Full Name Lorraine Stein Website villagevanguard.com Residence New York City Name Lorraine Gordon | Nationality American Role Author Occupation Jazz club owner Notable credits NEA Jazz Masters | |
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Born October 15, 1922 (age 101) ( 1922-10-15 ) Newark, New Jersey, U.S. Known for Jazz advocacy
Village Vanguard Spouse Max Gordon (m. 1950–1989), Alfred Lion (m. 1942–1949) Books Alive at the Village Vanguard People also search for Max Gordon, Alfred Lion, Miriam Makeba | ||
Nea jazz masters tribute to lorraine gordon
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.
Contents
Life and career
Gordon grew up in Newark, New Jersey. 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 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. She continued the club's dedication to jazz music and maintained its reputation as a premier jazz club. 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.
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. The book received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music print publishing. 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."