As Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert relate in their essay, Bebop in Detroit: Nights at the Blue Bird Inn, this club on Detroit's west side was the epicenter of Detroit's hip crowd in the '50s. Drummer Elvin Jones, later to gain fame in the John Coltrane Quartet, said of his Blue Bird stint: "It introduced me to modern music. In a nutshell, that was it."
The Blue Bird was also a place where national acts played in Detroit. Saxophonist Julian (Cannonball) Adderly, seated center, relaxes at the bar, while two seats further back, it's the drummer Philly Joe Jones.