Raised in Gresham, Ore., Standifer became one of the leading players on the Seattle scene, moving there in 1946 to attend the University of Washington. Startiing in such venues as the Sessions club and Washington Social Club, Standifer befriended Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Ernestine Anderson, the top players in town, and eventually left with Jones to play in his big band in Europe, in 1959. A technically gifted trumpet player influenced by Fats Navarro and, later, Freddie Hubbard, Standifer also played superb tenor saxophone. He composed and performed a jazz liturgy, “Postlude,” for an octet at the Seattle’s World’s Fair, taught at Cornish College and the Northwest School, recorded two albums, and in later life played with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra and kept the legacy of Jackson Street alive with the Local 493 Reunion Band. … Continue readingFloyd Standifer

Floyd Turnham came from Spokane with his mother’s band, Edythe Turnham and Her Knights of Syncopation, perhaps as early as 1922, where he played with her at the Copper Kettle, the Alhambra and at Bon Marche fashion shows. After the Turnhams moved to Los Angeles, c. 1928-29, Floyd became a prominent figure on the R&B and jazz scenes, playing with Les Hite, Gerald Wilson, Bardu Ali, Ceele Burke and Joe Liggins. At one point he played briefly with Duke Ellington, but turned down an offer to join the group because he did not want to travel. … Continue readingFloyd Turnham, Jr.

Waldron left San Francisco at age 16 for Seattle, in 1907, and became the go-to teacher for two generations of Seattle jazz musicians at his studio at 1242 South Jackson Street and later from his home on Fifteenth Avenue South. He was a Northwest jazz pioneer, playing in Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver, B.C., where he rubbed elbows with Jelly Roll Morton and played in the Whang Doodle Orchestra, which gave what was probably the first documented jazz performance in Seattle, in 1912, at the Dumas Club, on Fifth Avenue South and South Jackson Street. Waldron published a book of his compositions, “Syncopated Classic,” in 1924, and performed in the Odean Jazz Orchestra, one of the only black bands welcomed to Seattle’s downtown, in the 1920s. During that decade, Waldron mentored Jimmy and Wayne Adams, Floyd Turnham and Evelyn Bundy and in the ’40s, Quincy Jones and Buddy Catlett, among others. … Continue readingFrank Waldron

Raised in Delaware and musically trained in the Navy, Greenwell was one of the most distinctive stylists to come out of Seattle. While stationed in the Navy in New York in 1946, he sat in with Charlie Parker at the Spotlite Club on 52nd Street, and shortly thereafter came to Seattle, where he played at the Trianon Ballroom with Curt Sykes and jammed on Jackson Street, sometimes with Ray Charles at the Rocking Chair. Greenwell was snatched up in 1952 by band leader Jimmy Zito and spent time in Los Angeles, where he jammed with Wardell Gray on Central Avenue, then toured with Alvino Rey and Buddy Morrow. Greenwell was in and out of Seattle and Tacoma, playing locally and also for a spell with Woody Herman. In 1980, he returned to Seattle for good. … Continue readingFred Greenwell

A Seattle native, Brashear is considered by musicians to be one of the best, if not the best, bebop improviser who ever played in the Emerald City. In the early ’40s he played in a pickup quartet called The Four Sharps at Garfield High School with Charlie Blackwell (Bumps’ younger brother), Sonny Booker and Billy Tolles and was a founding member of Tolles’ pioneering swing band, the Savoy Boys, in 1942. In 1949 Brashear was featured at the Trianon Ballroom with his brother, Buddy (piano), Ray Charles and Floyd Standifer. In 1950-51, Brashear played in the Cecil Young Quartet, which had a regional hit thanks to Brashear’s scat solo on “Who Parked the Car,” and the band opened for Sarah Vaughan at Birdland, in New York. Young’s quartet fizzled, but the late ’50s Brashear became the main attraction at Pete’s Poop Deck, Seattle’s first downtown nightclub devoted specifically to jazz. Brashear lived with vocalist Wanda Brown after her first husband, Vernon Brown, died. … Continue readingGerald Brashear

Originally from Detroit, Frank came to Seattle in 1950 as a soldier and stayed. Regarded by musicians as the best be-bop drummer in Seattle after Jimmie Rodgers left, Frank played in the ’50s and ealry ’60s with Billy Tolles at the New Orleans Club, Floyd Standifer at the Flame Tavern and the Pink Pussycat and Gerald Brashear at the Mardi Gras. Frank left jazz for a career in real estate. … Continue readingGerald Frank

Wells was an important early jazz man on the West coast. Born 1887, probably in St. Vincent, he came to Seattle in 1913 but in 1914 was playing in San Francisco with early jazz band leader Sid LeProtti. Wells toured the West with the So Different Orchestra, which brought jazz to Honolulu in 1917 and then became the first jazz band to play in Army uniform, during WWI. Wells later became President of the Local 493 Musicians Union (the black local). … Continue readingGerald Wells

Born in New York, Wiggins served in the Army at Ft. Lewis, in Washington, in 1944, and became an indispensable part of Seattle’s nascent bebop scene during his time there and afterward, getting star billing at Norm Bobrow’s jazz galas at the Metropolitan Theater. “Wig,” as he was called, played piano in a band led by Ernie Lewis and backed up the teenage Ernestine Anderson when she played with Lewis at such venues as the China Pheasant or the 411 Club. After Wiggins left Seattle for Los Angeles in 1948, he led a noted piano trio, backed up Lena Horne and Dinah Washington and coached Marilyn Monroe for her singing role in “Some Like It Hot.” … Continue readingGerald Wiggins

A student at Birmingham Industrial High School, where he studied with Alabama Music Hall of Fame inductee John T. “Fess” Whatley (who also taught Sun Ra), Grimes was playing with the Barnum and Bailey Circus when he was 9-years-old and leading Roger’s Sunshine Minstrels in 1923, also in Alabama. During the Depression Grimes worked with Kansas City band leader Tommy Douglas. In 1940, club owner Russell “Noodles” Smith invited Grimes to Seattle, where he played at the Congo Room, Coe’s Tavern and the Green Dot with Palmer Johnson and led his own trio at the Dutchman Tavern. Grimes left Seattle during WWII to serve in the Navy and later subbed for Shorty Rogers in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, recording “Do Nothin’ Til You Hear From Me” with Duke in 1947. Grimes gave up music and joined the merchant marine in the 1950s and according to Royal, died in that decade. … Continue readingHerman Grimes