Seattle Times
The music students currently at the University of Washington are too young to remember that Jazz Alley, the glamorous, downtown jazz club, first opened on University Way in the University District in 1979 as a small club and bistro that catered mostly to the local music scene. Jazz Alley left the U-District in 1985, leaving a void that has been slow to refill despite the neighborhood’s proximity to the university and the city’s reputation as a hotbed of jazz education. A small nightclub, Lucid, is the only venue on “The Ave” devoted chiefly to the genre, balancing the needs of a lounge and a stage for serious jazz.