In the period from 1930 through the early 1950s, 52nd Street clubs hosted such jazz musicians as Louis Prima, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, Billie Holiday, Trummy Young, Harry Gibson, Nat Jaffe, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Marian McPartland, and many more.

Although musicians from all schools performed there, after Minton's Playhouse in uptown Harlem, 52nd Street was the second most important place for the dissemination of bebop.

[1] In fact, a tune called "52nd Street Theme" by Thelonious Monk became a bebop anthem and jazz standard.

Today, the street is full of banks, shops, and department stores and shows little trace of its jazz history.

A 1948 amateur recording of Charlie Parker at the Onyx Club, Bird on 52nd St., was released by Jazz Workshop in 1957.

Van Morrison's 1972 song "Saint Dominic's Preview" includes the lyrics "And meanwhile we're over on a 52nd Street apartment/Socializing with the wino few".