Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
In 1968 Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress. In 1972 she launched a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, breaking another political barrier.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
The Blue Bird Inn, at 5021 Tireman, was a jazz night club in Detroit presenting music every night except Monday. An African American owned venue, by the end of the 1940s it was the most important live outlet for bop in the city.[1]
Thad Jones' composition "5021" refers to the Blue Bird's address and Tommy Flanagan placed tribute to the venue in the title track to an album with Kenny Burrell titled Beyond the Blue Bird (1990).[2]
The venue had featured live music since the 1930s, but in 1948 Phil Hill was hired to assemble a house band that could play bebop. Hill's first trio there comprised Abe Woodly on vibraphone and Art Mardigian on drums, with Hill on piano.
The following year, Hill and Mardigan were joined by Wardell Gray, James "Beans" Richardson on bass and Jack Tiant on bongos, and, as the Phil Hill Quintet, recorded a live album on July 20, 1949.[3] The following April, the Wardell Gray Quartet, with Hill, Richardson and Mardigan recorded for Prestige.[3]
In the latter half of 1949, the trio was headlined by Tate Houston, and later by Frank Foster.[4]
In the early 1950s, the Billy Mitchell Quintet, featuring Elvin Jones, replaced Hill's trio as the house band. In 1953, Miles Davis joined the band, and would return many times with his own groups.[5]
Other performers included Pepper Adams, Sonny Stitt, Ahmad Jamal, Donald Byrd,[6] Frank Gant,[6] and Curtis Fuller.[6]
In 2018, Detroit Sound Conservancy, local music preservation and advocacy nonprofit, purchased the building.
The National Park Service conducted a study of the site and United Sound Systems in 2019 but found they were not suitable to be an affiliated area of the national park system.[7]
In 2020, the club was designated a local Historic District by the City of Detroit.[8]
In 2025, Detroit Sound Conservancy received a 1.9 million dollar grant from The Mellon Foundation. The current plan is to restore the club and use it, not only as a music venue, but also as a cultural heritage center and space for community programming. [9]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Blue Bird Inn, at 5021 Tireman, was a jazz night club in Detroit presenting music every night except Monday. An African American owned venue, by the end of the 1940s it was the most important live outlet for bop in the city. Thad Jones' composition "5021" refers to the Blue Bird's address and Tommy Flanagan placed tribute to the venue in the title track to an album with Kenny Burrell titled Beyond the Blue Bird (1990).
Terry Pollard (August 15, 1931 – December 16, 2009) was an American jazz pianist and vibraphonist active in the Detroit jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s. She has been described as a "major player who was inexplicably overlooked." Pollard began her career by collaborating with other Detroit musicians, such as Billy Mitchell (and Elvin Jones, in the house band at the Blue Bird Inn), Johnny Hill, and the Emmitt Slay Trio. She was discovered by Terry Gibbs and toured with him in the early 1950s, playing piano and vibraphone. They recorded several albums, including Terry Gibbs Quartet - Featuring Terry Pollard. Pollard appeared with Gibbs on an episode of The Tonight Show hosted by Steve Allen. Her collaborations with Gibbs from 1953 to 1957 marked the height of her career. Pollard also performed with John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Nat King Cole, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. Pollard recorded a self-titled solo album for Bethlehem Records in 1955 and won DownBeat magazine's New Artist award in 1956. Pollard retired from her full-time music career shortly thereafter in order to raise a family, but she continued to play locally in Detroit and performed with artists including Diana Ross and The Supremes. She was inducted into the Michigan Jazz Hall of Fame. Her contributions to the mid-century Detroit jazz scene were recognized in the book Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit 1920-1960, by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert.
Tate Houston (November 30, 1924 – October 18, 1974) was a Detroit-based American baritone and tenor saxophonist. He played with Lionel Hampton's band and in 1946, he recorded with the Billy Eckstine band. In 1947, he played with Sonny Stitt and Milt Jackson, with whom he would continue to play, and record, into the early 1960s, and in 1948, he recorded with JC Heard's septet in a horn section comprising Joe Newman, Bennie Green, and Wardell Gray. In February 1949, he recorded as part of the Hal Singer Sextet, which included Chippy Outcalt, Walter Buchanan, George "Butch" Ballard, and in April and June that year, he played on NY recording sessions for RCA Victor, backing Big John Greer. Musicians at those sessions were Frank Galbreath (trumpet), Zolman "Pork" Cohen (trombone), Tony Scott (clarinet), Big John Greer (tenor saxophone, vocals), Houston (on baritone and tenor saxes), Leroy Lovett (piano), Danny Perri (guitar), Henry Holmes (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). He was headlined with Phil Hill's trio at Detroit's Blue Bird Inn jazz club, until 1949, when he was replaced by Frank Foster. That October Charlie Parker had jammed with the group. At the Blue Bird he also played in line-ups with Milt Jackson, Alvin Jackson, Billy Mitchell and Tommy Flanagan. In 1960, he recorded as a member of Jackson's octet, with Henry Boozier (trumpet) Tom McIntosh (trombone) Jimmy Heath (tenor saxophone), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Alvin Jackson (bass) and Connie Kay (drums). That same year, he appeared on Nat Adderley's That's Right! as part of a sax section comprising Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Heath and Charlie Rouse. The album was actually credited to Nat Adderley and the Big Sax Section. In 1961, he recorded as part of a line-up led by bassist Sam Jones, comprising Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Heath, Victor Feldman, Houston, Nat Adderley, Louis Hayes, Keter Betts, Les Spann, Wynton Kelly, Melba Liston and Blue Mitchell.
Alvin "AJ" Jackson was an American jazz double bassist. His first performances were in his high school band with his younger brother, Milt Jackson, and Willie Anderson, Lucky Thompson, Art Mardigan, and George Sirhagen, around 1939–40. Around 1947, he was playing with Tommy Flanagan's trio with Kenny Burrell, before briefly joining the house band led by Billy Mitchell at Detroit's Blue Bird Inn, before leading it himself in 1955. The Billy Mitchell–led house band comprised Flanagan, Tate Houston, and Milt Jackson, who had just returned from touring with Woody Herman. While Alvin Jackson was leading the house band at the Blue Bird in 1955, the line-up comprised Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Bernard McKinney, Barry Harris, and drummers Art Mardigan or Frank Gant. In September 1959, with house drummer Frank Gant, he backed Thelonious Monk and Charlie Rouse at Detroit's Club 12.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
