While New York’s legendary The Five Spot Café has its reputation rooted in jazz artists such as Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus, the club was also a haven for some of the most influential artists of the 1950s and ’60s. The Five Spot counted Willem De Kooning, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Franz Klein and Paul Jenkins among its regular patrons and legend has it that club owner Joe Termini would often accept artwork as payment for the bar tab.
Termini’s daughter, Toni Behm, and her son have decided to sell some of these artifacts to help pay for the care of Behm’s mother. The artifacts are available for purchase at www.5spotartifacts.com and include artwork by Rudolf Abel, Bob Thompson, Bob Boles, Colonia (pictured) and Howard Kamont, in addition to a letter from Jack Kerouac and the club’s personal rosters.
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