Art D'Lugoff (August 2, 1924 - November 4, 2009) in Brooklyn, New York, was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

impresario An impresario (from the Italian ''impresa'', "an enterprise or undertaking") is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays, or operas, performing a role in stage arts that is similar to that of a film or television producer. Hist ...

. He opened

The Village Gate The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village, New York. Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 160 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structu ...

, a jazz club in New York City's

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, in 1958. D'Lugoff sought out the hottest talent, hosting prominent jazz artists, including

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

, and

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

, as well as the best in comedy, including

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

Mort Sahl Morton Lyon Sahl (May 11, 1927 – October 26, 2021) was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, and social satirist, considered the first modern comedian. Sahl pioneered a style of social satire that pokes fun at political and current event t ...

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, and

John Belushi John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his ca ...

. D'Lugoff turned away

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

, prompting the latter to write music in the basement of the club. He also fired a

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...

for providing poor table service. Playwright

Sam Shepard Samuel Shepard Rogers III (November 5, 1943 – July 27, 2017) was an American actor, playwright, author, screenwriter, and director whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any write ...

once bused tables. D'Lugoff styled himself on the famous showman

Sol Hurok Sol Hurok (Solomon Israilevich Hurok; born Solomon Izrailevich Gurkov, Russian Соломон Израилевич Гурков; April 9, 1888March 5, 1974) was a 20th-century American impresario. Early life Hurok was born in Pogar, Chernigov G ...

. His avant-garde programming also set the stage for theatrical nudity in New York - the 1974 musical review ''

Let My People Come ''Let My People Come'' is a musical with book and music by Earl Wilson, Jr. and lyrics by Wilson and Phil Oesterman. Subtitled "A Sexual Musical", the sexually-explicit show originally ran from 1974 to 1976 at The Village Gate theater in Greenwich ...

'' featured a fully nude co-ed cast. Financial reverses led D'Lugoff to declare bankruptcy in 1991. He closed the club in 1994. In the wake of The Village Gate's closing, D'Lugoff dreamed of opening a new jazz club near

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

. He worked on raising money for the development of a national jazz museum and hall of fame to be located in New York City. D'Lugoff's idea of a museum eventually developed into the National Jazz Museum of Harlem. D'Lugoff won the

Paul Robeson Award An award bestowed by the Paul Robeson Citation Award Committee of the Actors' Equity Association. Recipients * 1974: Paul Robeson * 1975: Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee * 1976: Lillian Hellman * 1977: Pete Seeger * 1978: Sam Jaffe * 1979: Harry Belafon ...

in 1992. In 2008 the Village Gate re-opened under the name "Le Poisson Rouge", with D'Lugoff as a consultant. On November 4, 2009, after complaining of a shortness of breath, he was taken to

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

where he died at the age of 85. On November 7, 2009, citing an unnamed source, the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' claimed that at the time of his death, D'Lugoff was weeks away from re-launching his nightclub at an even bigger downtown venue. D'Lugoff's wife, Avital D'Lugoff, worked as a photographer; she died on March 29, 2010. The couple had four children: Sharon, Dahlia, Rachael, and Jazz pianist Raphael.

References

External links

*
Le Poisson Rouge

JazzWax Marc Myers (born September 4, 1956) is an American journalist, author of five books and a regular contributor to ''The Wall Street Journal'', where he writes on music, the arts and celebrities. In 2007, he founded ''JazzWax'', a leading daily jazz ...

, Oct. 13 & 14, 2008
"Art D'Lugoff, Village Gate Impresario, Dies at 85"
''The New York Times'', Nov. 6, 2009
"Art D'Lugoff, Village Royalty, Gone Too Soon at 85"
''The Village Voice'', Nov. 5, 2009
"Art D’Lugoff, Jazz and NYC Nightclub Impresario, Dies at 85"
JazzTimes, Nov. 5, 2009

''New York Daily News'', Nov. 5, 2009 * ttp://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/art_lugoff_TfwNCP7rKgCRAUSem2yMRM "Art D'Lugoff, 1924-2009" ''New York Post'', Nov. 7 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Lugoff, Art 1924 births 2009 deaths American theatre managers and producers Businesspeople from New York City 20th-century American businesspeople