About this Event
Paul de Barros, jazz historian and journalist and cofounder of Earshot Jazz, presents the second edition of his beloved book Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle. He’ll be joined in conversation by historian, writer, and producer Feliks Banel.
Registration is not required, but helps us anticipate audience size.
The highly anticipated new edition of the definitive story of Seattle’s early jazz scene
From 1912 to 1961, Seattle’s Jackson Street pulsated around the clock with the lively rhythms, energetic harmonies, and inimitable melodies of jazz. This creative atmosphere launched the careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Ernestine Anderson, as well as Bumps Blackwell, who produced Little Richard’s first hit records. Some of the era’s great touring musicians played the city as well, including Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker, and many of them sat in on the music-making sessions that took place in the after-hours spots and bottle clubs. In 1948 two dozen nightclubs lined Jackson Street, overflowing with jazz music, dancing patrons, and bootleg liquor.
Drawing on oral histories and interviews with more than eighty musicians as well as Black newspapers and archival sources, Paul de Barros reconstructs a world of nightclubs, speakeasies, and jam sessions. The story unfolds against the social realities that shaped Seattle’s jazz culture: racially segregated musicians’ unions, the effects of Prohibition, and a city government whose corruption allowed an underground nightlife to flourish. In this distinctive environment, Black musicians forged a thriving musical culture largely ignored by the mainstream press.
Fully updated throughout, this second edition features information that has come to light since the first edition was published in 1993, as well newly discovered archival photographs, maps of key sites, and an expanded discography.
Paul de Barros has written about jazz for DownBeat and The Seattle Times since 1982. His work has also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Los Angeles Times. In 2025, he received the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. A founder of Earshot Jazz and former program director of Northwest Folklife, de Barros has taught jazz history at the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University, and Cornish College of the Arts. His books include the award-winning Jackson Street After Hours and Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland, which was named Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. In 2021, he helped develop the Jackson Street Jazz Trail to preserve and interpret Seattle’s historic jazz district through a digital walking tour.
Feliks Banel is a corporate historian who's been active at the intersection of history and media for many years. He previously served as deputy director of the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) and has produced Edward R. Murrow Award- and Emmy Award-winning programs about local history for broadcast and digital. Banel is also producer and host of the long-running public radio program and podcast Cascade of History.
Event venue & nearby stays
Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, United States
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