Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
Jazz started as a popular commercial music, but during the last three decades, it has come to be seen as an art form supported by the non-profit arts sector and schools. In Seattle, beginning in the 1960s, both the commercial and non-profit sectors nurtured the music.
In the mid-1960s, the Penthouse nightclub operated commercially in Pioneer Square, while bassist/pianist Jerry Heldman’s alternative coffeehouse, the Llanghaelhyn Café, a business, operated as more of a labor of love than money. At the same time, saxophonist Joe Brazil’s nonprofit Brazil Academy of Music taught musicians of color to play jazz in the Central District. In the late ‘60s, the Seattle Jazz Society operated a non-profit night club, the Jazz Gallery, and the Seattle Parks Department presented jazz concerts. In 1972, two commercial jazz clubs, the Gallery Tavern and the Fresh Air Tavern, attempted to buck the prevailing trend of rock music, but failed. From 1973-77, the Pioneer Banque reflected the renewed commercial viability of jazz, even as Franklin High School trained a remarkable class of jazz musicians that included Kenny G. In the late ‘70s, Parnell’s jazz club, a commercial enterprise, enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the faculty of another school, Cornish College of the Arts. And in the 1980s, Jazz Alley, a for-profit club, formed its own non-profit, the Pacific Jazz Institute. The non-profit Earshot Jazz was formed to support avant-garde music and an annual festival.
A granular look at this dual stewardship by commercial and non-profit sectors offers a fresh take on an important storyline in Seattle’s rich cultural history. Today, both for-profit and non-profit institutions continue to support jazz in Seattle. All indications suggest that as long as there is an audience for the music, both types of institutions will remain central to its health.
Organization or Event
Multiple
Form of Entity
Multiple
Area of Activity
Multiple
Artistic Discipline
Music
Recommended Citation
de Barros, Paul, "Seattle Jazz 1961 – 2024: Profit or Non-Profit?" (2024). Seattle Jazz 1961 – 2024: Profit or Non-Profit?. 1.
https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/seattle-jazz-profit-or-non-profit/1