Village Vanguard

The Village Vanguard's red awning on Seventh Avenue South in Greenwich Village on a July morning in 2020, with the door to the basement club just beneath it. The awning is the only fanfare: downstairs is a small room where the front tables sit close enough to the bandstand to touch. Max Gordon's club has been at this address since the 1930s, and a photo from 1935 looks much like the room today. It is the club of choice for live albums: John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Sonny Rollins all recorded classics here. Book ahead, arrive early and sit near the bandstand.