![]() ![]() Airbrushed portraits of jazz musicians that now hang in Dimitriou's Jazz Alley adorned the walls. Seating 125, the club had brick walls, large cushions and Tiffany-style lamps suspended over the tables. (now occupied by the Davidson Galleries). Inspired by the success - and design - of the Portland club, Jazz de Opus, owned by his wife's cousin, he opened his night spot at 313 Occidental Ave. Parnell started the club because he was bored with his job. "He didn't drink and he was not a night sort of guy."Ī restless entrepreneur, Mr. "He wasn't a 'jazz guy,' " said his brother-in-law, Jimmy Manolides, who tended bar at the club and played keyboards with the classic rock band Junior Cadillac. In the '60s and '70s, he worked as a parole officer for King and Snohomish counties.Ī tall, big-chested, imposing man who wore a trim beard and carried himself with the authority of a ship's captain, the former county employee did not fit the stereotype of a jazz-club owner. Parnell, a lifelong jazz fan, saw it coming.īorn in Seattle, he played football at Renton High School and the College of San Mateo, in California, and later earned a master's degree at Central Washington University. The Bicentennial year would mark the beginning of a national jazz renaissance. When Parnell's opened in November 1976, jazz had been on the back burner for nearly a decade. Monty always said, 'In the jazz business, Roy would be the bass player. "It's really precious to have been married to a man like that," said his wife, Sandy, who worked in the club's kitchen. Parnell died Saturday of pneumonia, brought on by the chronic disease scleroderma, from which he had suffered 6-½ years. ![]() If you believe that any review contained on our site infringes upon your copyright, please email us.That's how jazz fans still lovingly refer to Parnell's, the Pioneer Square jazz club operated by Roy Parnell from 1976 to 1980.
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