Culture type
The Front Row
If you cannot see their hands, you are too far away.
You go for the performance and the proximity: the intake of breath before an aria, a comedian dying in a room of forty, the moment a band realises the crowd is with them. Recordings bore you and you cannot explain why to people who ask.
Your evening
A small room, a short set, close enough to be part of it.
Your room
If you only book one thing this year, make it Village Vanguard in New York: a wedge-shaped basement that has recorded more famous live albums than any room on earth.
Your cities
Three cities for this type
85United States
New York
Broadway, the Met and a downtown that reinvents the rules every decade
80United Kingdom
Edinburgh
For one month a year the largest arts festival on earth, and free national galleries all the others
80Portugal
Lisbon
A private collection worth a detour, a power station full of art and fado in a back room
Your rooms
Five bookings for this type
Live roomIconNew York · Greenwich Village
Village Vanguard
A wedge-shaped basement that has recorded more famous live albums than any room on earth
TheatreEdinburgh · Lothian Road
Traverse Theatre
Scotland's new writing theatre, two small rooms and a basement bar that runs the festival gossip
Live roomLisbon · Alfama
Clube de Fado
A small vaulted room in Alfama where the lights drop and the service stops for every song
Live roomLateLondon · Soho
Ronnie Scott's
A basement in Soho that has booked jazz every night since 1959
Live roomTokyo · Aoyama
Blue Note Tokyo
Two sets a night in a basement in Aoyama, with the best sightlines of any jazz club in this guide