Village Gate’s D’Lugoff Dies

Art D’Lugoff, owner and operator of one of the best-known jazz clubs in history, The Village Gate, died in Riverdale, N.Y., Nov. 4.

D’Lugoff, 85, produced concerts at the club in New York’s Greenwich Village for 40 years, booking names like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday.

D’Lugoff and his brother, Burt, opened the club in 1958 and brought in major comedy acts like Bill Cosby and Mort Sahl.

A few D’Lugoff stories noted by the Jazz Time include that he was one of the early promoters to reject Bob Dylan as an act and that he once fired a waiter named Dustin Hoffman.