The
Black
& Tan Club: 404 1/2 12th Ave. S. Seattle’s most esteemed and
longest-lived
jazz nightclub operated from 1922–1966 under various names, and was the
backdrop to greats like Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, and Charlie Parker.
seattle.gov
Music Map
Singer Ivie
Anderson
performed there every time she came to town with... Duke
Ellington?
She also jammed with some of my family members who frequented the
place.
Also, Don Osias (Hammond B-3 player from the Playboys and many other NW
bands), performed there, too.
Maia
Santell,
December 2010
I was part of the Floorshow there
when
Dave Lewis was the band. Guitar Shorty was also on the show
Bill
Englehart
(Little Bill), July 2014
Memoir from Lee
Parker
(b:
1942 - d: 2010)
who
played
guitar with The George Griffin Trio at The Black & Tan Club in
Seattle
in the early 60's.
"The first time
I
went to The Black & Tan club just off Jackson on 12th Ave (in
1963),
a friend and fellow musician Anthony Atherton, tenor sax player, took
me
there. We entered the club down a big long flight of stairs with a
landing
halfway down - so it was the equivalent of going 2 stories below street
level. When we walked through the double doors into the club,
directly
in front of us was a big picture (approximately 3' x 2') of Alex
Palmer,
club owner and Joe Lewis, the boxer.
The Dave
Lewis organ trio was playing & on the show (there were 2
nightly)
was Guitar Shorty, who I found out later was Jimi Hendrix's uncle.
Shorty
was and still is a great blues player. His act was amazing. He had the
longest guitar cord I'd ever seen, maybe 50 ft long & was doing
somersaults
& back flips all the time playing guitar leads. His act was
mesmerizing
- easy to see where Hendrix got some of his ideas for his act. Shorty
played
with his teeth and made the guitar say cuss words - it was a truly
mind-blowing
experience.
The Black &
Tan
was a bottle club (BYOB) that had food & "set-ups" for the bottle
that
the ladies had in their purses & the men had on the inside pocket
of
their suit coats or dinner jackets in a bottle or flask. There were
packed
houses most nights as the club would get the overflow from nightclubs
that
shut down at 2:00 a.m. as many folks were just getting started or at
least
not willing to quit listening or dancing to music and having fun. There
was relatively little trouble as most people were there for the
exceptionally
good music and to have a great time.
Name acts that
were
playing concerts or clubs in Seattle would come and sit in with the
band;
members of Ray Charles' band, Joe Sample, and Sticks Hooper from the
Jazz
Crusaders. Carmen McCray came in after her gig at the PentHouse to hear
Etta Jones as they were good friends. Hampton Hawes came to listen one
night and partied 'til dawn with the band well past day-break the
following
morning, drinking bourbon and talking trash."
Lee Parker
(1942
-2010)
Webmaster
Note: It was reported by a family member of Jimi Hendrix that
Guitar
Shorty was not related Jimi. The thought that Jimi's act may have
been influenced by Guitar Shorty was apparently speculation on the part
of the writer. Lee Parker's remembrances were received after his
passing and as such the Webmaster was unable to obtain clarification
directly
from Lee.
