Nestled under the aging brick buildings on Main Street in Pioneer Square is the Seattle Jazz Fellowship, offering a home to fans, curious listeners and local performers of jazz. The nonprofit organization operates more than just a venue for local performers and music lovers alike: It’s looking to serve as a coalition for the Seattle jazz community that Thomas Marriott, executive director of the Fellowship, says has slowly been chipped away.
“If you’re a jazz fan who steps off the plane from out of town and you say, ‘Hey, I’m going to see someone at a great local jazz [place] in Seattle.’ Where do you go?” he said. “There is no one place to go to. You might find it here or there, but also you might not.”
While Seattle has eight jazz music venues that headline a mix of visiting and local acts, Marriott argues that these places don’t primarily focus on booking local musicians. A local artist could be scheduled to perform one year, but they aren’t guaranteed a spot the next time, which doesn’t leave enough room for jazz musicians who live in Seattle. Marriott, who plays the trumpet, has over 30 years of experience as a jazz musician and says that much of his formative years learning the genre took place in Seattle.
Marriott first built his skills as a musician when he frequently visited the now-closed jazz club New Orleans Creole Restaurant in Pioneer Square. At the club, he connected with performers from in and outside of Seattle, who brought him under their wings to show him how a real jazz act looks and sounds.
He says the fear of the jazz scene becoming extinct started to increase with the closing of Tula’s Restaurant Club in September 2019, a venue that mainly showcased local jazz acts, signifying a great loss for the Seattle jazz community. Marriott founded the Fellowship in January 2021 as COVID-19 regulations were lifted and after he noticed the jazz community in the city had been hit even harder.
“Seattle is a city that used to have a more robust jazz scene in its past, and we were used to [having] multiple jazz clubs that were open concurrently,” Marriott said. “If you were a local jazz musician, you had options of where to work. You had employment because there was more than one place to play.”
In an effort to bring that accessibility back, the Fellowship opens its doors every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night so the public can be immersed in jazz performed by a local musician or band, for a suggested donation of $20. The organization also offers memberships to all scheduled events and performances throughout the year; options include the patron level, which has VIP benefits at $350 each person; a $60 general membership and a $25 youth level for anyone 21 years old or younger. The Fellowship currently has 550 members, with all the money from their dues funding the program.
It all started on Jackson
Seattle has a rich jazz culture that dates back to the first half of the 20th century. The city’s first documented jazz concert, which starred Miss Lilianna Smith’s Jazz Band, was held at Washington Hall in June 1918.
During the Great Migration, where millions of Black Americans left the Jim Crow South, many of them gifted the Emerald City their musical prowess in jazz. However, racial segregation for homes, businesses and services divided Jackson Street from the white population that mainly resided north of Yesler Way, which resulted in many Black Seattleites and other communities of color living within the Central District. This segregation caused many Black residents of the Central District to focus their attention and efforts on creating venues and nightclubs that provided a space for their community — Black performers and bands who were shut out from white-only nightclubs.
Stepping into the 1920s, Black business owners such as Russell Smith, Jimmy Woodland and Burr Williams opened clubs like the Dumas Club and the Entertainers Club in the Central District. The corner of 12th and Jackson Street became a flourishing hub for jazz. One well-visited venue was the Black and Tan Club, which became a vital community hub for Black residents of the Central District; it opened in the 1920s and operated for over five decades.
Between 1937 and 1951, 34 jazz nightclubs were situated along Jackson Street. Individuals of all races, genders and occupations flooded the area, seeking the exhilarating rush that jazz performers offered, including from musical legends like Quincy Jones and Ray Charles.
Gentrification and lack of affordable property resulted in many of these establishments having to permanently close or relocate to less accessible areas of Seattle. Yet efforts like the Black & Tan Hall in Seward Park and the Jackson Street Jazz Walk keep the history and memories of spaces alive. Both these organizations work to live up to their predecessors through their programs and annual events dedicated to educating the public about the significant Black jazz culture in Seattle.
Revitalizing the scene
Marriott said the lack of local Black jazz musicians is making it impossible for the community to further its understanding of the craft, which was forged and popularized by Black Americans. Traveling across the country as a musician, Marriott noticed that cities like New York had diverse music scene. He believes the Seattle jazz community needs to recognize its lack of diversity if it wants to build a thriving coalition. But for that to happen, Marriott says there needs to be enough consistency and a place dedicated to the local landscape of jazz to actually flourish.
“You can’t expect to receive the benefits of community without participating in it, and that to me is just showing up. Being willing to support another musician because they’re playing jazz — not because you’re friends or whatever, but because jazz music requires support as something that’s bigger than ourselves,” Marriott said. “We have the ability and capability to build it just by showing up for each other.”
This also meant inviting community members who’ve contributed to the scene into the operational sector of the organization. Rayna Mathis, editor of Earshot Jazz magazine and the Creative Advantage project manager for Seattle Public Schools, joined the Fellowship as a board member toward the end of 2022. Through her role on the board, Mathis hopes to build on community partnerships between jazz organizations within Seattle, as she believes that many of these groups are too comfortable in their own corners. But, Mathis points out that if the Fellowship wants to improve on community building and offer something to the local scene, then it needs to recognize its own privilege when it comes to leadership.
“If you look at Seattle Jazz Fellowship, EarShot Jazz, Seattle JazzED, venues like the Royal Room [and] Chapel. All of these [institutions] are led by white people. [The] next step would be making sure that other people’s voices are coming in and that younger folks are reflected into these spaces. I work with these organizations and I love the people there but [the work] starts internally,” Mathis said.
Mathis is the only person of color working at Earshot Jazz, and she felt lonely when entering into her role as editor at the magazine. It was difficult for Mathis to find any Black elders she could connect with to help her deal with the expectations that her role would bring. Mathis found herself having bouts of imposter syndrome during her first few years in a leadership role. However, she found that connecting with people who had a non-traditional musical background and folks with varying skill levels relieved much of that pressure.
As board member, Mathis wants to encourage a culture where community members can hold the Fellowship accountable for its actions despite it being a new organization. She’s excited that the Fellowship formed since it would mean more opportunities to experiment and understand what it can do well in the long run.
Programs for the people
Beyond being a music venue that holds weekly shows, the Fellowship also provides mentoring and networking opportunities, connecting seasoned musicians with up-and-coming performers. Marriott explains that for these mentoring relationships to be successfully fostered there also needs to be a physical space for those connections to thrive. While he says that Seattle has a dynamic jazz education system, he believes young musicians can gain valuable in-person experience by being in a location that would allow them to learn, make mistakes and grow as a performer.
Opportunities at the Fellowship include weekly band performances and monthly all-ages jam sessions, so musicians can learn from and collaborate with each other. Marriott said these events have packed the room; he remembered seeing someone in their 20s helping a 16-year-old with their music.
The most significant recurring opportunities include sessions with trombonist and resident artist Julian Priester. Marriott affectionately describes Priester as an artistic godfather and mentor to everybody. As a prominent member within the community, Priester shares all he’d acquired over the years as a jazz musician through a series of scheduled conversations called “Julian Speaks.”
Priester began his career in the 1950s, releasing albums throughout the decades and working with multiple groups like the Sun Ra Arkestra and with Duke Ellington’s band. Priester joined the music faculty at Cornish College of Arts in 1979 to teach jazz history and composition.
Events like “Julian Speaks” and acts from local performers have perpetuated a closeness for avid listeners, which is what made jazz fan Aubrie De Clerck get a membership at the Fellowship. For her, being able to take in Priester’s words and listen to him play has been a great experience. She moved to Seattle last year and said the Fellowship was the first to catch her eye during her search of a live jazz venue. She joined in April 2023, and the space has become De Clerck’s go-to spot when it comes to listening to a set because of the personalized experience the organization offers. As she watched more shows and witnessed the magic each night, De Clerck wanted to get more involved, and she soon signed up as a volunteer.
When she first started attending, De Clerck said, “I was a little intimidated because so many people know a lot more about [jazz] than I do. But then one day, I just started talking to a couple people, and now I’m volunteering at the front door.” She said, “It’s started to feel more like a community to me.”
Through the Fellowship, she noticed the importance of investing in local talent, especially for communities who’ve dealt with countless setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. De Clerck is originally from Portland and says that she has seen many local businesses within both her hometown and Seattle close in recent years. She considers her membership to the Fellowship part of her personal contribution to revitalizing local programs.
That’s exactly what the organization wants to accomplish with its members. The goal is for local performers to feel inspired to play a part in an association that recognizes their talent. Marriott said it’s normal for jazz circles to be mostly made up of musicians, but that isn’t what the Fellowship wants to offer. Attendees are also just as important as players to keeping a community alive.
“I want there to be a jazz scene in Seattle, like a lot of people. But if we don’t work towards there being one, then there’s not going to be a jazz scene in Seattle pretty damn soon. We will always be a little one,” Marriott said. “That’s the whole purpose of this. I just really wanted there to be more opportunities for everybody.
“I can go live in another city with another, better jazz community. But is the grass greener? The grass is greener where you water it. So, let’s water it here.”
Marian Mohamed is the associate editor of Real Change. She oversees our weekly features. Contact her at [email protected].
Read more of the March 13–19, 2024 issue.