Blue Note Jazz Club — New York City

The Blue Note at 131 West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village opened in 1981 and quickly established itself as one of New York's premier jazz venues, attracting major artists with a combination of good sound, good sight lines, and a management willing to pay for top talent. Ray Charles, Oscar Peterson, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, and dozens of others have recorded live albums there. The Blue Note brand has since expanded internationally, but the West 3rd Street original remains the flagship and the standard.

The club sits a few blocks from the former site of the Cafe What? and the Bitter End on Bleecker Street — the broader West Village and Greenwich Village jazz and folk geography that has sustained live music in lower Manhattan for over a century. The Blue Note's relative recency compared to the Village Vanguard means it lacks the same mythological depth, but its programming has been consistently serious and its production values — sound, lighting, artist care — have set a standard.

The Blue Note is open seven nights a week for two shows per night. It is on West 3rd Street between MacDougal and Sullivan Streets in Greenwich Village, a short walk from Washington Square Park. Reservations are strongly recommended for weekend shows with major artists.