Royal Roost
The Royal Roost was a New York jazz club, which consisted in the 1940s and early 1950s.
The Royal Roost location, 1580 Broadway ( at 47th Street) in Manhattan, in the opinion of Ashley Kahn 's most successful period was between 1946 to the mid-1950s. The Bebop, which could be heard as a new style in New York since 1942, was one of its main venues at the Royal Roost. While in the jazz clubs of the 52nd Street as the Onyx Club, Three Deuces, or the Famous Door veterans also played the swing era, the Royal Roost established as a venue of bebop.
The ex- saxophonist Ralph Watkins opened the jazz club in a chicken restaurant on Broadway; the journalist and producer Monte Kay and the DJ Symphony Sid Torin booked the stars of this new modern sounds. 1948 presented the Royal Roost an all-star lineup with Charlie Parker, Tadd Dameron, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro and Max Roach, to the 500 visitors came. The club gave himself the middle name of the Metropolitan Bopera House "and declared proudly to The House That Bop Built. " Symphony Sid promoted the concerts with his nightly radio program and the live broadcasts. The end of 1948 was the Royal Roost venue of the stars of bebop; it played Dizzy Gillespie with his big band and Charlie Parker Quintet with Miles Davis and Max Roach.
The club now also included a record label of the same name, created for the Tadd Dameron recordings of Bud Powell, Johnny Smith and Harry Belafonte. In September 1948 Miles Davis made his debut with his new project at the Royal Roost; he presented a nine-piece ensemble that had taken as a sample tape in the apartment of Gil Evans and his debut 1949/50, led to the shooting of Birth of the Cool. After 1950, Watkins left the Royal Roost, to lead the short-lived City Bop Club on Broadway.
At the Royal Roost was Herman Leonard's legendary photo of the smoking Dexter Gordon.
Disco Graphical Notes
- 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)
- 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 )