It's part of Experience Music Project (EMP)'s celebration of the work of jazz artists and composers during EMP's third annual Jazz
in January. The monthlong series captures the heart of one of America's most popular music forms, showcasing performances by top jazz musicians.
Longtime Seattle jazz critic and historian Paul de Barros will lead the Jackson Street After Hours tour. He's just the person to take you back to the Roaring '20s and '30s of Seattle.
De Barros, who grew up playing jazz and writing, got his start in Vancouver and came to Seattle in the 1980s, when he became fascinated enough with our rich jazz history to write a book ("Jackson Street After Hours," 1993, Sasquatch Publishing Company).
"The jazz scene here was kind of taking off again. I wanted to do a capsule of jazz history before '60s," de Barros said.
"I called some of the local jazz musicians, and they unleashed a gush of information about The Scene. I realized that there was a whole generation of black musicians whose contribution at the local level was connected to the international scene. They had not been recognized."
Among the jazz greats who started here was Quincy Jones, who was Little Richard's producer, among other things. Other Seattle musicians had gone on to play with Lionel Hampton.
Two factors helped create the crucible of jazz in Seattle. The first arose from morality.
"We never really repealed Prohibition here," de Barros explained. "When the rest of the country legalized liquor, Seattle stuck with an antiquated system where you couldn't get a hard drink in a bar, just beer and wine in taverns, so it carried over the speakeasy culture from the '20s."
He said authorities didn't legalize hard liquor until 1949.
"In the 1930s they had no Mafia here per se, but they had endemic corruption in government, which wasn't really ended until [the late 1960s]," de Barros said.
"They had a tolerance policy in the old city of Seattle that police would tolerate gambling or anything as long as you paid them."
Sadly, the other factor that heated up Seattle's jazz scene was racial segregation in the musicians' unions.
"In 1909, a local nonwhite musicians' union [Local 493] started because Local 76 wouldn't accept musicians who were not white. This was common across the country," de Barros said. "There was kind of an unwritten code that people in the black musicians' union would only play in Jackson Street and Broadway."
He added that black musicians were entirely cut out of high-paying live music jobs at theaters and radio stations. But they had a thriving culture playing the clubs. Seattle's position as a railroad terminal helped provide the audience.
Certain neighborhoods became a crucible of jazz due to the influence of African Americans in the 1900s who worked on the railroads and stayed around the Northern Pacific and Great Northern train station, according to de Barros.
"A lot of them would stay overnight for a couple of nights at the Porters Club," he said. "They would want to hear some music, throw some dice or eat soul food.
"Jelly Roll Morton was hanging out in the 1920s rolling in a dice game. Lena Horne's father, George Horne, was involved in a dice game that ran at the Basin Street Club, at 411 Maynard St., for four years. "
The Seattle jazz scene attracted a lot of famous names.
"Lionel Hampton hired a lot of sidemen out of Seattle, including Quincy Jones," de Barros said.
"Evelyn Williamson was a singer. She was the niece or adopted daughter of a big club owner who owned the Black and Tan.
Evelyn went to work for Lionel in 1937 and married one of his players."
Another piece of jazz history is linked to the Seattle scene, according to de Barros: the first electric bass player in jazz.
"Monk Montgomery was playing electric bass with Lionel Hampton. Fender [the electric guitar and bass manufacturer] gave Lionel the bass, and he gave it to Montgomery to play."
One of the other great stories of the Seattle jazz scene involves Ray Charles, who said he made his "Jazz Bar Mitzvah" (i.e., became a man) after coming to Seattle from Tampa. It's a great story, but the best way to hear it is to go on the EMP tour Sunday, Jan. 19, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
The tour begins at the Experience Music Project's Group Entrance and ends with lunch at Nellie's Café, site of the old black musicians' Local 493 after-hours clubhouse. The tour cost - which does not include lunch - is $8 for EMP members and $10 for the public.
For more information about Jazz in January, visit http://www.emplive.com/visit/special/jazzJan2003Events.asp on the Web.
Freelance writer John L. Stone is a Seattle-area resident.
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