Description: The original Birdland was a jazz club in New York City (1949 to 1965), named after Charlie "Yardbird" Parker, featuring the worlds best jazz musicians.
It was the bebop era, when jazz was at the height of its powers and New York City was its spiritual home. Birdland, the club named in honor of Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, had opened on Dec. 15, 1949, a block west of the 52nd St. scene and for the next fifteen years, the club’s survival formula was built upon memorable double and triple bills, commencing at 9 p.m. and sometimes lasting ’til dawn.
Birdland established itself as the one place that every jazz musician had to play, as did Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, Art Tatum, Sarah Vaughan, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Clifford Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Lester Young, George Shearing, Billie Holiday, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, and Sonny Rollins to name a few, in front of audiences that might have included Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Within the
Birdland was a rather small club, which seated around 400 people. After descending down the stairs the room opened up with the bandstand right in front and a long bar along the left wall. On the opposite side from the bar - as well as just in front of it - there were rows of chairs reserved for listeners only - sometimes refered to as The Peanut Gallery or Bullpen - and in the middle there were 10 to 15 tables with red and white checkered table cloths where food and drinks were served. On the far right wall