Back in the early-mid seventies I was bouncer/bartender at one of the last jazz clubs on West 52nd Street. It was an after hours joint in the basement of a brownstone down the street from Jimmy Ryan's.
We didn't open until midnite. Any of the guys who were in town would swing by sometime between three and six, maybe jam maybe just hang. I got to see Davis, Monk, Pepper, Brubeck, a hundred of the greats and near greats (now almost all dead).
The whole block was demolished decades ago...all the good stuff...the real NY is gone.
We were there last Thanksgiving and went to Birdland. Wish we were there all year long.