STARS LINE UP TO SAVE BIRDLAND

Elvis Costello, Leslie Odom Jr., Ravi Coltrane, Ron Carter and Wynton Marsalis are appearing in a livestream concert today (1/24) to help save the New York jazz club Birdland. Clive Davis and Bill Clinton are among the speakers.

Save Birdland: A Celebration of Music, History and Community starts at 7pm ET/4pm PT here.

Named after saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker, Birdland Jazz Club was founded in 1949 and has been a jazz mecca ever since.

The Save Birdland effort has already raised more than its goal of $250,000, which will rescue the storied room from pandemic-driven debt and help it weather the rest of the storm.

Save Birdland producer Tom D'Angora, who oversaw the livestream fundraiser that allowed New York's Theater District staple the West Bank Cafe to stay open, said: “We can make sure Birdland stays open so we, as a community, can enjoy the greatest musicians in the world, doing what they do best, in one of the most iconic clubs in the world, right here in our beloved city.”

While the pandemic has led to the Jazz Standard closing its doors and the Blue Note and the Stone to take a hiatus, other New York venues are getting by with livestreams, mostly on weekends; the Village Vanguard, Jazz Gallery, Smoke, Small’s and Brooklyn’s Roulette, for instance, are all surviving by streaming live jazz from their stages.