Producer: David Murdock

In Production

The Village Vanguard in New York City is the oldest and greatest jazz club in the world. Over the past 3/4 century, the tiny basement room has played host to its greatest artists: John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus – the list is practically endless. Against all odds, the well-worn underground triangular club is still living, still jumping, still making great art possible 75 years after it first opened its doors.

Alive at the Village Vanguard will pay homage to the storied past. Above all, the film will be a living, breathing portrait of a club that continues to be a hot-house of creativity, providing a home to the finest jazz players of today and tomorrow including Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Roy Hargrove, Jason Moran, The Bad Plus, Brad Meldhau, and many others. This film will highlight their work and tell the story of the Village Vanguard in a way that will resonate far beyond the jazz audience.

Leading the cast will be Lorraine Gordon, the 87-year-old owner of the club found nightly at her regular table by the door. The widow of legendary Max Gordon who opened the Vanguard in 1935, Lorraine has been running the club since Max’s death 20 years ago and is an inimitable and powerful force in the jazz world.

Anyone who has ever waited a table, run a business, been enchanted by New York, or looked for ways to remain forever young, will find in this film a compelling story filled with music.