Seattle's Fun And Noise -- From W.C. Handy To Jimi Hendrix To Robert Cray, The Emerald City Has A Rich History Of Black Music

"You mean Jimi Hendrix was really from Seattle?

How many times have you heard that one?

Strangers usually stereotype Seattle as culturally "white" - not a bad guess, considering its Scandinavian settlers. Yet, in truth, the Emerald City has had a long history of "bringing in the funk," and has made some important contributions to black music along the way.

So with the arrival of Black History Month and the Broadway musical, "Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk," which reviews the history of black music, we took the opportunity to take a comprehensive look back at black music in our own town, from the turn of the century to the present day.

1900-1920 Vaudeville days

In 1910, Seattle was hub to the largest vaudeville circuit in the country, owned by Alexander Pantages. Vaudeville introduced Seattleites to such early major black performers as W.C. Handy (1898) and Freddie Keppard (1914). It also was indirectly responsible for Hendrix being born here: In 1911, his grandparents, vaudeville performers Nora and Ross Hendrix, settled in Seattle after being "stranded" by a traveling show.

In 1910, only 800 African Americans lived in all of Seattle, yet a local jazz scene had already begun to take root in the neighborhood around 12th Avenue South and Jackson Street. The first documented local jazz performance was presented in 1918, by Lillian Smith's band at Washington Hall (current home of On the Boards). By that time, Quincy Jones' future music teacher, Frank Waldron, also had set up shop at 1040 Jackson St.

1920-1930 Roaring Twenties

Pianist Jelly Roll Morton, the first great jazz composer, held forth at the Entertainers Club, at 12th Avenue and Main Street, in 1920 and even composed a rag in our honor, "Seattle Hunch." Around the corner, at 12th and Jackson, Russell "Noodles" Smith opened the Alhambra, later dubbed the Black and Tan.

Over the next decade, dozens of speakeasies thrived on the illicit alcohol trade created by Prohibition, playing host to name acts such as Lucky Millinder and Reb Spikes' So Different Orchestra.

Foremost among the first generation of Seattle players was Creole clarinetist Joe Darensbourg, who later recorded with trombonist Kid Ory. Darensbourg came to Seattle from Los Angeles, so impressed was he with the "wide-open" nightlife scene here. Pianist Palmer Johnson also came from L.A., playing with Darensbourg and entertainer Eddie Rucker at the Jungle Temple.

Jamaican-born saxophonist Gerald Wells, an important early figure in West Coast jazz, eventually presided over Seattle's black musicians' union. (Seattle's music unions, like others in the U.S., were segregated until 1956.) The Garfield Ramblers, with drummer Leonard Gayton, inaugurated a long tradition of black bands forming out of Garfield High School.

When band leader Edythe Turnham moved from Spokane to Seattle in 1926, her son Floyd started "dancing for dimes" in front of the Black and Tan. Edythe later took her band on the Orpheum Theatre circuit, and Floyd played on some of the most important R&B records made in Los Angeles, among them, Joe Liggins' "The Honeydripper."

Pianist and clarinetist Oscar Holden, who had played with Louis Armstrong on Mississippi River boats, performed at Doc Hamilton's famous speakeasy on 12th Avenue, the 908 Club, and founded a local family dynasty. His progeny included rock 'n' roll singer Ron Holden, whose record "Love You So" hit No. 7 on the charts in 1960; Grace and Oscar, Jr. who played in Quincy Jones' first dance band; Dave, who played a role in Seattle's 1960s rock scene; and Jimmy, whose 1980s R&B band, the Reputations, is still a local legend.

1930-1940 Depression, Swing era

Seattle-trained tenor saxophonist Dick Wilson, who studied and played with Darensbourg, is revered by jazz historians and musicians alike as an important stylist with Kansas City band leader Andy Kirk. Wilson might be more well-known today had he not died young of tuberculosis. A reverse fortune awaited Palmer Johnson's bassist at the Dutchman Tavern, Junior Raglin, who replaced the great Jimmy Blanton in Duke Ellington's orchestra when Blanton succumbed to the same disease.

One night when Raglin dropped by the 411 Club, an after-hours "speak" in the International District, he heard a 15-year-old Tacoma tenor player, Corky Corcoran, make Ben Webster look so bad in a cutting contest that burly Ben slammed his horn case shut and never came back. In Harry James' band, Corcoran became one of the swing era's most famous soloists.

Around the same time, a young pianist from Spokane named Jimmy Rowles was picking up tips on Jackson Street from Johnson and another keyboard ace, Julian Henson, before going on to become Billie Holiday's accompanist and a major player in his own right.

The great band leader Lionel Hampton hired many Seattle musicians over the years, including vocalist Edythe Turnham, who appeared in 1940 with Hampton at the area's premiere dance palace, the Trianon Ballroom. All the name swing bands (except Glenn Miller's) came through the Trianon - Goodman, Lunceford, Dorsey, Ellington. Seattle's Lunceford-like swing amalgamation led by Gaylord Jones held forth there, as well.

1940-1950 War years and beyond

During the 1940s, 350,000 African Americans moved to California, Oregon and Washington in search of war work. With them, they brought blues, gospel and jazz. Soldiers and sailors brought the rest. During the peak of the Jackson Street scene, 34 nightclubs, some of them going all night, were open between First and 14th avenues.

Quincy Jones' parents settled in Seattle in 1947. Ernestine Anderson's came in 1944. (Ironically, Anderson's father had heard in Texas that Seattle was a "quiet" town with no nightlife, where his 12-year-old daughter wouldn't be tempted to continue her burgeoning singing career!) Ray Charles, blind and just 17 years old, came by Trailways bus, from Tampa, Fla., in 1948.

Both Jones and Charles vividly remember the night Charles explained big-band arranging to his Garfield High School friend.

"I must have been 14 years old and I wanted to write so badly," Jones recollects. "I couldn't figure out how eight horns could play together at the same time and not play the same note. So Ray hit a B-flat-seventh in root position and C-Seventh, which is a real Dizzy Gillespie kind of sound. And bang! When I saw that, it was like that whole world just opened up."

Charles composed and recorded "Rocking Chair Blues" after working a year at a posh club of that name, on 14th Avenue and Yesler Street. Charles also made his first recording, "Confession Blues" in downtown Seattle, hosted a local radio show here and even appeared on TV before moving to Los Angeles in 1950.

Jones, a trumpeter, started a dance band that included Buddy Catlett, who would later play bass for Count Basie and Louis Armstrong. Their "kid band" was so hot that a local promoter named Bumps Blackwell (who produced Little Richard's first records) offered to lead it. Jones soon discovered his real talent was for arranging, which he studied at Seattle University before leaving for further jazz studies in Boston, in 1951.

Ernestine Anderson got her start at a basement speakeasy on Maynard called the Basin Street and at the Washington Social Club, on Madison. Before she was out of her teens, she had been hired by Johnny Otis, then by Hampton. In 1958, her picture was on the cover of Time magazine.

Saxophonist Billy Tolles, who in the early 1950s started Seattle's first R&B band, and Portland pianist Al Pierre led Seattle's first black swing bands. Other musicians who played during the Jackson Street heyday were Seattle native Patti Bown, who later recorded for Columbia; Elmer Gill, pianist with Lionel Hampton; Janet Thurlow, also a Hampton vocalist; Wyatt Ruther, bassist for Count Basie; Adolphus Alsbrook, bassist with Ellington; Floyd Standifer, who toured Europe with Jones and still performs in Seattle; and pianist Gerald Wiggins.

Wiggins, an important New York be-bop pianist who would later accompany Lena Horne and Dinah Washington, was one of the many young men who suddenly found themselves in uniform at Fort Lewis. His recollections of Seattle's Jackson Street days give the flavor of what must have been a great era, indeed, for fans of the "noise and the funk."

"Seattle was a hot town then. Believe me. You could get anything you wanted. They had a guy, he'd come by your home and take your order . . . The music was good and money was like dirt. You know, boom time. Shipyards and all this. Guys didn't know what to do with their paychecks. They did everything but go home."

1960-1970 Rocking, shocking '60s

The rise of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the early '60s shifted the center of the pop universe from America to England. And out of that revolutionary milieu came former local musician James Marshall Hendrix, a once-shy guitarist transformed by the London scene into Jimi Hendrix, the flashy, psychedelic-garbed avatar of rock guitar.

Hendrix's influence is still being felt today, although he died in London in 1970. The Experience Music Project, now under construction at Seattle Center, will focus on Hendrix, as well as the entire history of Northwest rock.

Hendrix inspired and challenged local black musicians and, in the spirit of the times - after the civil-rights movement and the rise of the hippie peace 'n' love ethic - bands that blended rock and R&B.

One popular band on the Seattle club circuit, Cold, Bold & Together, was mostly black but had one hip white dude: Kenny Gorelick, who wowed audiences with his funky sax. Now he is known, of course, as Kenny G, the world's most popular saxman. And even today, he is probably the most respected white musician among black audiences, one of very few nonblack musicians whose albums are listed in Billboard's R&B charts.

The local black music scene was boosted considerably when KYAC-AM went on the air in 1964, riding the huge popularity of Motown and Stax/Volt artists. KYAC became an important cultural link, and supported local black music on the air. It went off the air in 1981.

1970-1980 Funky, glitzy '70s

Funk, disco and reggae were the reigning styles in the 1970s, and local bands represented them all. Cold, Bold and Together lasted through the mid-'70s. The group Epicentre became one of the top bands locally, thanks to dynamic, husky-voiced lead singer Bernadette Bascom, originally of the funk-rock band Acapulco Gold. Bascom became a protege of Stevie Wonder, and one night at the Aquarius (now known again by its original name, Parker's) Wonder made a surprise appearance with Epicentre, performing three songs with Bascom. She's still pleasing audiences as the star of a long-running revue in Las Vegas.

1980-1990 Bluesy, inspiring '80s

Although he had been working around the Northwest in the late 1970s, while still living with his parents near Tacoma, Robert Cray exploded nationally with the 1980 release of his Atlantic Records debut, "Who's Been Talkin'."

Recognized as the greatest blues singer-guitarist of his generation, Cray revitalized the genre, inspiring other young musicians and drawing lots of new fans to the blues. The blues-club scene in Seattle reflected that growth, and a crop of new blues stars developed here, the most popular being blues guitar master Isaac Scott.

In 1982, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" became the biggest-selling album of all time, and its popularity considerably raised the profile of producer Quincy Jones. When Jones came to town the next year for his 50th birthday, the whole black music community gathered for a celebration at Seattle Center.

In the late 1980s, the rap movement that had begun on the East Coast reached the Northwest, with Sir Mix-a-Lot adding Seattle to the rap map by way of his goofy singles, such as "Square Dance Rap" and "Posse on Broadway."

Local label Nastymix, which recorded Sir Mix-a-Lot, rose in prominence with him, and the label released material from a number of Seattle and Tacoma artists. Mix achieved national stardom in the summer of 1992 when "Baby Got Back," his celebration of the full female form, became the biggest selling single of the year. But his career began slipping shortly thereafter, and his music has since fallen off the rap radar.

1990-1998 Grungy, jazzy '90s

The only sound coming out of Seattle in the 1990s, as far as the world was concerned, was grunge. With the likes of Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains dominating not just the local scene but worldwide, there wasn't much room for R&B. In fact, grunge was criticized in some quarters for being "lily-white."

Nevertheless, a hip-hop scene grew here, chronicled from 1992 to '96 by a monthly publication called The Flavor, which emphasized local talent. In the late '90s, collectives and labels like Jasiri Media Group (home of artists such as Source of Labor and Felicia Loud), Conception Records and Jungle Creations encouraged hip-hop musicians, DJs, filmmakers and writers. The new acid-jazz style was represented here by such groups as Conception's Sharpshooters.

Seattle blues clubs continued to flourish, and the top band to emerge on the local club circuit was the funky cover band, Hit Explosion, still the highest-paid club band in town.

One of Seattle's hopes for the future is Laura Love, a singer-songwriter with a unique style she calls "Afro-Celtic" and others have dubbed "funkabilly." Her first major-label album on Mercury, "Octoroon," has been critically well-received. Ernestine Anderson remains active, locally and internationally, and jazz guitarist Michael Powers' star continues to rise. Reggae, blues, funk and hip-hop remain popular in Seattle clubs, especially in the Pioneer Square area.