
The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...
s in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, New York.
Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 160 Bleecker Street. The large 1896
Chicago School structure by architect
Ernest Flagg
Ernest Flagg (February 6, 1857 – April 10, 1947) was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts style. He was also an advocate for urban reform and architecture's social responsibility.
Early life and education
Flagg was born in Brooklyn, New ...
was known at the time as
Mills House No. 1 and served as a
flophouse
A flophouse (American English) or doss-house (British English) is a place that has very low-cost lodging, providing space to sleep and minimal amenities.
Characteristics
Historically, flophouses, or British "doss-houses", have been used for ove ...
for
transient
Transience or transient may refer to:
Music
* ''Transient'' (album), a 2004 album by Gaelle
* ''Transience'' (Steven Wilson album), 2015
* Transience (Wreckless Eric album)
Science and engineering
* Transient state, when a process variable or ...
men. In its heyday, the Village Gate also included an upper-story performance space, known as the Top of the Gate.
Throughout its 38 years, the Village Gate featured such musicians as
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
,
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first ...
,
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life.
Born and raised in Washington, D ...
,
Mongo Santamaria
Mongo may refer to:
Geography Africa
* Mongo, Chad, a Sahel city
* Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo, Chad, a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction
* Mongo Department, Gabon
* Mongo, Sierra Leone, a chiefdom
* Mongo River (Little Scarces River) ...
,
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
,
Golden Earring
Golden Earring were a Dutch rock music, rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Tornados. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch chart, reached the top ...
,
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...
,
Bill Evans
William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, a ...
,
Dave Brubeck
David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...
,
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...
,
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...
,
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.
In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...
,
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" an ...
,
Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s.
Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...
,
Woody Shaw
Woody Herman Shaw Jr. (December 24, 1944 – May 10, 1989) was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, arranger, band leader, and educator. Shaw is widely known as one of the 20th century's most important and influentia ...
,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
,
Stan Getz
Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...
,
Vasant Rai,
Nina Simone
Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...
,
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...
,
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, accolade ...
,
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...
,
Lucio Dalla
Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.
Dalla was the composer of "Caruso (song), Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enri ...
,
Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionist Moe Tuc ...
,
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...
, and
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Honored as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Soul", she was twice named by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as the Roll ...
, who made her first New York appearance there. The show ''
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
''Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'' is a musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel. Brel's songs were translated into English by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, who also provided the story. The original 1968 Off-Broadway product ...
'', debuted at the Village Gate in 1968.
History
In the 1960s, radio DJ and Latin music advocate
Symphony Sid
Sid Torin (born Sidney Tarnopol; December 14, 1909 – September 14, 1984), known professionally as "Symphony Sid", was a long-time jazz disc jockey in the United States. Many critics have credited him with introducing bebop to a mass audience.
E ...
hosted a regular Monday night concert at the Village Gate - "Monday Nights at the Gate" - featuring the best of New York's thriving Latin music scene. As
salsa music
Salsa music is a style of Latin American music, combining elements of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences. Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin. Most ...
began to grow in popularity, the
Alegre record label began to host quite a few events at the Village Gate - many of which resulted in live recordings. Some of the live recordings from the Village Gate were the Alegre All-Star (and later Tico All-Star) Descarga sessions. The "Salsa Meets Jazz" series at the Village Gate was a seminal part of the history of New York Latin music. In 1977, WRVR jazz and Latin music DJ and jazz musician/conga drummer
Roger Dawson
Roger Dawson (born March 19, 1940) is a jazz percussionist, conga drummer, bandleader, and jazz composer. He was a leading jazz and salsa disc jockey in the US and was acknowledged as being at the forefront of New York's salsa music explosion of t ...
created and hosted a weekly event that brought top Latin bands together with a guest jazz soloist. Dawson named the event "
Salsa Meets Jazz".
Sonny Stitt
Sonny Stitt (born Edward Hammond Boatner Jr.; February 2, 1924 – July 22, 1982) was an American jazz saxophonist of the bebop/hard bop idiom. Known for his warm tone, he was one of the best-documented saxophonists of his era, recording over ...
with
Eddie Palmieri
Eddie Palmieri (born December 15, 1936) is an American Grammy Award-winning pianist, bandleader, musician, and composer of Corsican and Puerto Rican ancestry. He is the founder of the bands La Perfecta, La Perfecta II, and Harlem River Drive.
...
,
Dexter Gordon
Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians. Gordon's height was , so he was also known as "Long Tall Dexter" an ...
with
Machito
Frank Grillo (born Francisco Raúl Gutiérrez Grillo; December 3, 1909 – April 15, 1984) known professionally as Machito (previously as Macho), was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music ...
,
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...
with
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...
,
James Moody,
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...
,
Bobby Hutcherson
Robert Hutcherson (January 27, 1941 – August 15, 2016) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. "Little B's Poem", from the 1966 Blue Note Records, Blue Note album ''Components (album), Components'', is one of his best-known composi ...
,
David "Fathead" Newman
David "Fathead" Newman (February 24, 1933 – January 20, 2009) was an American jazz and rhythm-and-blues saxophonist, who made numerous recordings as a session musician and leader, but is best known for his work as a sideman on seminal 1950s an ...
,
Slide Hampton
Locksley Wellington Hampton (April 21, 1932 – November 18, 2021) was an American jazz trombone, jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. As his nickname implies, Hampton's main instrument was slide trombone, but he also occasionally played tub ...
, and
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders (born Ferrell Lee Sanders; October 13, 1940 – September 24, 2022) was an American jazz saxophonist. Known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on the saxophone, as well as his use of "sheets of sound", San ...
, to name a few, all jumped in to "jam" with the best salsa bands of the time.
The club hosted a benefit for
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from "bold oracle" to "publicity hound". Accordin ...
in May 1970 that featured performances from such counterculture luminaries as
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
and
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
. From 1971 to 1973, a
musical comedy
Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...
called ''
National Lampoon's Lemmings'' had a successful run at the Gate. It starred future comic notables
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi ( ; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, singer and musician. He was one of seven ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members of the first season. He was arguably the most popular member of the ''Satur ...
,
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
, Garry Goodrow, and
Christopher Guest
Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest (born 5 February 1948), known professionally as Christopher Guest, is a British-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. Guest has written, directed, and starred in his series of comedy ...
, and lampooned the 1969
Woodstock Festival
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
, which had taken place upstate two years earlier, calling it "
Woodchuck
The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as the woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots.
A lowland creature of North America, it is found through much of the Easte ...
" and equating the entire
hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...
generation with
lemming
A lemming is a small rodent, usually found in or near the Arctic in tundra biomes. Lemmings form the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as Microtinae) together with voles and muskrats, which form part of the superfamily Muroidea, which also inclu ...
s bent on self-destruction.
''
Let My People Come
''Let My People Come'' is a musical with book and music by Earl Wilson, Jr. and lyrics by Wilson and Phil Oesterman. Subtitled "A Sexual Musical", the sexually-explicit show originally ran from 1974 to 1976 at The Village Gate Theater in Greenwich ...
'' opened at the Village Gate Theater in 1974. The show broke all box office records there and played for 1,167 performances. Its transfer to the Morosco Theatre on Broadway was not as successful, though, and closed after 106 performances. It was nominated for a Grammy in 1974 and has appeared all over the world.
From 1989 to 1991, the improvisational comedy troupe
Noo Yawk Tawk
''Noo Yawk Tawk'' was an off-Broadway show conceived and directed by Richmond Shepard which played at Village Gate, The Village Gate Theater from 1988 to 1991. It featured members of an improvisational comedy troupe founded by Mr. Shepard. All per ...
performed at the upstairs theater. The group was conceived and directed by Richmond Shepard, a world-renowned mime, actor, comedian, and teacher. All of the performances for Noo Yawk Tawk were entirely improvised. Characters may have been repeated, but never the sketches or the dialogue. The audience always set the scene and conditions for each improvisation, so every performance was different. The cast included Stan Taffel,
Marc Kudisch
Marc Kudisch (born September 22, 1966) is an American stage actor, who is best known for his musical theatre roles on Broadway.
Early life and education
Kudisch was born in Hackensack, New Jersey, the son of Florence and Raymond Kudisch. His fam ...
,
Debra Wilson
Debra Wilson is an American actress and comedian. She is the longest-serving original cast member on the sketch comedy series ''Mad TV'', having appeared on the show's first eight seasons from 1995 to 2003. As a voice actress, she has voiced va ...
,
Eric Douglas
Eric Anthony Douglas (June 21, 1958 – July 6, 2004) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He was the youngest son of actor Kirk Douglas and his second wife Anne Buydens. His half-brother was actor and producer Michael Douglas. Douglas ...
,
Garry Goodrow
Garry Goodrow (November 4, 1933 – July 22, 2014) was an American actor known for his role in the original stage production of the Obie Award-winning play ''The Connection'' (1959) and its 1961 film version, and as one of the original membe ...
, Miguel Sierra, Ken Dashow, Nola Roeper,
Bonnie Comley
Bonnie Comley is an American three-time Tony Award-winning theatre producer. She has won an Olivier Award and two Drama Desk Awards for her stage productions. She is a member of The Broadway League and serves on their Audience Engagement and Educa ...
, and Richmond Shepard. Taffel would go on to win three Emmy Awards for his performances in ''
The News In Revue
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
'' on PBS. Kudisch earned a Tony nomination in 2002.
The Village Gate name was again used in 1996 at 240 West 52nd Street. Art D'Lugoff, co-producer of the show ''A Brief History of White Music'' was looking to rent the space in a site formerly occupied by the Lone Star Road House. That incarnation and the show lasted until 1997. In 1998, the 52nd Street location was taken by a brief reincarnation of
Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists, and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Dece ...
.
The Village Gate closed its Greenwich Village location in February 1994. The ground floor is currently occupied by
CVS/Pharmacy. The
off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
capacity Village Theater, which hosted performances of the musically themed ''Love, Janis'', ''Dream a Little Dream'', ''Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'', and ''Escape From Bellevue'', occupied the sublevel performance space until fall 2007. In spring 2008, the space was reopened as a multiuse performance venue and gallery bar called
(Le) Poisson Rouge
(Le) Poisson Rouge (often referred to as LPR) is a music venue and multimedia art cabaret in New York City founded in 2008 by Justin Kantor and David Handler on the former site of the Village Gate at 158 Bleecker Street. The performance space was ...
.
The club is mentioned by
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
Arts and ent ...
superstars
Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz in their song ''Pancho Cristal,'' off their 1968 LP ''Los Durísimos.''
''Vámonos pa'l Village Gate''
''Que allí es donde usted va y ve''
''Bravos de la
tumbadora''
''Y las estrellas de ahora.''
The club is mentioned again in the
montuno
Montuno has several meanings pertaining to Cuban music and its derivatives. Literally, ''montuno'' means 'comes from the mountain', and so '' son montuno'' may refer to the older type of son played in the mountainous rural areas of Oriente. Ano ...
:
''Pancho Cristal
Descarga
A descarga (literally ''discharge'' in Spanish) is an improvised jam session consisting of variations on Cuban music themes, primarily son montuno, but also guajira, bolero, guaracha and rumba. The genre is strongly influenced by jazz and it w ...
del Village Gate.''
as well as in
Chronicles: Volume One by
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
.
Notable productions
The Top Of The Gate a.k.a. Village Gate (Upstairs):
* Love Lemmings (1991)
* Yesterdays: An Evening with
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop ...
(1990)
*
Noo Yawk Tawk
''Noo Yawk Tawk'' was an off-Broadway show conceived and directed by Richmond Shepard which played at Village Gate, The Village Gate Theater from 1988 to 1991. It featured members of an improvisational comedy troupe founded by Mr. Shepard. All per ...
(1998)
* Beehive (1986)
*Nacha at the Top of the Gate (1983)
Nacha Guevara
Nacha Guevara (born Clotilde Acosta, October 3, 1940) is an Argentine singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress from Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires province.
Biography
Trained as a dancer and actress, she discovered by chance a career as a singer bec ...
*
A... My Name Is Alice (1983)
* Rap Master Ronnie (1983)
* Lovesong (1976)
*
Tommy Tune
Thomas James Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and a star on the Hollywood Wal ...
Atop The Gate (1975)
* The
Charles Pierce Show (1974)
The Village Gate Theater a.k.a. Village Gate (Downstairs):
* Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (1992)
* The Real Live Brady Bunch and the Real Live Game Show (1991)
* Further Mo' (1990)
*
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) ...
& Company: The Legendary Genius of Comedy (1989)
* Sing Hallelujah! (1987)
* National Lampoon's Class of '86 (1986)
* El Grande de Coca-Cola (1986)
* Lies & Legends: The Musical Stories of
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy Award- ...
(1985)
*
Shades of Harlem
''Shades of Harlem: A Cotton Club Musical'' is an off-Broadway Musical theatre, musical theater revue of songs from the Harlem Renaissance. The show debuted in August 1983 at the Village Gate and has gone on to play around the world. The show feat ...
(1984)
* Orwell That Ends Well (1984)
*
One Mo' Time (1979)
* Sterling Silver (1979)
* Nightsong (1977)
* 2 by 5 (1976)
*
Let My People Come
''Let My People Come'' is a musical with book and music by Earl Wilson, Jr. and lyrics by Wilson and Phil Oesterman. Subtitled "A Sexual Musical", the sexually-explicit show originally ran from 1974 to 1976 at The Village Gate Theater in Greenwich ...
(1974)
*
National Lampoon's Lemmings (1973)
* A Quarter for the Ladies' Room (1972)
*Kumquats (1971)
*
Salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
(1969)
*
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
''Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'' is a musical revue of the songs of Jacques Brel. Brel's songs were translated into English by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman, who also provided the story. The original 1968 Off-Broadway product ...
(1968)
*
MacBird (1967)
The Village Gate 52nd Street
* A Brief History of White Music (1996)
Recordings
Notable albums recorded live at The Village Gate:
*
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
with
Eric Dolphy
Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. (June 20, 1928 – June 29, 1964) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Primarily an alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and flautist, Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain ...
''
Evenings At The Village Gate'' (Impulse!, rec. 1961, rel. July 2023)
*
Toshiko Akiyoshi
is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.
Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in ''Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. In 1984, sh ...
''
Toshiko at Top of the Gate'' (1968)
*
Ahmad Jamal
Ahmad Jamal (born Frederick Russell Jones; July 2, 1930 – April 16, 2023) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, and educator. For six decades, he was one of the most successful small-group leaders in jazz. He was a NEA Jazz Ma ...
''
At The Top - Poinciana Revisited
AT or at may refer to:
Geography Austria
* Austria (ISO 2-letter country code)
* .at, Internet country code top-level domain
United States
* Atchison County, Kansas (county code)
* The Appalachian Trail (A.T.), a 2,180+ mile long mountainou ...
'' (Impulse!, 1969)
*
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. Ho ...
''Live in Greenwich Village'' (1965)
*
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd (September 16, 1925 – December 2, 1999) was an American jazz guitarist. Byrd was best known for his association with Brazilian music, especially bossa nova. In 1962, he collaborated with Stan Getz on the album '' Jazz Samba' ...
''
Byrd at the Gate'' (Riverside, 1963)
*
Shlomo Carlebach
Shlomo Carlebach (; January 14, 1925 – October 20, 1994), known as Reb Shlomo to his followers, was an American rabbi and musician nicknamed "the Singing Rabbi".
Although his roots lay in traditional Orthodox yeshivot, he branched out to c ...
''At The Village Gate'' (1963)
*
Alice Coltrane
Alice Lucille Coltrane (' McLeod; August 27, 1937January 12, 2007), also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda () or simply Turiya, was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and Hindu spiritual leader.
An accomplished pianist and one o ...
''
Journey in Satchidananda'' (track 5) (Impulse!, 1970)
*
Chris Connor
Mary Jean Loutsenhizer, known professionally as Chris Connor (November 8, 1927 – August 29, 2009), was an American jazz singer.
Biography
Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri, to Clyde Loutsenhizer and Mabel Sh ...
''At The Village Gate'' (1963)
*
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...
''
Larry Coryell at the Village Gate
''Larry Coryell at the Village Gate'' is a live album by jazz guitarist Larry Coryell that was recorded on January 21 and 22, 1971 at the Village Gate in New York City. It was released by Vanguard Records. This was the first Coryell album on w ...
'' (1971)
*
Lucio Dalla
Lucio Dalla (; 4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) was an Italian singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.
Dalla was the composer of "Caruso (song), Caruso" (1986), a song dedicated to Italian opera tenor Enri ...
''DallAmeriCaruso'' (1986)
*
Bill Evans Trio "Top of the Gate" (1968)
*
Stan Getz
Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...
''Getz at the Gate (Live at the Village Gate, Nov. 26, 1961)'' (Verve, 2019)
*
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 U ...
''Live at The Village Gate'' (1970)
*
John Handy
John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor saxophone, tenor and baritone saxophone, baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and ...
''
New View'' (Columbia, 1967)
*
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first ...
''
Hawkins! Eldridge! Hodges! Alive! At the Village Gate!'' (Verve, 1962); ''
Hawkins! Alive! At the Village Gate'' (Verve, 1962)
*
Milt Jackson
Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with ...
''
Milt Jackson Quintet Live at the Village Gate'' (Riverside, 1963)
*
Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan ''Havin' A Ball At The Village Gate'' (1963)
*
Johnny Lytle
John “Johnny” Dillard Lytle (October 13, 1932 in Springfield, Ohio – December 15, 1995 in Springfield) was an American jazz drummer and vibraphonist.
Life and career
Lytle grew up in Springfield, Ohio in a family of musicians, the son o ...
''
Swingin' at the Gate'' (Pacific Jazz, 1967),
*
Junior Mance
Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021), known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer.
Biography Early life (1928–1947)
Mance was born in Evanston, Illinois. When he was five years old, Mance st ...
''
Live at the Top'' (Atlantic, 1968)
*
Chuck Mangione
Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer.
He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother, Gap Mangione, ...
''Live at The Village Gate'' (1989)
*
Herbie Mann
Herbert Jay Solomon (April 16, 1930 – July 1, 2003), known by his stage name Herbie Mann, was an American jazz Flute, flute player and important early practitioner of world music. Early in his career, he also played tenor saxophone and clarinet ...
''
Herbie Mann at the Village Gate'' (Atlantic, 1961); ''
Herbie Mann Returns to the Village Gate'' (Atlantic, 1961
963
Year 963 (Roman numerals, CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 39, probably of poison administered by his wife, Emp ...
; ''
Monday Night at the Village Gate'' (Atlantic, 1965
966
Year 966 (Roman numerals, CMLXVI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Byzantine Empire
* 23 June - Arab-Byzantine Wars, Byzantine-Arab War: Arab-Byzantine prisoner exchanges, A prisoner excha ...
; ''
Standing Ovation at Newport'' (Atlantic, 1965)
*
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and f ...
''
The Americanization of Ooga Booga (Recorded Live at The Village Gate)'' (MGM, 1965)
*
Les McCann
Leslie Coleman McCann (September 23, 1935 – December 29, 2023) was an American jazz pianist and vocalist. He is known for his innovations in soul jazz and his Swiss Movement, 1969 recording of the protest song "Compared to What". His music ha ...
''
Les McCann Ltd. in New York'' (Pacific Jazz, 1961
962
Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine expeditionary force under General Nike ...
; ''
Les McCann Ltd. Plays the Shampoo
''Les McCann Ltd. Plays the Shampoo'' (subtitled ''At the Village Gate'') is a live album by pianist Les McCann recorded in 1961 and released on the Pacific Jazz Records, Pacific Jazz label.Freed., RLes McCann Discographyaccessed January 12, 2016 ...
'' (Pacific Jazz, 1961
963
Year 963 (Roman numerals, CMLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* March 15 – Emperor Romanos II dies at age 39, probably of poison administered by his wife, Emp ...
; ''
New from the Big City'' (Pacific Jazz,
970
Year 970 ( CMLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 970th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' designations, the 970th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th year of the 10th century, and the 1st year ...
; ''
From The Top of The Barrel'' (Pacific Jazz, 1967)
*
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae (April 8, 1920 – November 10, 1994) was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretati ...
''
Alive!'' (1965)
*
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, includ ...
''
Live! At the Village Gate'' (Xanadu, 1963
985
Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theophanu and her mother-in-law Adelaide at an ...
*
Dave Pike
David Samuel Pike (March 23, 1938 – October 3, 2015) was an American jazz vibraphone and marimba player. He appeared on many albums by Nick Brignola, Paul Bley and Kenny Clarke, Bill Evans, and Herbie Mann. He also recorded extensively as l ...
''
the Doors of Perception'' (Vortex, 1966
970
Year 970 ( CMLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar, the 970th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' designations, the 970th year of the 1st millennium, the 70th year of the 10th century, and the 1st year ...
*
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...
''Live at The Village Gate'' (1992)
*
Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American retired jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.
In a seven-decade career, Rollins recorded over sixt ...
''
Our Man in Jazz'' (RCA Victor, 1962)
*
Mongo Santamaría
Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez (April 7, 1917 – February 1, 2003) was a Cuban percussionist and bandleader who spent most of his career in the United States. Primarily a conga drummer, Santamaría was a leading figure in the pachanga an ...
''At the Village Gate'' (Riverside, 1963)
*
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...
Quintet ''
Doin' the Thing'' (Blue Note, 1961)
*
Nina Simone
Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...
''
Nina at the Village Gate
''Nina Simone at the Village Gate'' is a live album by singer Nina Simone. Released in early 1962, it was her third live album for Colpix Records, Colpix (and sixth album overall). The album was recorded at The Village Gate, a nightclub in Greenw ...
'' (1962)
*
Sivuca ''Live at The Village Gate'' (1975)
*
Jimmy Smith ''At the Village Gate'' (Metro 1965)
*
Swingle Singers
The Swingles are an a cappella vocal group. The Swingle Singers were originally formed in 1962 in Paris under the leadership of Ward Swingle. In 1973, Swingle disbanded the French group, and formed an English group known initially as Swingle I ...
''Live in New York '82'' (1982)
*
Clark Terry
Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American Swing music, swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator.
He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948� ...
''Live at The Village Gate'' (1990)
* Tico All-Stars ''Decargas: Live at The Village Gate'' (1966) - feat.
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...
,
Victor Paz,
Charlie Palmieri
Carlos Manuel "Charlie" Palmieri (November 21, 1927 – September 12, 1988) was an American bandleader and musical director of salsa music. He was known as the "Giant of the Keyboards".
Early years
Palmieri's parents migrated to New York from P ...
,
Johnny Pacheco
Juan Pablo Knipping Pacheco (25 March 1935 – 15 February 2021), known as Johnny Pacheco, was a Dominican musician, arranger, composer, bandleader, and record producer. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pacheco became a leading figure in the New ...
,
Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
,
Jimmy Sabater, and
Joe Cuba
Gilberto Miguel Calderón (April 22, 1931 – February 15, 2009), known professionally as Joe Cuba, was an American conga drummer of Puerto Rican descent widely regarded as the "Father of Latin Boogaloo".
Early years
Gilberto Miguel Calderón ...
*
Flip Wilson
Clerow "Flip" Wilson Jr. (December 8, 1933 – November 25, 1998) was an American comedian and actor best known for his television appearances during the late 1960s and 1970s. From 1970 to 1974, Wilson hosted his own weekly variety series '' The ...
''Live at The Village Gate'' (1964)
The Village Gate was a stop on the 'Greenwich Village Walking Tour', in part because
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
wrote "
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" is a song written by American musician and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962 and recorded later that year for his second studio album, '' The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963). Its lyrical structure is based ...
" in September 1962 in a
basement apartment
A basement apartment or basement flat is an apartment located below street level, underneath another structure—usually an apartment building, but possibly a house or a business. Cities in North America are beginning to recognize these units as a ...
occupied by
Chip Monck, the Village Gate lighting engineer and future compere and lighting designer of the
Woodstock Festival
The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
.
The Village Gate is used as a setting in the 1961 film noir movie ''
Blast of Silence
''Blast of Silence'' is a 1961 American neo-noir film written and directed by, and starring Allen Baron, with Molly McCarthy, Larry Tucker, and Peter H. Clune in supporting roles. Set during Christmastime, it follows a hitman who returns to ...
''.
References
External links
NYC Architecture articleVillage Gate to Swing AgainBiography for Art D'LugoffIvan Black papers, 1887-1979Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Village Gate, The
1958 establishments in New York City
Music venues completed in 1958
1993 disestablishments in New York (state)
Defunct drinking establishments in Manhattan
Defunct jazz clubs in New York City
Former music venues in New York City
Nightclubs in Manhattan
Jazz clubs in New York City
*
Drinking establishments in Greenwich Village
Chicago school architecture in New York (state)