Lorraine Gordon

Lorraine Gordon

Gordon at the Village Vanguard, c. 2004
Born Lorraine Stein
(1922-10-15) October 15, 1922
Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Residence New York City
Nationality American
Occupation Jazz club owner
Known for Jazz advocacy
Village Vanguard
Notable credit(s) NEA Jazz Master
Website villagevanguard.com

Lorraine Gordon (born Lorraine Stein, October 15, 1922) is a jazz music advocate, the owner of the Village Vanguard jazz club in New York City, and the author of a memoir on jazz music.

Life and career

Gordon grew up in Newark, New Jersey. As a teenager, she was an ardent fan of jazz music.[1] In 1942 she married Alfred Lion, co-founder of Blue Note Records. In the 1940s, Gordon and Lion recorded the works of legendary jazz artists such as clarinetist Sidney Bechet and pianist Thelonious Monk. In 1950 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 the place to record live performances. In the 1960s, as a member of the peace activist group Women Strike for Peace, Gordon rallied against nuclear weapons testing and the Vietnam War. In the 1980s she worked at the Brooklyn Museum. Following her husband's passing in 1989, Gordon assumed ownership and management of the Vanguard club.[2][3] She continued the club's dedication to jazz music and maintained its reputation as a premier jazz club.[4] In 2013 Gordon's contribution to jazz music was recognized by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts, and she received the NEA Jazz Master Award for jazz advocacy.[2]

Gordon's autobiographical memoir titled Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time was published in 2006. The book chronicles her lifelong involvement with jazz music.[1][5] The book received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music print publishing.[6] In her memoir, Gordon writes, "I didn't arrive at the Village Vanguard from out of the blue. I stuck to what I loved. That was my art. I'm not a musician; I'm not a singer; I'm not a painter; I'm not an actress. I'm none of those things. But throughout my life I followed the course of the music that I loved."[2][7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Lorraine Gordon's Alive at the Village Vanguard". Jazz News. Archived from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "NEA Jazz Masters - Lorraine Gordon". Washington: National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on March 23, 2014. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ Felix Contreras (February 27, 2007). "Lorraine Gordon, Keeper of a Shrine to Jazz". NPR.org. Archived from the original on January 28, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  4. ↑ Ashley Kahn (February 8, 2005). "After 70 Years, The Village Vanguard Is Still in the Jazz Swing". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  5. ↑ Russ Musto (January 14, 2007). "Book Review: Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life in and Out of Jazz Time". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on February 9, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  6. ↑ "40th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards Announced". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Archived from the original on October 29, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ Lorraine Gordon; Barry Singer (2006). Alive at the Village Vanguard: My Life In and Out of Jazz Time. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 241. ISBN 9780634073991. Retrieved March 8, 2014.


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