Pundits and podcasters have been effusive in their praise of athlete and activist Bill Russell, who died on July 31 at age 88. He earned it. Russell was an inspiration and man of integrity who triumphed in spite of the racist crap that he endured in Boston in the sixties. You can find a hundred or more sites online that tell his story. But in all the tributes and appreciations I’ve read, I haven’t seen a mention of Slade’s. While he was winning all those championships with the Celtics, Bill Russell owned the fabled Slade’s Barbecue Restaurant, at 958 Tremont Street in Roxbury. I’m bringing it up here because for a time in 1966, Bill Russell ran Slade’s as a jazz club. It’s just a footnote in Russell’s remarkable story, but this blog is just the place for it.
Bill Russell: Shot blocker, jazz lover
Slade’s first opened for business in 1928. The story has it that Renner Slade grew up in a family that ran a backwoods barbecue joint down south someplace, and he brought what he knew to Boston and opened his restaurant. Through the 1940s and 1950s, people regarded the chicken as the city’s best.
Bill Russell purchased Slade’s in early 1964. Tremont Street was familiar territory for him. After he finished his work at the Boston Garden, Russell liked to stop by Slade’s for a late meal, and then relax a bit at the Pioneer Club. Russell’s love of jazz was well known. One of his first moves as owner was to fill the jukebox with jazz records.
Slade’s was already a community gathering spot, but with Russell’s celebrity, the famous came too. Muhammad Ali dined at Slade’s when he was training for his rematch with Sonny Liston. No less a personage than Dr Martin Luther King ate at Slade’s in April 1965. It must have been like old times for King. Surely he sampled the fare at Slade’s during his Boston years in the early 1950s. Russell admired King, and had taken part in the March on Washington in 1963.
Enter the Organ Trios
Walter Radcliffe, Harold Layne, and Sonny Stitt at Slade’s, August 1966.
Live music had a brief but bright life at Bill Russell’s Slade’s. It started in August 1966, with Sonny Stitt presiding, with Don Patterson on the Hammond B-3 and Boston’s own Harold Layne on drums, although that’s another Bostonian, Walter Radcliffe, in the photo here. (A sharp-eyed reader correctly identified the organist; I originally said it was Patterson.)
Afriend found the photo in the bottom of a box. He didn’t remember how he got it. There’s nothing written on the back to identify who took it. Bernie Moss? Vin Haynes? If anyone knows, please leave a comment!)
The photographer was of course taking a photo of the band, and the mural was just the backdrop. Today, though, we can regret that the head of the airborne Number 6, as in the photo at the top of this post, is out of the frame. I don’t mean to be dismissive of Sonny Stitt, but I’ve seen his photo before. This mural on the wall at Bill Russell’s Slade’s, well, you don’t see pictures of it very often. In fact, I’d never seen a picture of it, and didn’t even know it existed. Again, anyone who knows the story of that mural, please leave a comment.
More good music came to Slade’s that summer and fall. Johnny “Hammond” Smith followed Stitt, with Jimmy Daniels on guitar, John Harris on drums, and Byrdie Green singing. “A superior package,” noted the Globe. Other visitors included Buck Green, Gloria Coleman, and Charles Earland. All organists leading trios. It was the summer of ‘66, and soul jazz ruled the Tremont Strip. A few doors down, at Estelle’s, were Rhoda Scott, Sonny Phillips, and Jiggs Chase, on the Hammond in saxophonist Joe Thomas’s group. Head outbound a few blocks to Connolly’s, and the front-line stars of the B-3 were working—Jack McDuff, Shirley Scott, and Jimmy McGriff. Soul jazz. That’s what it was all about on the Tremont Strip that year.
The music at Slade’s continued into late November, with a weeks-long residence by the trio of saxophonist Houston Person (Jinx Jingles on the B-3). Then the club ran into trouble. On December 15, I.R.S. agents raided the restaurant while customers watched, and seized the money in the cash register for back taxes. Apparently Russell’s management company had failed to file. The I.R.S. was careful to explain this had nothing to do with Bill Russell, that they were pursuing a corporate entity that owed them a substantial amount of money. Russell, who was rumored to have the restaurant up for sale, had no comment.
The business declared bankruptcy and closed that spring, the equipment and furnishings later sold at auction. That was the end of Bill Russell’s Slade’s. Frank Williams, the owner of Estelle’s, bought it in 1968 and reopened the restaurant. It has continued, through changes in ownership and an on-and-off music policy, to this day. It currently operates as Slade’s Bar & Grill. I looked at their website. There’s no sign of that mural.
I’m pretty certain the organist in the photo is Walter Radcliffe, not Don Patterson. Sonny Stitt called Walter “my man who knows all the right changes.” It was no small feat to get a compliment from Sonny Stitt.
Michael, thanks for this note on Walter. For the moment, “I stand by my story.” But I’m also sending the photo to a few other people for their opinions. Always best to get it right–I’ll let you know what I hear.
Michael, I made a blowup of the photo and sent it to a few people, and they agree with you: it’s Walter Radcliffe. I will make the correction. But Stitt did play at the club with Don Patterson. Could be two separate engagements, one with Don and the other with Walter. Or Don could have turned the organ over to Walter to play a set one night. Anything is possible. But with your help we’ve got the correct personnel now, and thanks for taking the time to let me know.
Richard great peace on Bill Russell and Slades! I never knew he featured JAZZ at his restaurant. However I enjoyed some great nights at Conollys with appearances by Paul Gonsalves, Ray Nance, and Coleman Hawkins to name a few. The house band was under the direction of Jimmy Tyler. For a great late night hang it was the after hours pioneer club. But that’s a whole other story!
Thank you, Ron. and there was indeed a lot happening on the Tremont Strip in those days. Be sure to check out my post on Connolly’s, if that was one of your favorite hangs.
Bill Russell was my all-time favorite athlete. He played such an important part of my youth that I walked to his statue on City Hall Plaza and said a prayer for him.
I heard about Slade’s but never went there, probably too young. I did, however, make it to Satch Sander’s place in the South End.
Great stuff as always, Dick. Keep it coming.
Thanks, Tom. Satch’s place…sounds like the subject of a blog post to me. By the way, I looked up the numbers on some of the players in the mural, and Knicks #5 was worn by an athlete with his own colorful Boston history–Gene Conley!
Just curious. I too was a college student during Bill’s reign with the Celts. Do you know if any teammates joined Bill at Slade’s, especially white teammates. If so that would give a lie to the report that Bill was isolated in Boston by racism.–
I’m no expert on Bill Russell, but I would certainly think that Russell’s teammates, not to mention Red Auerbach, hung out at Slade’s during the three years Russell owned it, although I can’t prove it. Some circumstantial evidence points that way. The level of camaraderie on the team was high. Also, I know that some of the other Celts (Havlicek, Satch Sanders, Willie Naulis, Mel Counts) liked to hit the jazz clubs. Makes sense that they were sometimes in Russell’s company when they did so. But I can’t point you to any photos.
I remember dining at Bill Russell ‘s Slades in 1965 with fellow d-j Jimmy “Early Byrd (both of us at WILD) and Ike and Tina Turner. Jimmy and I sat side by side opposite Ike & Tina. I was sitting opposite Tina and whenever I looked up, I was looking straight at Tina. I could see Ike looking at me with an intimidating look as if to say “don’t look at my woman”. The food and conversation were great.
Great story! I can see why you might not have noticed the mural…
I saw Archie Shepp in the late 70’s there. Because of a snowstorm, only a handful of people showed. Didn’t matter, the band was great.
Don’t know who owned Slade’s in the late 70s, and sometimes there was music and sometimes not. I didn’t know about the Shepp gig, so thanks for that nugget. There are still many stories about these Tremont St places to uncover.
Thanks, Dick. I’d forgotten about Russ’s ownership of Slade’s. Charles Lloyd recalled in his eulogy that Russ came by Paul’s Mall when Lloyd was with Cannonball Adderley in the ’60s.
Russell was a fan, no doubt. He was a regular at the Jazz Workshop, and probably the other jazz clubs too.
When I was in college during the 1960s one summer I ran a soft serve ice cream and hot dog stand on Tremont Street. It was a small space in the front of a laundromat. With long hours and slow business the gig didn’t last that long.
Being in the hood offered a chance to explore. i often dined at Slade’s and much enjoyed the soul food. But I was never around for the music and do not recall the Bill Russell mural.
Good that you were able to move from street food into a lucrative field like journalism…