Five spot
The Five Spot was a jazz club in New York City's East Village on the corner of Cooper Square and St. Marks Place. Before that, it was at 5 Cooper Square between 3rd and 4th Street (further south towards Bowery ), where it had been owned by the Termini family for decades, with some other uses; at the time of the jazz club it belonged to the brothers Iggy and Joey Termini. The second Five Spot Club was relatively generous after Williams for a New York jazz club with the stage opposite the bar occupying one side of the club and an official capacity of 223 guests. The old Five Spot, on the other hand, grew out of a pub and was more cramped. Jazz was played there after artists from Greenwich Village moved to the area in the mid-1950s because they could live here cheaper, thereby enhancing the old Bowery image. They urged the Termini brothers to turn their pub into a jazz club.
The first groups to play in the old Five Spot (around 1956) were Cecil Taylor (quartet with Steve Lacy ). In early 1957, Amiri Baraka and David Amram followed (with Valdo Williams , Jack Kerouac and numerous musicians from the neighborhood). In the spring of 1957, the owners decided to only book renowned jazz musicians. Randy Weston , Charles Mingus , Mal Waldron and Freddy Redd have now given concerts there . From July 4, 1957, Thelonious Monk played there for seven months (the first time after regaining his performance license, which he had lost in 1951), which attracted the club's attention and also initiated Monk's rediscovery. Monk played there in various constellations, first in a trio, then with John Coltrane , Wilbur Ware and Frankie Dunlop ; Dunlop, who had just moved to New York, had to be replaced by Shadow Wilson following intervention by the Local 802 musicians' union . Monk also played there frequently in 1958, so that the Terminis advertised the club as "the home of Thelonious Monk"; his record company Riverside Records recorded two albums live there (in July 1958 Thelonious in Action , the following month Misterioso with Johnny Griffin , Ahmed Abdul-Malik , Roy Haynes ). Substitute played for one night in September that year instead of Griffin Coltrane with Monk; five tracks created on this occasion were recorded by Coltrane's wife Naima and published decades later by Blue Note .
Another highlight was the six-week engagement of Ornette Coleman's quartet in November 1959 (with Don Cherry , Charlie Haden , Billy Higgins ), the jazz innovator's first appearance in New York. Charles Mingus made the last appearance in the old Five Spot in 1962. In between (around 1960) the Terminis tried to run a larger club ( Jazz Gallery , in 80th St. Marks), but then gave up. After closing the old Five Spot in 1962, the Terminis opened their new club in Cooper Square, having previously included the architect and jazz writer Hsio Wen Shih in the organization. It was opened as a club with a longer commitment from Monk.
Other live recordings include Eric Dolphy ( At the Five Spot with Booker Little July 1961, they played there for two weeks). The composition " Five Spot After Dark " by Benny Golson was created after Golson was involved in the club. Monk also named a composition after the club ("Five Spot Blues").
In place of the former Five Spot on St. Marks Place, a jazz club The Two Saints opened in April 1973 (with Charles Mingus' band ).
literature
- Martin Williams “A Night at the Five Spot”, Downbeat, February 13, 1964, reprinted in Williams “Jazz Changes” and in Gottlieb (editor) “Reading Jazz”, Bloomsbury 1997, p. 679 (an evening at the club with Roland Hanna and Monk describing), online here at monkzone.com
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ "a fairly large room"
- ^ According to Cecil Taylor after AB Spellman Four Lives in the Bebop Business , p. 68
- ^ Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. New York City: Simon and Schuster 2009, p. 227
- ^ A b Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, p. 229
- ^ Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, p. 230
- ^ Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, p. 243
- ^ Robin Kelley Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, p. 250
- ↑ in its place residential houses were built
- ↑ he was the son of a Chinese diplomat and co-editor of the "Jazz Review"
- ↑ Before receiving the license, only weekend sessions and pianist performances took place there