# Now 43 Seattle Jazz alley, became a premier destination: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2023/11/18/now-43-seattle-jazz-alley-became-a-premier-destination-video-photos/
- Published: 2023-11-18T09:56:39+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, that sleek, 400-seat Seattle music palace kitty-corner
from the Amazon Spheres, where everyone from the late Dizzy Gillespie to Harry Connick
Jr. has held forth over the years, planned to celebrate its 40^(th) birthday in 
October 2020. COVID-19 spoiled that party but, owner John Dimitriou figured, why
wait till the 50^(th)?**

Why, indeed? From Oct. 12-15, Jazz Alley salutes 43 years, with free commemorative
Jazz Alley ball caps; an anniversary cocktail in a complimentary, limited edition
glass; and a $43 New Orleans-themed dinner special. On stage all four nights, Crescent
City pianist Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen will let the good times
roll.

“The fact that there’s a place that has been solely dedicated to jazz and it’s been
open for 43 years, that’s impressive!” observes the great bass player Christian 
McBride, who recently hosted a benefit at the club for Seattle trombonist Julian
Priester, who is recovering from a heart attack. “They have put Seattle on the map
as one of the premier jazz cities in the country.”

![Bassist and composer Christian McBride and Rob Perry, Jazz Alley assistant club
manager, at a benefit for musician Julian Priester at Jazz Alley in September. (
Lisa Hagen Glynn)](https://i0.wp.com/images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/
2023/10/10032023_Jazz_Alley_1219022.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1)

![Legendary jazz trombonist Julian Priester at a benefit for him at Jazz Alley in
September. (Lisa Hagen Glynn)](https://i0.wp.com/images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/
uploads/2023/10/10032023_Jazz_Alley_121902.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

1 of 2 | Bassist and composer Christian McBride and Rob Perry, Jazz Alley assistant
club manager, at a benefit for musician Julian Priester at Jazz Alley in September.

The credit for Jazz Alley’s success goes to Dimitriou himself. In its first rocky
decade, the club struggled to keep its doors open, but through wit, gumption, stubbornness
and an ability to learn from his mistakes, Dimitriou managed to turn his club into
a world-class destination. There’s not a bad seat in the house, thanks to Dimitriou’s
attention to superb acoustics and sightlines, and his well-trained servers — jazz
fans themselves — know how to get in and out quietly with cocktails and meals without
interrupting the flow of the music. Jazz Alley’s signature is the marriage of hip
jazz with elegant dining, uncommon in the world of jazz clubs. The club’s rich history
and quality make musicians want to play there and spur them to top performances.

An amateur musician who understands and deeply loves the music he has booked for
43 years, Dimitriou, 74, has no plans to retire, but his son, Ari, is prepared to
take over when his father makes the call.

“There are only a few full-time clubs of this stature in the country, and most of
them are in New York,” comments Seattle’s John Gilbreath, longtime executive director
of the nonprofit Earshot Jazz. “And they’re not nearly as nice as Jazz Alley. … 
We are so lucky.”

Running a jazz club with fine food may have been written in Dimitriou’s stars from
the start.

Born in Seattle and a graduate of Roosevelt High School (class of ’67), he comes
from a long line of Greek restaurateurs. A cousin by marriage ran the Pioneer Square
jazz club Pete’s Poop Deck in the ‘60s and in 1973, his half brother, Gus Boutsinis,
opened a French restaurant in Pioneer Square called the Pioneer Banque, and hired
Dimitriou to book jazz. There, Dimitriou learned the ropes, including how to cut
a deal. (Jack Randall, a Boston booking agent who for 27 years has provided Jazz
Alley with such acts as Chick Corea and Ravi Coltrane, humorously described a recent
bargaining session with Dimitriou as “hand-to-hand combat with occasional bayonet
use.”)

From the Banque, Dimitriou went east, working two years at Washington, D.C.’s Blues
Alley, where he met his wife, artist Carla Dimitriou, with whom he returned to Seattle
in 1978. The next year, while booking a venue near SeaTac called The Place, Dimitriou
noticed that a cozy spot on University Way Northeast called Jazz Alley had closed
after a six-month run. He offered to assume the lease and on Oct. 14, 1980, reopened
the doors.

“We had no money,” recalls Dimitriou. “There was a marquee, and it would have cost
a lot of money to put in a new one, so we said fine, let’s use that. We didn’t even
choose the name.”

![Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Larry Klein on bass, jamming at Jazz Alley in the
University District in 1981. (Peter Liddel / The Seattle Times)](https://i0.wp.com/
images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10022023_1981_165439.jpg?resize
=640%2C414&ssl=1)

Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and Larry Klein on bass, jamming at Jazz Alley in the
University District in 1981. 

Locals have fond memories of the U District place, which often featured Seattle 
talent.

“I played there the first time when I was 22,” recalls drummer John Bishop, who 
went on to found the local jazz label Origin Records. “That I could do 20 years 
of playing dates at Jazz Alley … pretty damn lucky. I think that was one of the 
main reasons I didn’t leave town.”

Though charming, the original Jazz Alley was small and Dimitriou found it difficult
to make ends meet. Worse, the building needed major repairs.

“One night, while [saxophonist] Stan Getz was playing a beautiful ballad,” recalls
Dimitriou, “all of a sudden a big stream of water starts flowing down from the second
floor. Someone was taking a bath [upstairs] and it overflowed. Getz looked at me
and said, ‘I got to stop playing these joints.’”

In September 1985, after a disastrous, 10-month experiment operating a second club
simultaneously in Pioneer Square — “I doubled my costs and halved my revenues,” 
Dimitriou says now — the club we know today as Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley opened in 
the United Airlines Building at Sixth Avenue and Lenora Street.

![John Dimitriou in 1984. (Craig Fujii / The Seattle Times)](https://i0.wp.com/images.
seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10022023_12_165326.jpg?resize=640%2C958&
ssl=1)

John Dimitriou in 1984.

### A huge step up

With its high ceilings, elegant décor, and great sightlines and acoustics — as well
as free parking in the garage across the alley — the new spot was a huge step up.
Over the years, Dimitriou has continuously improved it, with massive remodels that
doubled the capacity and added the alley entrance appropriate to its inherited name.

![Kenny G, a University of Washington and Franklin High School graduate, plays at
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in 2014. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)](https://
i0.wp.com/images.seattletimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/09242023_2_205917.jpg?
w=640&ssl=1)

![Audience members watch Kenny G perform at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in 2014.(
Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)  ](https://i0.wp.com/images.seattletimes.com/
wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10022023_1_165219.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

1 of 2 | Kenny G, a University of Washington and Franklin High School graduate, 
plays at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in 2014. 

Another innovation that helped Jazz Alley succeed was Dimitriou’s 1986 decision 
to incorporate the music side of his business (not the restaurant) as a nonprofit,
the Pacific Jazz Institute, which exempted the club from the city’s 5% admissions
tax (eliminated in 2009) and made it eligible for tax-deductible grants (though 
Dimitriou wryly notes that in 25 years only one grant came through). It also sparked
the idea of adding the admission charge to the food bill, so customers would not
be asked for money at the door. (In his early years, Dimitriou had encountered profound
resistance to a cover charge and he often operated Jazz Alley without one, feeling
it set the wrong tone for the kind of fine dining establishment he was trying to
create.) It worked, and music lovers in general began to view the club as an upscale
destination for special occasions. By 2015, the Alley was taking in more than $3
million in admissions.

Today, says Rob Perry, Jazz Alley’s assistant club manager and longest-running employee,
the club is doing better than ever, especially in the summer, when crowds used to
stay away.

“We sell out shows in summer now,” says Perry. “Some shows, like the Four Tops, 
they sold out both shows. I don’t look at the books, but I look at how busy we are,
and it’s going well.”

Over the years, Jazz Alley has cultivated a strong relationship with Seattle’s Black
community.

Donnie and Johnnie Follings, who have been regulars since the U District days, fondly
recall a night when the late saxophonist Red Holloway’s wife sat down at their table.

John Dimitriou, at right, has owned Jazz Alley since 1980 and turned it into one
of the nation’s premier jazz clubs. He has no plans to retire but his son, Ari Dimitriou,
left, is prepared to take over when his father… ⌊John Dimitriou, at right, has owned
Jazz Alley since 1980 and turned it into one of the nation’s premier jazz 
clubs. He has no plans to retire but his son, Ari Dimitriou, left, is prepared to
take over when his father makes the call. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)⌉

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