From Blue Note To The Village Vanguard
Lorraine Gordon fell in love with jazz while she was still a teenager living in Newark, N.J.
"Jazz captured my spirit," Gordon told The Showbuzz's Judy Faber. "I have no idea why. We were just meant for each other. And I don't regret it for a minute."
Gordon's love for jazz led her on a very interesting path through a life that included marriages to two of the most innovative and important men in the jazz world. She chronicles her fascinating life in her new autobiography, "Alive At The Village Vanguard: My Life In And Out Of Jazz Time."
An avid record collector, Gordon loved the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa, and later became fascinated with a new sound she discovered around 1939.
"I suddenly heard on the radio a new sound in jazz on a different label," she said. "(It was) kind of an improvisational jazz. ... Avant-garde, advanced, beyond what I was listening to and they turned out to be Blue Note records. I started collecting (them) when I could afford them. Until the very day I met the master who produced them which was a marvelous coincidence."
The "master" of the records was Alfred Lion, a dapper German émigré who founded Blue Note records.
"It was my pleasure and his too," she added with a laugh. "So we got married. And I worked for him."
Gordon put her passion for jazz to good use at Blue Note, helping to discover and promote some of the label's most interesting artists, one of whom was piano great Thelonius Monk.
"I found him extremely interesting, fascinating. I feel that way to this day," she said.
Watch: Interview With Lorraine GordonMonk ended up being the reason she met her second husband, Max Gordon, who owned The Village Vanguard.
"I walked up to him at a little place in Fire Island to tell him about Thelonius Monk," she said.
They had coffee together and Max booked Monk.
Unfortunately, Monk hadn't built up a following yet and nobody showed up to the gig.
"Max ... was furious at me for bringing Monk into the club," said Gordon. "Max said 'you're ruining my business.' I said 'wait a minute he's a genius, someday you'll thank me. I married (Max), I don't know if he thanked me for that, but I did the best I could!"
Her marriage to Alfred Lion was already in trouble when she met Max, partly because Lion was reluctant to have children. With Max, Gordon was able to have the family she always wanted. The couple had two daughters, Debra and Rebecca.
In her book, Gordon talks about her work in the peace movement, a sometimes harrowing trip to Russia and Vietnam, and the many musicians she got to know over the years.
After Max passed away in 1989, Gordon decided she would carry on the tradition and run the club herself. She was open for business the night after he died.
"I had no idea how to run a club. I had never done that before. Max would certainly not want to see it go down in ashes. It was very difficult, but you don't think about it when you're doing something that you like."
After 71 years, The Village Vanguard continues to thrive, with jazz fans from all over the world descending into the basement club to hear live music from top musicians.
Lorraine Gordon, who turned 84 in October, continues to run the Vanguard. Her advice for staying active at her age is simple.
"Love what you're doing, that's all I can say," she said.
By Judy Faber