Response 2 - Skye Nguyen
March 06, 2018, by Skye
With this week’s readings, we dived into the jazz scene that took place in Lower Manhattan during the early to mid-1900s. Before reading Live at the Village Vanguard, the only thing I really knew about jazz was that the music genre originated within the African-American communities in New Orleans and was an extension of blues music. I also remember learning about how during the Prohibition Era, jazz music was often played in speakeasies and so that’s what jazz became known for.
Live at the Village Vanguard by Max Gordon is a personal account of his experience working at his nightclub in Greenwich Village— the Village Vanguard. With this book, Gordon provides an inside scoop of what it was like to run a jazz club during this time period and gives us “portraits” of the many different musicians that have played at his nightclub, as opposed to reading a textbook telling us the history of jazz music during the Prohibition Era. His story makes the topic much more interesting and with it, we’re able to get a true feel of what took place and how he battled laws and regulation to keep doing what he enjoyed. While these individual stories where he recounts the events that have taken place in the Village Vanguard are interesting, they don’t tell us much about the Village Vanguard itself. We learn about Sonny Rollins and how he was inconsistent, we learn about Miles Davis and his douchey but entertaining attitude, and we learn about Rahsaan Roland Kirk and how he died too young; however, that’s about it. We don’t learn much about the venue itself unless you do some Google-searching. The Village Vanguard was built in 1935, but didn’t become an all-jazz nightclub until 1957. Jazz was given more importance than other acts and would always be put at the top of the bill, while comedy and other acts of different music genres would be placed in the bill as fillers.
Nevertheless, Live at the Village Vanguard is an entertaining read and is definitely more fun to read than an informative textbook-style book about jazz in New York City. What stood out for me is the line “New York was wonderful in those days” in the chapter “Jazz Didn’t Do My Marriage Any Good” (119). So much of New York has changed and it’s not surprising to hear that New York was better back then. Things were cheaper, there were less people, and therefore, it wasn’t as crowded as it is today. While Monk’s wife was talking about Upper Manhattan, by Central Park, when she said the city used to be wonderful, this reminded me of the people who have lived in Greenwich Village for a while who hate NYU students. I understand that it’s probably no fun living next to a college campus as it’s often loud and busy, but NYU has been around since 1800 so I don’t understand why they’re complaining. Maybe they’re mad that because NYU students are looking for housing near their school (as would literally any other student), rent has gone up— but living in New York City, your rent is going to go up no matter what, so again I don’t see why they’re complaining. Things have obviously changed around campus in the past twenty or so years, so maybe they should move if they’re so upset? Maybe then I could move into their apartment and have a place to live next year.