June 11th, 2018
 

Dear Friends:

Running a jazz club is not for the faint of heart.  You can't really aspire to be rich.  You can't really hope to be famous.  At best, you can hope to survive, serve the music and try to make it happen night after night.  You've got to have perseverance, patience and compassion.  It's like being a night nurse in a mental hospital - you administer to the sick and crazy.  A jazz club owner has to be able to take some abuse and like it.  Jazz musicians are notoriously tunnel-visioned.  They think mostly of themselves and their projects and every single one of them thinks they are a genius.  Very few musicians are cooperative or see the big picture.  As a club owner you will be hated and maligned - it is inevitable.  For a sensitive soul (like myself, for example), this can be the hardest part but the greatest club owners were the toughest and least compromising in their vision.  I think of Bradley Cunningham, Art D'Lugoff and Max Gordon - my personal jazz club owner heroes.  These guys loved the music and loved their clubs and didn't give a damn what anyone thought of them.

I am thinking now of Lorraine Gordon, the wife of Max Gordon who took over running the Village Vanguard after Max's death in 1989.  Lorraine passed away peacefully at the age of 95 over the weekend.  Lorraine may have been the toughest of them all - in some way feared.  She came across as a dragon-lady, her authority was unquestionable and she attended to her beloved club until her very last days.  I didn't know her very well personally.  When we did the fund-raiser to buy a headstone for James P. Johnson's grave at Smalls she came by to give her support (she was friends with James P).  It was only in the last few years that she would even look at me or say hello.  But I never held it against her.  I heard people talk badly about her - famous musicians.  But I loved her presence and respected the hell out of her.  Very, very few people have sat in her place and knew what she knew.  Next year, Smalls will have it's 25th anniversary.  When I think that the Village Vanguard is 83 years old (opened on February 22, 1935 by Max), it boggles my mind.  How did they do that?  How is it possible that this club has survived for so long with it's mission intact, uncompromised in the level and quality, night after night?  It's a miracle in this day and age of fly-by-night restaurants and soulless corporate chains.  It's a great accomplishment and only could have been done by a strong, stubborn and unrelenting personality.  Thankfully, the club is in good hands, Lorraine's authority now passed on to her daughter Deborah and long-time general manager Jed Eisenman.  The legacy of the Village Vanguard will remain intact.  Lorraine Gordon, my hat's off to you.  I bow in respect.  Rest in Peace.

I hope, as I always do, to see you this week at our clubs.  I wish you peace and productivity.

Spike