Jackson Street After Hours: The Roots of Jazz in Seattle

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, recipient of the 2025 Jazz Journalists Association Lifetime Achievement award and a 2003 inductee into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame, has written about jazz for DownBeat magazine and The Seattle Times since 1982. In 1984, he cofounded the Seattle nonprofit Earshot Jazz. For two decades he taught jazz history, including several years at the University of Washington. His work has appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Los Angeles Times. He is the author of Shall We Play That One Together? The Life and Art of Jazz Piano Legend Marian McPartland.