:: Guest blog post by Andy Hong ::

If you don’t know Andy’s favorite thing to do in NYC, you really don’t know Andy.

Everybody wants to come to New York, head up to Broadway, and go see some “based on the animated movie” musical.  We do love seeing Broadway shows and getting discount tickets at South Street.  Still, you can spend $300 per person to see “The Lion King” in its fifteenth casting….or…..you can spend $100 per person to see the greatest musical talent on the planet with inspired performances from performers that are close enough that you can spit on them.  Keep in mind also, that that same $100 gets you top notch seats in venues of 20 to 200 people and alcoholic beverages.  If you are prepared for this musical carnality, I would start at…

Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue in Greenwich Village:    New York City is the epicenter of the jazz performance world with many more clubs than any other city.  Though many of these clubs are scattered around the city, [Christopher and Seventh] is the only area where there are multiple clubs within walking distance.  That is, that you need not get back on the subway when you daisy chain your way through your nocturnal jazz club crawl.

Fat Cat:  Hip divey basement pool hall where millenials bump into baby boomers.  Slick white collar professionals drink diet cokes and play shuffle board or ping pong, while middle age jazz heads listen to NYU music students while sitting on “Sanford and Son” garage sale sofas.  Four dollars gets you in for the entire night!!  Bring your own pizza; the locals do.

55 Bar:  Claims to be the oldest jazz establishment in NYC.  Definitely has the most ratty smoky jazz dive atmosphere (sans “smoky”).  Early evening is comfortable, but later in the night can get crowded with some usual knuckleheads talking over the music in the back.  Narrow and long with a cool wooden bar (with your usual jazzhead bartenders) along one side with grimy restrooms that you have to walk across the stage to get to.  Also, it’s located next door to the legendary Stonewall Inn that launched the gay pride movement.

Village Vanguard: This is the last of the legendary jazz bars.  Just about every jazz great has played here (and still does) so this is probably the biggest jazz club draw in NYC.  It is that traditional dark basement club seen in the stereotyped movies.

Smalls:  Smalls is another basement club, run by pianist Hal Wilner.  A little pricey, but very comfortable and with exceptional talent.  I also think that they only make you pay for entrance, so staying for a second set won’t set you back anything extra.  By the way, you can also catch the action live at Small’s on the internet for free (well worth doing.)

Cornelia Street:  This is a basement club that will remind you of Liverpool’s Cave Club.  As with the other clubs, they have exceptional talent, but here the music is more adventurous and will push beyond jazz.

Blue Note:  Blue Note brings in bigger name mainstream talent.  This means that they’ll bring in well regarded musicians like John Scofield, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock but will also bring in the likes of Kenny G.  Tends to be cramped compared to the big name clubs that it contends with, but everyone sits and are within 15 feet of the stage.

Outside of the village:  Birdland (Midtown), Jazz Standard (Union Square), Iridium (Midtown), Smoke (upper west side), Dizzy’s (Columbus Circle), Subculture (Soho), Stone (Tribeca), Jazz Gallery (Union Square).

Photo Credit 1: Melissa Campbell, November 2015.

Photo Credit 2: “Bartender Kirby at 55 Bar,” Andy Hong.

Photo Credit 3: Carl Mikoy, CC BY 2.0, flickr.com, April 23, 2010.