Five Spot Café

The Five Spot Café was a jazz club located at 5 Cooper Square (1956–1962) in the Bowery neighborhood of New York City, between the East and West Village.

Its friendly, non-commercial, and low-key atmosphere with affordable drinks and food and cutting edge bebop and progressive jazz attracted a host of avant-garde artists and writers.

Joe bought a used upright piano, received a cabaret license on August 30, 1956, and opened a week later under the name the Five Spot Café.

It shared many patrons with the nearby Cedar Tavern; artists including David Smith, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Alfred Leslie, Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan, Jack Tworkov, Michael Goldberg, Roy Newell, and Howard Kanovitz, as well as writers and poets Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Frank O'Hara, Ted Joans, and Gregory Corso who began to frequent the club.

"[1] The first official engagement at the Five Spot was Cecil Taylor, whose band featured Buell Neidlinger on bass and Dennis Charles on drums.

It was Monk's first engagement in New York City following a long suspension of his cabaret card, a problem which was resolved with assistance from the Terminis.

Monk had another extended booking at the club a year later, this time with Coltrane replaced by Johnny Griffin, Ware by Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and Wilson by Roy Haynes.

The Quartet featured Coleman on alto saxophone, Don Cherry on cornet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums.