2/5/2024 0 Comments Ny jazz![]() “After ten successful years uptown, I felt the mystique of Birdland returning to midtown – it would be the natural continuation of the legendary jazz corner of the world,” said Birdland owner John Valenti. On many occasions, artists who performed at the original club on 52nd street graced the stage of the second version of Birdland as well. In ten years, more than 2,000 emerging artists performed at the club. The Uptown Reawakeningīirdland awoke uptown in 1986 at 2745 Broadway, on the corner 105th Street where it was well renowned for its great acoustics and unique setup. ![]() After many 5 am nights, the club needed to take a nap. and Sugar Ray Robinson.Īs Allan Morrison, the long-time editor of Ebony once put it, “Birdland was both a cultural vantage point and a barometer of trends where all the big names in jazz performed.”īut as a new popular music, Rock & Roll emerged, Birdland’s fortunes declined in the 60’s and its doors were closed on Broadway and 52nd in 1965. Regulars to the nightly festivities included such household names as Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Joe Louis, Marlene Dietrich, Ava Gardner, Sammy Davis, Jr. Birdland’s booking history reads like a who’s who of jazz: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Erroll Garner, and many, many others.Ĭonsidering the excitement that Birdland generated on a daily basis, it’s no surprise that the club attracted its share of celebrities. Given the artists on the bill, that comes as no surprise. In its first five years of existence, 1,400,000 paid the $1.50 admission to make their way either right to the cabaret section or left to the intense listening bullpen to hear Birdland’s attractions and sample its atmosphere. John Coltrane’s classic Quartet regularly appeared at the club in the early 1960s, recording “Live at Birdland.” And the famous DJ, Symphony Sid Torin made a name for himself broadcasting live from the club to radio listeners up and down the eastern seaboard. Count Basie and his smokin’ big band made Birdland their New York headquarters, eventually recording George Shearing’s “Lullaby of Birdland” live at the club. ![]() In addition to Bird, many jazz legends were regulars at the club. For the next fifteen years, the club’s survival formula was built upon memorable double and triple bills, commencing at 9 p.m. Miraculously, just as the scene on 52nd Street caved in, Birdland was born and quickly came to prominence. When the original Birdland opened in December of 1949, Charlie Parker was the headliner and the club was located on Broadway, a block west of the 52nd Street scene, which was a hotbed of jazz in the 1930s and 40s. It was Charlie Parker, familiarly known to his fans and fellow musicians as “Bird,” a contraction of Yardbird, his formal nickname, who was the dynamic creative personality and genius of the alto saxophone who served as the inspiration for Birdland. Nearly every major jazz style of the past seventy years has been initiated in the Big Apple. Ever since most of Chicago’s top musicians moved to New York in the mid-to-late 1920s, New York City has been the Jazz Mecca.
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