Seattlepi.com
Seattle is definitely known as a music town, but the city’s jazz scene is not often the most prominent genre of conversation. Each week Seattlepi.com asks the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) a question about Seattle’s history, and this week they asked “Was Seattle ever a jazz city?” MOHAI’s Phyllis Franklin and Helen Divjak answer that up until about the 1960s, the Jackson Street jazz scene was thriving. “In fact, beginning the nineteen- teens, Seattle began to develop a considerable jazz scene that would eventually become the West Coast’s best, helping to establish the careers of many legendary performers, including Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and singer Ernestine Anderson,” they write. Once racial barriers were broken, the isolation of the jazz clubs and communities lessened, and other forms of music became more popular. To read MOHAI’s full response, follow the link.