...the bebop era really only lasted from about, maybe, 1943 when Billy Eckstine's band was one of the first bebop bands, to about 1955. And it went up until 1965... Birdland, I think, opened up in 1949 and stayed open... uh... it stayed open until 1965.'Cause I played at the original Birdland. And they had other places - 'cause all these guys like Symphony Sid, they had these radio broadcasts that were on major radio stations... like on A.M., 'cause after midnight that.. those stations would carry damn near 'cross the country.
So, you know, you had Sid McCoy out of Chicago -- like that was in the late '50s/early '60s... Y'had Al "Jazzbo" Collins - he was in New York - and y'know, Symphony Sid used to do stuff at a place called the Royal Roost, on 48th Street and Broadway, that was upstairs; that's why they called it the Royal Roost.
And then you had 52nd Street itself, between... uh, Sixth and Fifth Avenue - that block was what they called "Swing Street": that's where bebop was founded.The only place that's still down there, in its natural... in its pristine state, is 21... which is the jockey club. On that same block... they used to all be brownstones, just like that... and the Onyx Club, 3 Deuces... [there] were all these famous... jazz joints, where Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and all them cats played. Y'know.. it was just one block long, and they used to go from club to club, right in that block. Jimmy Ryan's and all them... and all that kinda stuff...
