411 Club
411 Sixth Avenue South
Around the corner from the Green Dot, another small venue operated called the 411 Club. It was on the west side of the street, across Sixth Avenue South from where you are standing now, in a large corner building that has been torn down. The club stood where the Bank of America parking lot is today. Note the mural on the wall to the left depicting life in the neighborhood. The mural is by James Chang and was painted by volunteers from International Community Health Services (ICHS).
On June 24, 1938, The Northwest Enterprise reported that pianist Palmer Johnson, who often played the Green Dot too, had become a regular at the 411, adding that “this popular rendezvous is fast becoming noted for its tasty lunches and barbecue.” Johnson usually played with bassist Junior Raglin, who later toured and recorded with Duke Ellington, or guitarist Milt Green, who opened a pool hall in the neighborhood. On Sundays horn players often dropped by to jam till the sun came up. One of them was a young white pianist from Spokane named Jimmy Rowles, a student at the University of Washington hungry to learn how to play jazz. Rowles would later become famous as an accompanist for Billie Holiday and a mentor to Diana Krall, as well as a major keyboard stylist in his own right. He later credited Johnson as an early influence, along with pianist Julian Henson, whose father worked as a bartender at the 411.
The entrance to the 411 Club was under the awning on the far left, down Sixth Avenue South. South Jackson Street is on the right. The corner is now occupied by a branch of
Bank of America and a parking lot.
(Source: Washington State Archives, Puget Sound Regional Branch)
Famous musicians such as Louis Armstrong and sidemen from Duke Ellington’s band also came by to jam after their shows in downtown theaters. During one notorious “cutting session,” as competitive jams were called back then, Tacoma tenor saxophonist Corky Corcoran, still a teenager, got the best of the great Ellington saxophonist Ben Webster.
“Webster was mad,” recalled guitarist Al Turay, an eyewitness to Webster’s unheard-of drubbing by a local. “He’d been drinking. He slammed his horn down.”
The 411 Club was hot for a couple of years but was eclipsed in 1939 by a much larger basement establishment one block east, on Maynard Avenue South (Stop 8).
Palmer Johnson, right, with Tootie Boyd (tenor saxophone), Milt Green (guitar) and Punkin’ Austin (drums), at the 908 Club, 1940. (Courtesy of Palmer Johnson)
The 411 Club was located in a building that has been torn down and replaced by a branch of Bank of America and a parking lot.