By Kati Neiheisel***Intrigued by NLE’s Who Was Who!, I want to know who was where. I want to know about the hot and happening clubs and piano bars of previous decades. Perhaps the past can inspire today’s New York City nightlife.
The Village Gate is such a venue— and a reunion show takes place on Saturday, December 14 at 7:00 PM as part of Winter Rhythms 2024. The concert features some of the original Village Gate performers and also honors their Village Gate “mother,” Trudi Mann.
Opened in 1958 by Art D’Lugoff, the now iconic nightclub, the Village Gate, was located on the corner of Bleecker and Thompson Streets in Greenwich Village. The Gate consisted of three performance spaces: a large basement, a street-level terrace (now a CVS Pharmacy) and an upper-story space known as Top of the Gate (the current home of performance space Le Poisson Rouge). The historic club is best remembered for the legendary jazz musicians who performed there, including Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Charles Mingus and Thelonious Monk. Between 1961 and 1992, dozens of albums were recorded live at the Village Gate, including Herbie Mann at the Village Gate, 
recorded and released in 1961 (Atlantic), Bill Evans Live at Art D’Lugoff’s Top of the Gate, recorded in 1968 and released in 2012 (Resonance Records) and Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy, recorded in 1961 and released in 2023 (Impulse!).
The Gate was also home to successful Off Broadway productions, including the 1968 debut of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, starring Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, Shawn Elliott and Alice Whitfield; the 1973 stage show National Lampoon: Lemmings, whose cast included John Belushi, Chevy Chase, and Christopher Guest; the 1974 “sexual” musical Let My People Come, with book and music by Earl Wilson, Jr. and lyrics by Wilson and Phil Oesterman; and One Mo’ Time, a musical revue conceived by Vernel Bagneris, which ran at the Gate from 1979-83.
For the club’s 25th anniversary in 1983, D’Lugoff, who enjoyed “mixing” things up, told The New York Times he was changing the identity of Top of the Gate from a jazz room to a comedy-only room, five nights a week, beginning with comedian Robert Klein. Jazz artists would move to their own exclusive room in the basement at the Gate, with occasional performances in the street-level terrace.
In 1987, Stan Edwards, who originally worked at the Village Gate from 1966-73, returned as a singer, MC and talent coordinator for his own show in the street-level terrace, remaining there until the club closed its doors in 1993. Sue Matsuki, vocalist and producer of Winter Rhythms, fondly remembers: “The Village Gate is where I started my singing career. We auditioned for host Stan Edwards and music director Gary Pace, then became part of the family—and what a family it was!” In addition to Matsuki, the core cast of talent was comprised of Judy Bady, Greg Caldarone, Christian (Ian) Daisey, Linda Ipanema, Jennifer Pace (daughter of pianist Gary Pace), Elaine Paxton, comedian Nancy Redman and the late Vanessa Vickers, all led by their “mother,” 
the late vocalist Trudi Mann. Matsuki continues, “Trudi Mann was everything to me and many who had the honor of knowing her. She was a mentor, not just by her love and support, but by the example she set every time she stepped on stage. There was no better interpreter of a lyric; she had great taste in music; she was funny and she could swing her butt off one minute and break your heart the next.”
Working street-level within a glass enclosure, other lessons were learned. Matsuki says, “People, often very drunk people, would press their noses up against the glass and make faces or obscene gestures at us, which honestly, only made us all better singers. We’d learn how to play to them or ignore them.” But there was also an upside to this street-level location. “Folks were going to shows upstairs and downstairs, so many of us met famous people on their way to see other famous people. They’d stop in, have a drink at the bar, listen to a few of us and go into their show. I met Tony Bennett there. My signature tunes were ‘I’ll Close My Eyes’ and ‘Since I Fell for You.’ Tony heard me sing the first tune and said, ‘You sing great kid!’ Then, he offered to buy me a drink.”
Greg Caldarone remembers performing his signature song at the Village Gate: “I Am A Singer,” lyrics by Drey Shepperd, music by Gerard Kenny (1983). “It’s what I auditioned with and Stan adored it. The showcase was such a great opportunity to work out new songs, shows and hone our skills. Plus, we could invite managers and booking agents in to audition for them as well. I made use of that. It was so important to us new singers. Top it off with the fact that Stan introduced each one of us like we were stars. It was the most positive environment for new performers.”
Matsuki notes she met Gregory Toroian, her current musical director of 30 years at the Village Gate. “Five years before we started to work together, we met at the Gate. He used to come in to play for Judy Bady. The Village Gate…the gift that keeps on giving. The rare times I’ve found myself on Bleecker and Thompson, all I feel is the warmth, joy, music and love that we all shared as we honed our craft together. I feel grateful and blessed.”
With producer Sue Matsuki at the helm, Winter Rhythms 2024 marks the 16th year that Urban Stages welcomes noted 
and up-and-coming musical artists to its stage during the holiday season with cabaret, musical theatre, jazz, classical and more! All proceeds go to Urban Stages’ Outreach, a city-wide, educational touring program in all five boroughs of New York City.
The Village Gate Reunion Show features Greg Caldarone, Ian Daisey, Jennifer Pace and others, hosted by Sue Matsuki, with pianist Gregory Toroian, bassist Skip Ward and drummer David Silliman.
For tickets to the show on Saturday, December 14, at 7:00 PM, click here.
Urban Stages is located at 259 West 30th Street, NYC
