My Grandma at Birdland Jazz Club
After my grandpa died, I scanned in all the photos that we found in his house. Going through them, I found this photograph of my grandmother. Click on it to see full-size.
This was my grandma in her blond phase. I remember as a child, she told me that she had been blond for a while, but she didn’t like it. She looks like a knockout to me, so maybe there was something else about being blond that she didn’t like. I have NO IDEA who the ruffian with the bandaged forehead is. It’s certainly not any of her three husbands.
The photograph isn’t quite as important as the cover it was enclosed in. This is the front:
It reads:
Birdland: Nightly Concerts of Jazz
Broadway and 52nd Street, New York
This is the inside cover:
I knew that my grandmother had traveled greatly over her years, but when I saw this photograph, her life suddenly became an adventure that I had only briefly glimpsed. Birdland Jazz Club was the hip jazz club in New York where all the cool cats played.
It still exists today, if not in the original location.
Knowing that my grandmother was a small part of that historical place makes me happy. How I wish she had told me the story of the night she went to Birdland and who she saw play there.
in 1956 & 1957 when i was in the air force stationed at Manhattan Beach air force staion in Brooklyn i went to Birdland many Saturday night’s. i was fornate to see many of the great’s in jazz. i am now 76 years old but i still remember my thrilling nights at Birdland. those Saturday night’s were some of the best times that i have had in my 76 years. i now live in Kentucky. good luck to all Jan L. Reed
Comment by jan l. reed (male) — December 9, 2012 @ 4:36 pm