This Week Then: Washington’s Swinging Jazz History

This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter. 

All that Jazz

April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and this week HistoryLink gets into the groove with a look back at Washington’s jazz history. Seattle’s first documented jazz concert was held at Washington Hall in 1918, but the Jazz Age truly hit its stride during the Roaring Twenties and was enjoyed all the way from Seattle to Spokane. Seattle’s early jazz scene was centered around Jackson Street and 12th Avenue, and jazz clubs later opened downtown, as well as in Belltown and other neighborhoods.

But as the largely African American art form grew in popularity, so did the backlash against it. Jazz was deemed a menace to civilization by some and a sign of moral degradation by others. The crusade against it carried into the 1930s, when a “Jazz Intoxication” bill was introduced in the Washington legislature to combat this imaginary threat. The bill never came to a vote. People danced on.

Many early jazz concerts were performed by members of American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 493, the “Negro Musicians’ Union,” which formed in 1918 when black musicians found themselves excluded from AFM Local 76, a musicians’ union that dated back to the 1890s. By the 1950s, Local 493 was representing many of Seattle’s rising African American stars, including Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Overton Berry, Dave Lewis, and Oscar, Dave and Grace Holden. The era also saw unification of the two musicians’ locals, which merged in 1958.

By this time jazz was accepted and enjoyed by a broad cross section of American society, and it continues to attract new generations of music aficionados. After losing the jazz wars, cultural scolds set their sights on the perceived threat of rock and roll music, and later, rap and hip-hop. Those efforts failed too. And while you can’t go out and enjoy any jazz concerts these days, nothing is stopping you from jumpin’ and jivin’ while you’re sheltered in place.

All those Trees

On April 6, 1908, 22 timber companies organized the Washington Forest Fire Association to suppress fires on private lands. For the next 50 years, the WFFA worked with state and federal land managers to organize fire patrols, create fire suppression programs, and change the logging practices that caused most fires. Soon after the Washington legislature created the Department of Natural Resources in 1957, the WFFA became the Washington Forest Protection Agency, which continues to promote sustainable forestry practices throughout the state.

Over the years, policy actions pertaining to forest fires have changed significantly. For decades the focus was on fire suppression, but by the end of the twentieth century federal land managers were using prescribed burns to replicate the natural role of fire in forest ecosystems and to reduce the amount of fuel that builds up over decades. Firefighting technology is another aspect that has undergone dramatic changes, to the benefit of forest ecosystems.