Art D’Lugoff
August 2, 1924 – November 4, 2009
Art D’Lugoff was a highly respected jazz impresario who opened the Village Gate in New York in 1958. The Greenwich Village jazz club became world famous thanks to D’Lugoff’s bookings of such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday and many more. Though mostly known as jazz venue, thanks in part to numerous “Live at the Village Gate” jazz albums over the years, D’Lugoff also hosted rock, blues, and R&B acts like Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Aretha Franklin. He does however, have the dubious honor of refusing to book a young Bob Dylan. D’lugoff closed the club in 1994 due to financial troubles. In later years, he was instrumental in the development of the National Jazz Museum of Harlem, and acted consultant for the 2008 opening of a new jazz club, Le Poisson Rouge, which stands in the original location of the Village Gate. Art D’Lugoff passed away at the age of 85 on November 4, 2009.