Jazz fans get the inside story of New York's legendary club At age eighty-three, Lorraine Gordon is a jazz icon who has lived more than a few lives: Downtown Bohemian, uptown grande dame, music business pioneer, wife, lover, mother, and finally - at a point when most women her age were just settling into grandmotherhood - owner of the most famous jazz club in the world, the Village Vanguard. The trajectory of her journey has been remarkable. The details are a Jackson Pollock-like swirl of fierce colors shot through with luminous creative figures: not just jazz figures but luminaries from every point on the political, social, and entertainment spectrum, from Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk to Lenny Bruce, Norman Mailer, and Barbra Streisand. Ever provocative, ever the unapologetic straight shooter, Lorraine's voice throughout this book is unmistakable. Her life adds up to far more than just a jazz story: it also constitutes, if only by inference, pretty much the story of jazz over the past half-century. * The legendary Village Vanguard has been an international jazz mecca since 1935. According to New York Magazine, "A musician hasn't truly arrived in the jazz world until he's played at the 'Carnegie Hall of Cool,' the Village Vanguard." * Includes never-before-seen photos from Lorraine Gordon's private collection. There have been over 100 "Live at the Village Vanguard" recordings by premier artists from John Coltrane to Wyntown Marsalis.