Our Wednesday evening performances have been temporarily canceled due to the shutdown of indoor dining. Watch this space for our return as the darkness fades in 2021!
In the meantime, enjoy this special video we made for our 20th anniversary last May!
History of Birdland
Ever since most of Chicago’s top musicians moved to New York in the mid-to-late 1920s, New York City has
been the Jazz Mecca. Nearly every major jazz style of the past seventy years has been initiated in the Big Apple.
It was Charlie Parker, familiarly known to his fans and fellow musicians as “Bird,” a contraction of Yardbird,
his formal nickname, who was the dynamic creative personality and genius of the alto saxophone who served
as the inspiration for Birdland.
READ MORE
Birdland Personnel First 20 Years
TRUMPET
Gordon Au
Joe Boga
John Bucher
Charlie Caranicas
Duke Heitger
Alphonso Horne
Bjorn Ingelstam
Jon-Erik Kellso
Ben Polcer
Ed Polcer
Randy Reinhart
Randy Sandke
Bria Skonberg
Danny Tobias
Yoshio Toyama
Warren Vache
Simon Wettenhall
CLARINET/SAX
Ricky Alexander
Jorge Anders
Will Anderson
Evan Arntzen
Dan Block
Anat Cohen
Adrian Cunningham
Kenny Davern
Victor Goines
Mike Hashim
Orange Kellin
Matt Koza
Dan Levinson
Dennis Lichtman
Danny Lipsitz
Mark Lopeman
Pete Martinez
Joe Muranyi
Ken Peplowski
Jay Rattman
Jack Stuckey
Eldar Tsalikov
Bob Wilber
Chuck Wilson
TROMBONE
John Allred
Tom Artin
Emily Asher
Art Baron
Dan Barrett
Jim Fryer
Wycliffe Gordon
Herb Gardner
Vincent Gardner
J. Walter Hawkes
Josh Holcomb
Hans Ingelstam
Matt Musselman
Harvey Tibbs
Dion Tucker
BANJO/GUITAR
Howard Alden
Arnt Arntzen
Bob Barta
Eddy Davis
Jared Engel
James Chirillo
John Gill
Vince Giordano
Matt Munisteri
Nick Russo
Vinnie Raniolo
Ken Salvo
Cynthia Sayer
DRUMS
Joe Ascione
Giampaolo Biagi
Jason Brown
Kevin Dorn
Marion Felder
Rob Garcia
Alvester Garnett
Dave Gibson
Ali Jackson, Jr.
Rajiv Jayaweera
John Meyers
Alex Raderman
Dave Ratajczak
Herlin Riley
Shane Del Robles
Joe Saylor
Andreas Svendsen
Paul Wells
PIANO
Ehud Asherie
John Cocuzzi
Conal Fowkes
Jesse Gelber
Dick Hyman
Marty Napoleon
Eric Reed
Dalton Ridenhour
Mark Shane
Rossano Sportiello
John Weber
BASS/TUBA
Sean Cronin
Joe Hanchrow
Brian Nalepka