Mel Brown, a prominent jazz drummer in Portland as seen in this 2019 photo, plays every Thursday night at the Jack London Revue in downtown with his band, B-3 Organ Group.
Kaylee Domzalski / OPB
OPB’s partner station, KMHD Jazz Radio, has been celebrating its 40th birthday this year. So we’re using the milestone of this anniversary to look back at Portland’s birth and evolution as a jazz town.
When you think of jazz, perhaps its birthplace New Orleans or New York City first come to mind. But Portland’s been attracting jazz stars and fostering local jazz talent for practically a century, and is home today to a vibrant local scene that’s expanded beyond the boundaries of traditional jazz.
We explore the history of the genre’s golden era in Portland, when the jazz scene thrived on North Williams Avenue in the city’s Albina neighborhood. Albina’s music scene later evolved to include soul, funk and R&B in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Many Black-owned jazz and soul clubs in Albina didn’t outlast destructive “urban renewal” projects that hit the historically Black neighborhood hard. But continued investment in the jazz scene by local musicians like Mel Brown have helped rebuild it to what it is now.
We also hear from beloved longtime KMHD DJ and host Ted Smith, also known to listeners as “The Baby Boomer,” about the station’s ethos of “jazz without boundaries,” what he hopes to provide to listeners of his show, “The Soulful Strut,” and what he sees in Portland’s jazz scene today.
Watch the full “Oregon Experience” documentary “Jazz Town” here.
Listen to all episodes of The Evergreen podcast here.
