Royal Roost

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The Royal Roost was a New York jazz club that existed in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Symphony Sid (left) with Josh White (right) in the 1940s.
Photo: William P. Gottlieb

The Royal Roost , located at 1580 Broadway (on 47th Street) in Manhattan , had its most successful period from 1946 to the mid-1950s , according to Ashley Kahn . The bebop , which was heard as a new style in New York from 1942, found one of its most important venues in the Royal Roost. While veterans of the swing era also played in the jazz clubs on 52nd Street such as the Onyx Club, Three Deuces or the Famous Door, the Royal Roost established itself as the venue for bebop.

Ex-saxophonist Ralph Watkins opened the jazz club in a chicken restaurant on Broadway; the publicist and producer Monte Kay and the DJ Symphony Sid Torin booked the stars of this new modern sound. In 1948 the Royal Roost presented an all-star formation with Charlie Parker , Tadd Dameron , Miles Davis , Dexter Gordon , Fats Navarro and Max Roach , which attracted 500 visitors. The club gave itself the middle name of the Metropolitan Bopera House "and proudly declares itself The House That Bop Built ." Symphony Sid promoted the concerts with its nightly radio program and live broadcasts. At the end of 1948 the Royal Roost was the venue for the stars of bebop; it played Dizzy Gillespie with his Big Band and the Charlie Parker quintet with Miles Davis and Max Roach.

Roost Records- 78 “Penny” by Stan Getz

The club now also had a record label of the same name , for which Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell , Johnny Smith and Harry Belafonte recorded . In September 1948 Miles Davis made his debut with his new project at the Royal Roost ; he presented a nine-person ensemble that had started as a rehearsal band in Gil Evans' apartment and led to the recordings of Birth of the Cool in 1949/50 . After 1950, Watkins left the Royal Roost to run the short-lived club Bop City on Broadway.

In the Royal Roost was Herman Leonard's legendary photo of the smoking Dexter Gordon.

Discographic notes

  • Count Basie - At the Royal Roost 1948 (1948)
  • Fats Navarro & Tadd Dameron - At Royal Roost - Volume 1 (1948)
  • Miles Davis - The Legendary Masters - Unissued Or Rare 1948-52
  • Miles Davis - The Complete Birth Of The Cool (Capitol, 1948-50)
  • Charlie Parker - The Bird Returns (Savoy, 1948/49)
  • Charlie Parker - Bird At The Roost, The Savoy Years - The Complete Royal Roost Performances (1948/49)
  • Lester Young - Live! From the Royal Roost (Unique, 1948)
  • Ella Fitzgerald - Royal Roost Sessions with Ray Brown Trio & Quintet (1948)
  • Bud Powell - There Is Only One (1953)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Ashley Kahn: After Hours: New York's Jazz Joints Through the Ages (September 2006) in JazzTimes
  2. ^ Royal Roost Records
  3. ↑ Artnet.com
  4. ↑ Fresh Sound Records

Coordinates: 40 ° 45 ′ 34.8 "  N , 73 ° 59 ′ 5.8"  W.