Greenwich Village has long had an integral role in the growth of jazz, blues, folk and rock music. David Browne wrote a 2024 book Talkin’ Greenwich Village about the neighborhood’s role in music history, and he now steers visitors to the clubs and sites that remain from yesteryear.

Any talk about the Village’s music history should begin in 9 3/4-acre Washington Square Park, a site that’s mentioned on 17 pages of Browne’s book. New York City officials battled with musicians for decades, trying to shut down or restrict their performances, but the musicians eventually triumphed.

“So many of those '50s and '60s Sunday afternoon hootenannies were held by the arch and the fountain at Washington Square Park,” says Browne, who graduated from Greenwich Village-based NYU and has since authored many books about musicians. “You can still find people singing and playing music in that area.”

Washington Square Park “is the symbolic musical heart of the Village,” Browne says. “It's the place where upstarts get to practice their fretted instrument or portable keyboard, try out new songs and see what works in terms of attracting a crowd. It's like an open-mic night, out in the open, almost every day.”

The park “has more history, culture and community woven into its grounds than most places 10 times its size,” the Washington Square Park Conservancy says on its website. “For nearly two centuries, it has been a place to linger, play, protest, perform and simply exist, beloved by locals and irresistible to visitors from around the world.”

The 1960s folk music explosion attracted many artists to the Village, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs and Peter, Paul and Mary, and helped launch their careers. Browne says three music clubs from that era or before still exist: the Bitter End, the Village Vanguard and Cafe Wha?.

The CafeWha? website bills the club as presenting the “best live music in NYC since 1959.”

At the Cafe Wha?—the word “what” was a shortened to convey incredulity— young performers, including Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor, “got early chances to hone their talents,” the club’s website says. “Folk singers, artists, poets, beatniks and anarchists came to the club, and so did far greater numbers of tourists, eager to observe those exotic breeds.”

The facts are a bit blurry regarding the arrival of the most significant artist at the Cafe Wha?.

A “gangly” 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrived at a Cafe Wha? hootenanny on a bitterly cold night on Jan. 24, 1961, after hitchhiking from Minnesota, the club’s website says. A 2023 Smithsonian Magazine article also says that Dylan, in January 1961, “left Minnesota altogether and hitchhiked to New York.”

But in Talkin’ Greenwich Village, Browne says Dylan was playing music in Madison, Wisconsin and “tagged along” with musician-friend Fred Underhill, who told Dylan he was driving with friends to New York in his Pontiac. In the 2001 book Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, author Howard Sounes says Dylan drove with two friends from Wisconsin with two goals in mind: to meet his idol Woody Guthrie and perform in Greenwich Village.

Browne’s book mentions that Dylan has said he went to the Cafe Wha? on the night of his arrival, and the club’s website agrees. “Just got here from the West,” Dylan told club owner Manny Roth, according to the website. “Name’s Bob Dylan. I’d like to do a few songs. Can I?”

Other media accounts say it was a nighttime performance, but the Smithsonian Magazine article says Dylan peformed at a daytime show on his first day in New York.

Browne says Dylan fans might want to stop at nearby Jones Street off Cornelia Street. Dylan and his girlfriend Suze Rotolo walked arm-in-arm down Jones Street for the cover of his second album, Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Two years after CafeWha? opened, the Bitter End opened its doors. It became the venue where Peter, Paul and Mary developed their repertoire. Their self-titled 1962 album cover has the folk trio standing before the Bitter End’s brick wall. The album included such classic songs as “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “Lemon Tree” and “500 Miles.”

This year, Village Preservation, a neighborhood group that aims to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of Greenwich Village, has joined with musician and author Richard Barone to present a four-part Village Nights series at the Bitter End.

The first part, focusing on the 1950s, occurred March 22. It featured folk musician Carolyn Hester and Terri Thal, an activist who was Dylan’s first manager and the former wife of the late influential Village musician Dave Van Ronk. The second part, focusing on the 1960s, will be held April 26 and feature folk singer Eric Andersen. The third part, focusing on the 1970s, is scheduled for Sept. 27 and will feature Thal and Terre Roche, one of the three sisters in the musical group the Roches. The final part, set for Dec. 6, focuses on the 1980s and will feature Browne and musician Suzanne Vega.

Legendary jazz club The Village Vanguard is the graybeard of the Greenwich Village music scene. It opened on Charles Street in 1934, according to Browne’s book, and soon after moved to its current 178 Seventh Avenue South location. The legendary jazz club’s website says the club has existed since 1935. One of the all-time greatest jazz albums, Live at the Village Vanguard, was recorded there by tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins in 1958.

The location of many musicians’ former homes in Greenwich Village can be found on Village Preservation’s map. The group also offers a jazz map, which guides visitors to jazz venues, recording studios and jazz musicians’ former residences. A third map reveals current music clubs and various music-related venues.