JIMI JAMS WITH ROY BUCHANAN

For our
“Jimi Plays The Ambassador Theatre August 1967” feature (13 pages, published in UniVibes issue 67) UV interviewed Leon Petrossian Jr. (his father – now deceased – owned The Silver Dollar club in Washington). Unfortunately, issue 67 was filled up at that late stage, so we could not incorporate parts of the interview into our article. Thus, we now publish it here! [Other details on the jam are in issue 67.]


INTERVIEW WITH LEON PETROSSIAN JR.
conducted by
MARK RENUSCH for UniVibes Magazine

"My dad [Leon Petrossian Sr.] was born in 1937 in Tehran. He got arrested by
the Shah. My mother spent a lot of money to get him out of jail. He then
escaped from Iran and went to Howard University, an African-American
school where a lot of foreign students went.

"My dad would tell me stories of the times when he owned The Silver
Dollar venue in Washington. We’d be watching TV and he would start
telling stories. At first I didn’t believe that Jimi came to his club to play
[in August 1967]. I thought he was making up the stories. He would get
mad at us for not believing.

"Dad always mentioned Roy Buchanan. Roy had a room upstairs [and
frequently performed there] of The Silver Dollar where he could crash
and bring women – though he was married. He could sleep the booze off
up in the room.

"It was an hour jam [others say 45 minutes] – Jimi and Roy at The Silver Dollar.
Then they all went backstage. Roy and Jimi were chatting. Dad said there was
some kind of a chord, or a riff, that Roy was trying to show Jimi...."


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