The Metropole Cafe was a jazz club

Jazz club

A jazz club is a venue where the primary entertainment is the performance of live jazz music. Jazz clubs have been in large rooms in the eras of Orchestral jazz and big band jazz and when its popularity as a dance music was common...

 that operated in New York from the mid-1950s through 1965. Located at 7th Avenue and 48th Street, It was primarily noted, in the bebop

Bebop

Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...

 and progressive jazz

Progressive Jazz

Progressive Jazz may refer to:*Progressive Records, an American jazz record label*Cool jazz, a style of American music developed during the 1940s*Jazz fusion, a style of music developed on the west coast of the United States in the early 1950s...

 era, as being a venue for traditional musicians. Henry "Red" Allen, a New Orleans veteran of many bands including King Oliver's and Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

's, led the house band there from 1954 on.

The Metropole featured jazz performances in the afternoon as well as evening. Its bandstand was a long runway behind the bar (which proved useful when the club abandoned its jazz policy and started featuring strippers.

Other resident performers at the club included Roy Eldridge

Roy Eldridge

Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...

, Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Hawkins

Coleman Randolph Hawkins was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn"...

, Cozy Cole

Cozy Cole

Cozy Cole was an American jazz drummer who scored a #1 Cashbox magazine hit with the record "Topsy Part 2". "Topsy" peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100, and at number one on the R&B chart. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The track peaked at #29 in the UK...

, Charlie Shavers

Charlie Shavers

Charles James Shavers , known as Charlie Shavers, was an American swing era jazz trumpet player who played at one time or another with Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmy Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams and Billie Holiday...

, Zutty Singleton, Claude Hopkins

Claude Hopkins

Claude Driskett Hopkins was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.-Biography:Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1903. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his birth. His parents were on the faculty of Howard University...

, J. C. Higginbotham

J. C. Higginbotham

J. C. Higginbotham was an American jazz trombonist. His playing was robust and swinging.In the 1930s and 1940s he played with some of the premier swing bands, including Luis Russell's, Benny Carter's, Red Allen's, and Fletcher Henderson's. He also played with Louis Armstrong, who had taken over...

, Tony Scott

Tony Scott

Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...

, Max Kaminsky

Max Kaminsky

Max Kaminsky was a professional ice hockey center who played 3 seasons in the National Hockey League for the St. Louis Eagles, Boston Bruins and Montreal Maroons. Following his retirement he was the long time coach for the Pittsburgh Hornets until the team disbanded from 1957-1961 at which point...

, Sol Yaged

Sol Yaged

Sol Yaged is an American jazz clarinetist, strongly influenced by Benny Goodman's style.Yaged was born in Brooklyn, New York and began playing clarinet at the age of 12 after hearing Goodman's broadcasts for Nabisco in 1935...

 and Buster Bailey

Buster Bailey

William C. "Buster" Bailey was a jazz musician specializing in the clarinet, but also well versed on saxophone...

.
The last jazz acts to play the club before it ended its jazz policy in June 1965 were Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...

 and Mongo Santamaria

Mongo Santamaría

Ramón "Mongo" Santamaría Rodríguez was an Afro-Cuban Latin jazz percussionist. He is most famous for being the composer of the jazz standard "Afro Blue," recorded by John Coltrane among others. In 1950 he moved to New York where he played with Perez Prado, Tito Puente, Cal Tjader, Fania All...

.