Good Morning POU!
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, the famous jazz club located in Harlem.
When the original Birdland opened sixty years ago 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.
The venue attracted an array of jazz musicians who also made recordings there. This includes Art Blakey‘s 1954 two-volume A Night at Birdland, most of John Coltrane‘s Live at Birdland and the Toshiko – Mariano Quartet’s Live at Birdland. Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Louie Bellson, Bud Powell, Johnny Smith, Stan Getz, Lester Young, and many others made appearances. George Shearing‘s standard “Lullaby of Birdland” (1952) was named in the club’s honor. The club’s original master of ceremonies, the diminutive, four feet tall Pee Wee Marquette, was notorious for mispronouncing the names of musicians if they refused to tip him. The disc jockey Symphony Sid broadcast live on WJZ early in the club’s existence.
“Pee Wee” Marquette introducing band
Miles Davis All-Stars at Birdland, 1959 – Miles Davis(tpt), Cannonball Adderley(as), John Coltrane(ts), Wynton Kelly(p), Paul Chambers(b), Jimmy Cobb(d) and Guy Wallace (ann)
During the 1950s, Birdland also became a fashionable place for celebrities to be seen, with Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, Gary Cooper, Marilyn Monroe, Sugar Ray Robinson, Marlene Dietrich, Joe Louis, Judy Garland and others as regulars. Irving Levy was stabbed to death at the club Sunday, January 26, 1959 (after midnight January 25) while Urbie Green was performing. The body was discovered in the rear of the club, near the service area. The stabbing had apparently occurred unnoticed by the patrons. Irving’s younger brother, Morris, took over Irving’s role in the club, and from 1959 through the early 1960s, the club enjoyed great success as one of the few remaining jazz clubs in the area. Johnnie Garry, the production coordinator and historian for the Jazzmobile project, managed the club in the early 1960s.
Quincy Jones’ Tribute to Birdland (1989) featuring Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, George Benson, and James Moody, as well as the original composer Joe Zawinul himself.