“On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us…” So wrote Irving Berlin in “Easter Parade,” back in 1933, and they sure did this year as New Yorkers got decked out in their best attire and fancy bonnets to walk down Fifth Avenue this Easter, despite the unseasonably chilly weather. However, it didn’t last. The police cordon started at two-thirty and swept everyone down from Trump Tower down to 49th Street. Fortunately, for those in the know, the best part was just starting. As the police began their sweep we headed north to the Plaza Hotel, where The Glenn Crytzer Orchestra was about to start the third annual Easter Ball, a perfect after-party for the Parade! Composed of some of the best jazz musicians in the city, Crytzer’s big band has been entertaining audiences throughout New York for years, playing for tourists, vintage scenesters, the lindy-hop and swing dance crowds, and fans of Jazz Age music alike.
The Plaza Hotel opened in 1907 at the corner of 5th Avenue and 59th Street, just across from Central Park, and has been a New York icon featured in film and literature ever since, with a memorable chapter in Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.” The Champagne Bar, next to
The Rise of a Jazz Vibraphonist: Evelyn Yosmali
Garry Berman
