CHARLIE PARKER

PARKER, Charlie (1920-1955).

Printed promotional mailer for the grand opening of the legendary New York jazz club Birdland, named for Charlie “Yardbird” Parker, 1949, announcing the opening date ‘Thurs., Sept. 8th for 4 Big Weeks’, and presenting ‘A Nightly Concert of “Cool Jazz” Starring The Genius of Modern Music Charlie Parker and his Quintet…, “The Musician of the Year!” Lenny Tristano and his Sextet…, Stan Getz, Bud Powell,' and extra added attraction ‘The Cinderella Gentleman, Harry Belafonte’, together with a Birdland souvenir photo folder cover, 1950s, signed verso in blue ink ‘Regards, Charlie Parker’.

Birdland, named in honour of sometime headliner Charlie Parker, opened on 15 December 1949 at the corner of Broadway and 52nd Street in Manhattan, the advertised opening date of 8 September (as shown here) having been pushed back due to problems with their liquor license. ‘When the owners of Birdland contemplated the idea of naming the club after a practicing jazz musician,’ writes Ross Russell, ‘there had been no one else to consider. Big names of the past no longer held any box office allure. Of the contemporaries none, not even Dizzy Gillespie, possessed Parker’s charisma, or could lend the weight necessary to launch a club that would in fact be the “Jazz Corner of the World” for decades.' Interviewed by Robyn Flans for Modern Drummer in 1982, Charlie Watts spoke of his love for Birdland ‘When I had the honour to go to New York, that was it! All I wanted to do was go to Birdland and I was lucky enough to get there before it closed and that was it for me. I still walk down 52nd Street. I know it’s not the same anymore, but I do it. It’s just something that really meant something to me as a kid, listening to Charlie Parker, and to think that he lived there and walked down that street and played there.’ Russell, Bird Lives! 275. Watts, cited in Modern Drummer, August 1982.

Mailer - bifolium of lightweight yellow card stock, printed in blue, 255 x 178 mm. Photo folder cover - 240 x 280 mm. Provenance: The Norman R. Saks Collection (Vail, pl.21 & 42).