra Streisand album), People'' (1964), ''The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand album), The Way We Were'' (1974), ''Guilty (Barbra Strei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolph Green
Adolph Green (December 2, 1914 – October 23, 2002) was an American lyricist and playwright who, with long-time collaborator Betty Comden, penned the screenplays and songs for musicals on Broadway (theatre), Broadway and in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. Although they were not a romantic couple, they shared a unique comic genius and sophisticated wit that enabled them to forge a six-decade-long partnership. They received numerous accolades including four Tony Awards and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Grammy Award. Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 and American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Comden and Green received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1991. They started their career alongside Leonard Bernstein on stage where they received the New York Drama Critics' Circle for Best Musical for ''Wonderful Town'' (1953). On Broadway they wrote the music and lyrics to musicals such as ''On the Town (musical), On the Town'' (1944), ''Two on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Betty Comden
Betty Comden (May 3, 1917 – November 23, 2006) was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history." The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with '' Singin' in the Rain'', as part of the famed " Freed unit" at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Early life Betty Comden was born Basya Cohen in Brooklyn, New York in 1917, the younger child of Leo Cohen (originally Astershinsky), a lawyer, and Rebecca ( Sadvoransky) Cohen, an English teacher. Both were Russian immigrants and observant Jews. She had an older brother, Nathaniel ("Nat"), born . Basya "attended Erasmus Hall High School and studied drama at New York University, graduating in 1938," according to ''The New York Times' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judy Holliday
Judy Holliday (born Judith Tuvim, June 21, 1921 – June 7, 1965) was an American actress, comedian, and singer.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', June 9, 1965, p. 71. She began her career as part of a nightclub act before working in Broadway theatre, Broadway plays and musicals. Her success as Billie Dawn in the 1946 stage production of ''Born Yesterday (play), Born Yesterday'' led to her being cast in the Born Yesterday (1950 film), 1950 film version for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. She was known for her performance on Broadway in the musical ''Bells Are Ringing (musical), Bells Are Ringing,'' winning a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical and reprising her role in Bells Are Ringing (film), the 1960 film adaptation. In 1952, Holliday was called to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee to answer claims she was associated with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lorraine Gordon
Lorraine Gordon (née Stein; October 15, 1922 – June 9, 2018) was an American jazz music advocate, the owner of the Village Vanguard jazz club in Greenwich Village, New York City, and the author of a memoir on jazz music. Life and career Gordon grew up in Newark, New Jersey in a Jewish family and attended Newark Arts High School before transferring to Weequahic High School, from which she graduated in 1937. As a teenager, she was an ardent fan of jazz music. In 1942, she married Alfred Lion, co-founder of Blue Note Records. In the 1940s, Gordon and Lion recorded the works of jazz artists such as the clarinetist Sidney Bechet and pianist Thelonious Monk. In 1949, she married Max Gordon, owner of the Village Vanguard club in New York. Established in 1935, the club gained a reputation among jazz musicians in the late 1950s and became a popular place to record live performances. The club's artistic direction was in part guided by her. In the 1960s, as a member of the peace act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the Jazz standard, standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight (song), 'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser (composition), Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear (composition), Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature consonance and dissonance, dissonances and angular melodic twists, often using flat ninths, flat fifths, unexpected chromatic notes together, low bass notes and stride, and fast whole tone scale, whole tone runs, combining a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. Monk's distinct look included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He also had an idiosyncratic habit dur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
