52nd Street (Manhattan)
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52nd Street is a 1.9-mile-long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance fr
The theatres of 52nd Street in 2007
Looking east from 6th Avenue, 52nd Street at night (May 1948); photo by William P. Gottlieb
The south side of 52nd Street, between 5th & 6th Avenues – looking east from 6th Avenue (c. 1948); photo by William P. Gottlieb
"Swing Street" street sign
Bebop
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Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. It is characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions—with rapid chord changes, changes of key, angu
52nd Street (Manhattan)
…from all schools performed there, after Minton's Playhouse in uptown Harlem, 52nd Street was the second most important place for the dissemination of bebop. In fact, a tune called "52nd Street Theme" by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard. Virtually every great jazz player and singer…
Alto saxophonist Charlie Parker was a leading performer and composer of the bebop era. He is pictured here with Tommy Potter, Max Roach and Miles Davis at the Three Deuces club in New York City.
Dizzy Gillespie, at the Downbeat Club, NYC, c. 1947