Roy Eldridge - Late Life

Late Life

Eldridge became the leader of the house band at Jimmy Ryan's jazz club on Manhattan's West 54th Street for several years, beginning in 1969. Although Ryan's was primarily a Dixieland venue, Eldridge tried to combine the traditional Dixieland style with his own more brash and speedy playing. Eldridge was incapacitated by a stroke in 1970, but continued to lead the group at Ryan's soon after and performing occasionally as a singer, drummer, and pianist. Writer Michael Zirpolo, seeing Eldridge at Ryan’s in the late 1970s noted "I was amazed that he still could pop out those piercing high notes, but he did, with frequency…I worried about his health, because the veins at his temples would bulge alarmingly." As leader at Ryan’s, Eldridge was noted for his occasional hijinx, including impromptu “amateur night” sessions during which he’d invite inexperienced players on stage to lead his band, often for comedic effect and to give himself a break. In 1971, Eldridge was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up playing. He died at age 78 at the Franklin General Hospital in Valley Stream, New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola.