The Birdlanders

United in NY, the Birdlanders was several all-star musicians who documented many bebop-oriented sessions in 1954. Nevertheless, the brains behind the Birdlanders had not been a indigenous New Yorker, but instead, the well-known French pianist/maker Henri Renaud (created Apr 20, 1925, Villedieu-sur-Indre, France). The Birdlanders had been so-named because these were regulars at Manhattan’s popular Birdland nightclub, whose name was influenced from the seminal bebop alto saxman Charlie “Parrot” Parker. At that time, Birdland was among New York’s best jazz locations, and in the first 2000s, there is still a Manhattan jazz golf club phoning itself Birdland (although Birdland’s unique location is over). Renaud’s Birdlanders task was officially underway on January 28, 1954, when he created a trio that contains Duke Jordan on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and Lee Abrams on drums. Most of them had been regulars at Birdland as well as the same applies to the improvisers who Renaud selected for classes on March 5, 7, and 11, 1954. That month, the Birdlanders classes that Renaud created included J.J. Johnson or Kai Winding on trombone; Al Cohn on tenor sax; Milt Jackson on vibes and piano; Tal Farlow on electric guitar; Gene Ramey, Percy Heath, or Oscar Pettiford on upright bass; and Potential Roach, Charlie Smith, or Denzil Greatest on drums. Renaud, furthermore to portion as manufacturer, was the pianist over the Birdlanders’ March periods. If the Birdlanders had been playing up-tempo materials or ballads, these were quite definitely a bebop clothing — no golf swing, no Dixieland, no traditional jazz — plus they had been quite consultant of what jazz supporters had been hearing at Birdland in the ’50s. Those 1954 periods led to three LPs, most of them on the time label. And in 2000, the Birdlanders’ recordings had been reissued on Compact disc when Fantasy set up two CDs because of its Primary Jazz Classics series: The Birdlanders, Vol. 1 as well as the Birdlanders, Vol. 2.